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Digging BBM Channels? If so, you'll want to make sure you get the latest update installed. New releases are now appearing in the BlackBerry Beta Zone for both BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10. There's a few new feature additions that should please some folks and the BlackBerry Beta Zone was good enough to lay them out for us. Enough jibber jabber though, here's what's been added and changed in these releases:

  • Search for Channels – Within the “Browse Channels” tab on BlackBerry 10 and the “New Channel” tab on BBOS, users may now search and discover new Channels.
  • Active Text for Channel ID’s Within BBOS (5, 6, and 7) – Whenever a BBM Channel ID is noted within BBOS, users can select the Channel ID to open up the channel within BBM. *Coming soon to BB10, but not in this release!*
  • Deleting My Own Channel – Users may now delete their own Channels from the device. The Channel will be deleted from any subscriber’s devices as well.
  • Support for Animated GIF’s – Users may now add an animated GIF to their post, bringing motion and a richer experience to their channels. Check out the bonus animated gif pack under the download tabs that we've posted to help you test out this new feature!
  • View Subscriber Count Within a Channel’s Preview Screen - Users may now see the total number of subscribers to a Channel, from the Channel preview screen.
  • Repost Channel Content – BBM Channels now allows users to repost content they like in channels they subscribe to, into their own Channel.

As we let you all know earlier on the CrackBerry channel (PIN: C00012B19), animated GIFS are working on these builds and BlackBerry has included a add-on pack that you can download to test out using BBM Channels as well. You'll still need to side load the BlackBerry 10 version but the BlackBerry OS version can be updated OTA. Now, finally I can delete the channels I made for testing.

Download the latest BBM Channels builds

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