BBM for Android now has Voice chat and channels

The ever popular BBM, BlackBerry Messenger, now has added two new features for its Android version, bringing it much closer in experience to the native OS version: voice calling and channels.

This will afford its users to make voice calls back and forth, via wi-fi or highspeed data like 3G similar to Skype, Viber and other VoIP apps. Channels on the other hand allows users real-time access to a social feed of sorts and gives users the ability to follow, share, and chat about certain topics.

They’ve also ported over 100 new emoticons, increased the BBM group size, and added new ways to find friends within the app. This will enhance the social sharing and connectivity experience, as more an more people will connect to a single (or multiple) with a bountiful of emoticons for screaming at people for.

Even though there is 2way opt-in for adding contacts, the adding of friends within the app means those who love the app will kiss a bit of their privacy goodbye. The popularity of BBM, and similar chat groups on other apps, means maybe BBM can rival other apps, but too many emoticons only crowds the screen and makes an app heavy on memory use.

These new features will serve those with a high-speed home connection, and nearby battery charger, as they shy away from using the recently over-priced voice minutes on all networks. However, most likely these people are already using Skype or Viber.

Photocredits: GSMArena