A new update gives Android, iOS, and BlackBerry device owners unlimited access to Retract and Timer.
BlackBerry has dropped its $1-per-month subscription plans for some key BBM privacy features.
A new update gives Android, iOS, and BlackBerry device owners unlimited access to Retract and Timer.
As its name suggests, Retract lets users rescind messages and photos they accidentally sent to the wrong person, or that they no longer want to be accessible to certain recipients.
Timer, meanwhile, takes a page from Snapchat's book, and gives folks control over how long contacts can view shared messages, pictures, and location information (up to 15 seconds).
"Building on the renowned immediacy, reliability, and security inherent to BBM, the new release provides unmatched level of privacy and control to BBM users without any subscription fees," Matthew Talbot, senior vice president of BBM at BlackBerry, said in a statement. "Keeping control over the messages and content that they share, BBM users can be ensured that what they share is always theirs to control," he added. Additional cross-platform features in the latest update include access to features like Private Chat (remove names and avatars) and Edit (rewrite messages you've sent to a contact), as well as the ability to forward messages from one chat to another. Individually, Android, iOS, and BlackBerry 10 users will notice a handful of changes.
Aside from support for Marshmallow, the Android BBM app is getting the ability to mute notifications for multi-person chats and scroll through shared photos.
Apple owners, meanwhile, get an enhanced chat screen aesthetic, enhanced video sharing, and multi-select mode (delete, retract, or forward multiple messages at once). Both mobile operating systems also comes with improved BBM Voice call quality and the option to save to the device pictures taken during BBM chat. For its own BlackBerry 10 platform, the company made it easier to delete messages from just your chat view and retract and edit messages in group chats, as well as the added option to retract all messages in a chat when it ends. But can attempts like these—and the November launch of the Android-powered Priv—save the Canadian phone maker? According to CNET, the outlook is not so good: BlackBerry last week said it sold 600,000 phones in its fiscal fourth quarter, below Wall Street's expectations of 850,000, and less than the 700,000 units sold in the previous quarter. The announcement came shortly after Verizon started selling the Priv.
The handset is also available via AT&T and T-Mobile.
Timer, meanwhile, takes a page from Snapchat's book, and gives folks control over how long contacts can view shared messages, pictures, and location information (up to 15 seconds).
"Building on the renowned immediacy, reliability, and security inherent to BBM, the new release provides unmatched level of privacy and control to BBM users without any subscription fees," Matthew Talbot, senior vice president of BBM at BlackBerry, said in a statement. "Keeping control over the messages and content that they share, BBM users can be ensured that what they share is always theirs to control," he added. Additional cross-platform features in the latest update include access to features like Private Chat (remove names and avatars) and Edit (rewrite messages you've sent to a contact), as well as the ability to forward messages from one chat to another. Individually, Android, iOS, and BlackBerry 10 users will notice a handful of changes.
Aside from support for Marshmallow, the Android BBM app is getting the ability to mute notifications for multi-person chats and scroll through shared photos.
Apple owners, meanwhile, get an enhanced chat screen aesthetic, enhanced video sharing, and multi-select mode (delete, retract, or forward multiple messages at once). Both mobile operating systems also comes with improved BBM Voice call quality and the option to save to the device pictures taken during BBM chat. For its own BlackBerry 10 platform, the company made it easier to delete messages from just your chat view and retract and edit messages in group chats, as well as the added option to retract all messages in a chat when it ends. But can attempts like these—and the November launch of the Android-powered Priv—save the Canadian phone maker? According to CNET, the outlook is not so good: BlackBerry last week said it sold 600,000 phones in its fiscal fourth quarter, below Wall Street's expectations of 850,000, and less than the 700,000 units sold in the previous quarter. The announcement came shortly after Verizon started selling the Priv.
The handset is also available via AT&T and T-Mobile.