True to its word, BlackBerry started rolling out stickers, group photo-sharing and increased file sharing limit with its BBM version 2.1.
BlackBerry, one of the popular smartphone makers, is finally fulfilling its promise to bring new features to the cross-platform instant messenger, BBM. The latest version of BBM, rolled out to all users April 1, includes new and bold stickers and photo-sharing support in multi-person group chat. BlackBerry also bumped up the file sharing limit to 16MB. The company retains its policy of not including adversitments to the messaging service. Instead, the Canadian smartphone giant is using Stickers as a front to generate revenue for the struggling company, ailed by the decreasing sales of new line of BlackBerry 10 smartphones.
The sticker integration arrives after BlackBerry revealed its plans in February and in March to add more features including group photo-sharing and increasing file sharing limit. The updated BBM version 2.1 app brings access to BBM Shop, a marketplace to download free stickers and buy paid ones. The sticker library is currently limited in stock, but packages start at $1.99 for a pack of 20-25 stickers. The new addition puts BBM ahead of WhatsApp, which currently lacks the feature, and at par with Line and Facebook Messenger.
"Stickers is the first product inside the virtual goods platform," David Proulx, senior director of BBM, told Fast Company. "What we're deploying is a framework for merchandising and targeting, for transactions to occur within the applications that can be applied to different goods and services going forward."
In addition to the Stickers, BlackBerry also added group photo sharing. The photo will appear as a thumbnail in chats and users can tap to view the full screen image. The updated BBM app also supports file sharing up to 16MB, up from 6MB offered in previous versions. Sadly, the group photo-sharing and sending 16MB files over chats is not available for BlackBerry handsets running older OS versions 7.1 and below. However, BBOS users can receive high quality 16MB files.
Updated BlackBerry Messenger for Android, iOS and BB10 is available in Google Play Store, Apple App Store and BlackBerry World.
