I don't know that these new steps by Twitter and now Blackberry are the right ones. Twitter with their "anyone can DM you" update and BBM with this latest contact list upgrade.
As of today, when you update your BBM app, you will find that your BBM contact list has been upgraded. You start to take more - or less, depending on how you see it - control of your social circles.
When you upgrade to the new BBM, you will now have access to some new contact categories. There are now contacts and BBM contacts.
Contacts are people in your device’s contacts app who are already using BBM, and even though you haven't directly added these people to your BBM contacts list, you can start chatting with these contacts right away, no BBM invite required.
Blackberry says this is a great way to discover other people you know who are already using BBM; but I think there was a reason they were not on your contacts list before - you did not want them there!
Oh but of course, BBM contacts require an invite. Only BBM contacts can see your BBM display picture, status updates, and call you using BBM Voice.
There are other new features:
- Timed pictures, timed messages and retracted messages into a new BBM Subscription - See. I knew I shouldn't have gotten used to this features; now I have to pay for them.
- Broadcast messages can now be sent to specific categories - Well, okay. Nigerians hate BCs anyway.
- Full screen viewing of BBM Group Pictures - About time!
- Option to block receiving messages from a multi-person chat - Or just leave the chat
This BBM update is available now for Android and BlackBerry 10, and will be available soon for iOS [take all the time you need please].
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