Custom PINs, Android Wear, No ADS and more on new BBM upgrade

The most recent upgrade to BBM was announced yesterday at MWC and will begin to roll out for BlackBerry 10 and Android devices today and iOS soon, this was made known on the Blackberry official blogNew features were also added according to the report. Among the new features are Custom pins and No ads option.

All BBM users, both android, windows and IOS users already have a PIN. These unique PINs are directly linked to your personal BlackBerry ID, and makes it easier for you to add new contacts. Easily share your PIN to add people to your BBM contacts list while keeping private information such as your phone number or email address.

If you are a good observer, you'll notice all PINs follow a specific alphanumeric format, and look something like “2564C1AD”. People use BBM PINs all over the place, on email signatures, flyers, business cards and in some cities, taxis !

CUSTOM PINS

With this unique introduction to BBM, you can make a PIN that’s easy for you and your friends & families to remember and/or reel-out something special about you. Custom PINs have to follow certain rules though according to Blackberry. It must be 6-8 characters long, and can include letters and numbers only. Special characters cannot be used and PINs are not case sensitive. A Custom PIN subscription costs $1.99 USD per month.

BBM users with any active subscription automatically gets another little bonus, a badge on their avatar to show off their premium status. An example of a screenshot is given below...

NO ADDS

You now have the option to remove advertisements  from BBM for only $0.99 USD per month with the new No Ads subscription. This special subscription removes all adverts from your feed, and additionally, no more sponsored invites from our partners.

PICTURES IN GROUP

BBM Groups even got better. Last update, Blackberry added the ability to use stickers in Group Chats. The recent update due to popular request is Photos in Group Chats. Yes, you can now share photos in group chats. These pictures are also saved to the Pictures section of your group chat, letting you to still “like” and comment on them.

ANDROID GEAR OPTION

Another upgrade for Android users, Android Gear or Wear Support is now added to this release. Effortlessly receive BBM alerts on your wrist when new BBM messages come in, read and reply to them with a few simple swipes. With this upgrade discreet messaging on-the-go even got easier.

IOS SECURITY UPGRADE

BBM took advantage of iOS specific features like TouchID, BBM will be allowing iOS users to password protect their BBM chats from this upgrade. Lock your private BBM messages with your fingerprint or a 4 digit passcode. You can even set how long you would like BBM to remain unlocked before a password is required again. Amazing right!