14 DAY TRIAL // Canadian mobile phone maker RIM has just announced the availability of a new flavor of its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) application, namely 6.1 Beta.
The new application release has been made available for download via the BlackBerry Beta Zone, with a new set of personalization options for message, so that users would have even more fun than before when chatting with friends.
The new BBM v6.1 Beta comes with animated avatars, fun new emoticons, as well as with increased character count for personal messages, and with customized colored chat bubbles and display picture integration.
There are three new animated avatars available for users who will choose to install the new BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) v6.1 Beta, including “smile,” “laughter” and “in love.”
“We’re planning to add a larger selection of animated avatars after the beta trial is completed. You can access these avatars when changing your display picture within the Avatars folder. (Note: Animated avatars are only supported on BlackBerry smartphone OS 5.0 and higher.),” RIM notes in a blog post.
At the same time, the BBM emoticons have been updated with 12 new entries, so that users can enjoy new ways of expressing themselves.
“These new emoticons were created based on suggestions from customers participating in beta trials – look for more to come in future releases,” RIM notes.
The new app flavor also comes with increased character count for personal messages, offering users the possibility to enjoy 160 characters now, more than double than before.
Moreover, BBM 6.1 beta brings along the possibility to customize the color of chat bubbles for contacts, with a number of 10 colors for users to choose from.
“This feature is great for organizing the many BBM contacts you have and makes it easier to recognize types of conversations (I’m assigning colors to work, friends, and family. My boss is blue, my family is yellow, and colleagues and friends will get their own color-coding, too.),” RIM continues.
Another enhancement in the new flavor of BBM is Camera/Display Picture Integration, which enables users to snap a picture and have it displayed immediately.
