BBM 7 Introduces Free Voice Calls

BlackBerry Messenger version 7, aka BBM 7, is now in beta, and it comes with a huge addition: free voice calls over Wi-Fi. BBM 7 will be a free update and it should work on BlackBerry smartphones that currently run under BlackBerry 6 OS or higher. If you own a BlackBerry 5 OS device, RIM *should* have something for you in the future.

BlackBerry Messenger users should find themselves right at home. The user interface keeps the same look and feel and if it wasn’t for the addition of the call/hang button at the upper-right corner, BBM 7 would look like a regular text chat app, except that it is not anymore.

BBM 7 users can see the status of their BBM contacts with the upper-right icon which shows one of four status: none (BBM voice not available), offline, online, in a voice chat. A voice chat is handled very much like a phone call. The voice conversation can go into the background while you text, browse photos or send an email.

Of course, BBM 7 remains a text chat software as well and gets additional emoticons and a BBM Upgrade Notification capability that used to be provided by App World previously. That’s the gist of the BBM 7 upgrade and this is quite a huge addition, even if you have been using other VOIP software before. BBM 7 is probably the only one that guarantees that the call will land on the currently active Blackberry device of your contact. One more detail: you BBM account can be active on only one BlackBerry device at any given time – just in case you have more than one BlackBerry…

Hubert Nguyen
Categories: Breaking, Cellphones
Tags: BBM, BlackBerry, blackberry messenger, RIM