Happy New Year 2019 to all BBM Users! We’ve made tremendous progress in 2018 by releasing BBMoji, BBM Desktop, Group War and more! But now we’re looking ahead with our first update of the year and we’re excited to share the numerous features we’ve created to improve your experience on BBM! Read on for details, or check the preview in the “What’s New” section in the App Store (coming soon!) or Google Play when you download the new version.
Multitask away with the new Picture in Picture Mode for Video Call (Android only)
You’re catching up with your family or spending quality time with your special someone in a video call when suddenly a notification diverts your attention. Now on BBM, you can check say notification or chat with your other friends on BBM without hanging up the call. It’s perfect for multitasking!
Simply hit the back button during a video call and the screen will be minimized. To make it more convenient, the minimized video call will stick to one of the four corners of your phone, leaving most of your screen free to do any activities.
Grow your group by inviting family and friends outside of BBM (new on iOS)
To make our new 500-member Group easy to fill with your loved ones, we first added an option for other members to send group invites without admin approval. Then we added the option of sharing QR Code for easy scanning to users on BBM. Now we’re extending the invitation to non-BBM users with the Group invite link. The moment you make a new group, you’ll instantly see a “View invite link” offer to copy or share the link to your social circles outside of BBM.
Admins who already have a group can check the Invite Link by clicking their Group name/avatar and selecting ‘Invite to Group via link.’ You’ll then have a choice to either create, copy, share or remove the link. When a contact from your Phonebook joins BBM, you’ll receive a notification so you can start yapping away.
Personalized your image directly on BBM with the new image editor
Now both Android and iOS users can save time by directly editing their image on BBM before you send the picture. Add more creativity as the new image editor lets you choose from 12 different colors and various brush sizes for you to freely write or doodle away. We’ve been having fun with this feature by drawing a blue afro on our friend. It’s also been super helpful to point out which clothes our family should buy. To make it even more convenient, we’ve also added the capabilities to crop & rotate the image.
Improvements to Chat List: Pin your favorite chat and mark as read
Reserved the top spot on your chat list for your favorite group or special someone by pinning their chat. This new feature allows you to pinned up to three chats on top for easy and quick access to chat with the person or group you most frequently communicate.
If you are involved in many groups but have very little time to read them all, then you can mark the chat as read without opening each one. Both the pin chat and mark as read features can be access by long pressing on a chat. 
Simpler navigation: New ‘Calls’ tab lets you make calls easier
Calls will now occupy the 2nd tab of BBM, showing your history of missed, incoming and outgoing calls. You can also access the contact picker directly by clicking on the blue phone button. The change to make Calls more prominent will eliminate the hassle of entering a chat just to call your family and friends. Also as part of the new navigation, Contacts will be moved to the fifth tab. If you want to access the More tab, you can simply click your avatar icon on the top left of any tab.
We hope all these new features will enhance your experience in BBM! Don’t wait to take advantage of all the new and improved features on your favorite mobile app for chatting. Be sure to upgrade now via Google Play today and keep a lookout for App Store’s new update.
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