14 DAY TRIAL // BlackBerry issued a few statements in the last couple of weeks that reveal some of the company’s plans for the following months. Some of these statements were necessary to clear up some things that were misinterpreted by its fans, such as the fact that its BBM service might feature ads in the not-so-distant future.
We have already reported on the ways BlackBerry plans to monetize on its BBM instant messaging service, which does not include putting ads into BBM Chats.
Jeff Gadway, the head of product and brand marketing for BBM confirmed a few days ago that his company “will not be inserting sponsored content of any kind in to BBM chats with your friends, family and colleagues.”
However, BBM users will still be offered sponsored ads, but these will be strictly controlled by BlackBerry so that no one receives more than three invitations from BBM Channel owners per month.
The Canadian company also announced it would put sponsored posts in the Update section of the BBM application, so users will be able to see them when they are trying to update their software.
These new features meant to bring some profit to BlackBerry are not being tested in the Beta Zone, so those who own a valid account can download the latest version of BBM and check them out.
Aside from the monetization features included in the latest update for BBM beta, BlackBerry also added a few improvements that it promised it would bring a few days ago.
For example, the attachments size has been increased from 6MB to 16MB, so BBM users will now be able to send/receive larger files.
The folks over at CrackBerry also mention BlackBerry tweaked the stickers available for the Q10 and Q5, so now they look much smoother on smaller displays.
Keep in mind that while the new BBM beta is available for both BlackBerry 10 and legacy devices, some improvements are only offered for the former.
In this regard, the file attachment size increase and the stickers tweaking improvements are only available for BlackBerry 10 devices. Still, the rest of the new features, mostly related to ads, will appear on all compatible BlackBerry devices.
BlackBerry beta testers are not the first to receive this update that includes sponsored posts, as Android BBM beta program kicked off a few days ago.
The latest version of BBM beta for BlackBerry 10.3.12.27 is now available as a free download via Beta Zone, but those who wish to install it will need a valid account.