One of the videos we posted in our extremely long and and in-depth BlackBerry Z10 review and BlackBerry 10 Review was this video demo of the new BlackBerry Messenger.
For BlackBerry 10, BBM has received a massive upgrade. The user interface has been updated to go with the flow of BlackBerry 10. A key change here is that BBM Groups gets a little more in your face, which is a good thing - people should put BBM Groups to use. Of course, the real new WOW features of BlackBerry Messenger are Video Chat and Screen Sharing.
Once you begin a text chat with a person, if the person on the other end of the has a BBM 7 (with voice calling) on a current BlackBerry Smartphone, or a new BlackBerry 10 phone, you'll be able to tap the phone icon on the top right hand corner of the screen. That pops up a dialog box. If the person has a BB10 device, you can choose to start either a voice call or video call. Once a video call has been initiatied, you are given the option of starting a screen share at any time.
Screen sharing is actually pretty awesome, even for the non-business folks. Example - while I was in NYC, Simon was in Toronto and able to screenshare with me back photos he was taking on his Z10, and telling me about each photo has he flicked through the album. Way more personal and real time than emailing or sending individual photos.
BBM video chat is also integrated througout the operating system. For example, if you're having a regular phone call with a person, but that contact has a BB10 device tied to their profile, you'll be given the option to change the phone call on display over to a video chat.
Likewise, if a contact has both a BlackBerry PlayBook and a BlackBerry 10 phone, from the contact info for that person you can actually choose whether you want to start video chat with them on their BlackBerry 10 phone, or on their PlayBook.
As for the capacity of the new BBM, word has it that the max number of contacts you can have is 2000. After that, any new requests from the server will be ignored. The number of max messages is also cappe at 2000 at once. But you know CrackBerry.. we'll put this to a stress test soon.
Be sure to hit up the video above for a great look at the new BlackBerry Messenger in action!
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