Earlier today, we reported how BlackBerry had expanded BBM Video to Asia Pacific.  However, they didn’t stop there and also announced that the next major version of BBM, currently slated for later this summer, will include a couple of feature requests from users: phone number registration, improvements to group chats, and expanded message retraction for stickers, files, and other content.
Android users will be able to share larger videos with their contacts and iOS users will be able to mute chat and group notifications.
There is no doubt that BlackBerry are trying hard to make BBM an attractive proposition for Android and iOS users.
For the huge majority, the biggest feature will be the fact that BlackBerry are finally adding phone registration to BBM.
Matthew Talbot, Senior Vice President – Emerging Solutions at BlackBerry stated,
“Phone-number registration has consistently been at the top of the customer request list. This new feature will allow iOS and Android users to create a BBM account with a phone number instead of an email address. This streamlines the sign-up process significantly and provides a more reliable way to secure your contact network. It also creates a more reliable method for resetting forgotten passwords, as people are moving toward having a single phone number and keeping it longer than they keep their email addresses.”
Adding phone number registration will not only make it easier for people to sign up for BBM, it should make it easier to find and add contacts.
“Phone-number registration will also make it easier to find and add new BBM Contacts. BBM will be able to match the phone numbers of people in your device’s address book with people who have registered for BBM with their phone number. BBM will then list these contacts in your app as People You Know, meaning you can initiate a chat with them in just a few taps.”
Talbot points out that the company are not doing away with PINs or Custom PINs but adding another option for added flexibility, giving people more than one way to sign up.
