The app includes new sharing capabilities, more emoticons

Dec 20, 2013 06:27 GMT  ·  By

Canadian mobile phone maker BlackBerry has great plans for the expansion of the BBM service, it seems, and one of them includes the delivery of better applications to its users out there.

Thus, the company has decided to make available for download a new flavor of the BBM mobile client for BlackBerry devices, though only in a beta version for the time being.

This means that users will need to grab it through the Beta Zone, and that it will not arrive on all supported devices out there. A Beta Zone account is needed in order to download and install apps from the portal.

However, those BlackBerry users who have the chance to grab the new flavor of BBM will enjoy some appealing new features that BlackBerry has packed it with.

For example, they will be able to take advantage of a faster, easier way to share content from Dropbox, including pics, voice notes, files, and attachments, a recent article on CrackBerry explains.

On top of that, the updated application version was meant to make it even easier for users to find new friends on BBM, courtesy of suggested contacts.

The new beta version of the mobile client also includes over 100 new emoticons to help users make their point.

Following the update to the new BBM, users will also see that BBM groups have been upgraded with additional members. Now, up to 50 people can participate, up from 30 before.

Another enhancement included in the new flavor of the software is the possibility to block 3rd party apps from automatically updating your status.

Before kicking off the update process, users should know that there still is a series of known issues with this beta release, and that one of these includes the deletion of any open 1-to-1 and multi-person chats, as the upgrade process may trigger BBM setup.