Shelly Palmer

BlackBerry Adding Channels and Voice Chat to BBM App in 2014

Remember how excited you were for BBM to hit Android and iOS and then BlackBerry continued to fake us all out with imminent releases? Thankfully, that’s now all in the past and BBM is a reality for those of us not on BB10 devices, but still its feature set leaves something to be desired. The good news is that BlackBerry intends to flesh out BBM in 2014, though not just for the app. So what’s up ahead? Arguably, the most significant changes are coming to Android and iOS users in the form of BBM Voice and BBM Channels. Think of BBM Voice as you would Skype or Google Hangouts — it’s essentially a way for you to chat with your contacts without touching your allotment of minutes. And Channels, if you’ll remember from our preview this past summer, is basically BlackBerry’s spin on the social network. Both are already available for current BBM users running BB10, so this addition really just brings the rest of BBM’s outsider base up to speed.

Read the full story at Engadget.