If you're part of the BBM beta for Windows Phone, you'll want to go ahead and get yourself updated. BlackBerry has now rolled out v120.0.0.1 and it's packed full of bug fixes, features additions but alas, as it is a beta there's also some things to be aware of before you hop right into it. Luckily, BlackBerry has provided a full change log for everyone to look through so you can decide for yourself if you want to run a beta.

In This Build

Notification Improvements

Providing impactful notifications to users has long been one of the aspects of BBM that our users love. We're taking that a step further in improving the BBM for Windows :

  • BBM for Windows will now see message details as part of the notification without having to open the app
  • BBM users that send their BBM for Windows Phone friends a message will now see a "D" even if their Windows Phone friend doesn't have BBM running
  • The new notification number displayed will now indicate the number of new chats (previously displayed the total number of new messages)

Even More Features

Since the last BBM v1 for Windows Phone beta build, we've also introduced:

  • People you know suggestions now appear full screen during setup
  • Invitation screen updates
  • Long press to move contact into category
  • UI treatment to make groups stand out in contact list
  • Implemented Contacts pinning from Homepage
  • Groups invite improvements
  • Support for new emoticons
  • Barcode scanner/view finder display

Software Quality Improvements

The story for this updated version of BBM for Windows Phone doesn't end with the new features. We've carefully pursued through issues that you've raised on the discussions forums and other feedback tools to target software quality improvements for this release too. The most notable software fixes are below:

  • Selecting BBM contact crashes app after changing BBID password
  • BBM stops responding when using emoticons
  • Portion of BBM screen gets black for some time while selecting contacts to invite to a group after it has been created
  • Chats - Share location- Map not displaying the accurate location when tapped on the chat bubble
  • User is taken to the sent invitation tab on hitting back after opening an email invite
  • Invitation: Scanning barcode seen in scanning device screen become stretched
  • Invites: Contact is not adding directly to the users contact
  • Feeds: Text 'No updates' displayed instead of 'No new items'

Known Issues

  • Notifications for received location are not received on the home screen; only after opening BBM
  • Notifications for received pictures do not handle the HQ automatic request
  • Notification not received when a user leaves multi-chat. Only after open BBM the notification is received
  • No notifications when users join a group
  • Group picture comment top notification has no content after the colon
  • Existing contacts show on the list of "Find friends" and "Add, Invite to BBM"
  • After 3 notifications (3 chats) subsequent notifications are not received, sometimes no notifications at all
  • Only 4 notifications for voice note received out of 7
  • The notification number indicator is out of sync with the notification on the top of the screen

If you're already in the beta and feel like doing some more beta testing, you can head on over to the Windows Phone Store and download the latest release.

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