BBM: Security You Can Trust

Get the New BBM for Privacy, Control and Much, Much More

With today’s BBM update we’re incredibly excited to introduce a number of new features that will deliver the best BBM experience yet! At the center of this release are new privacy features that allow customers to take control over the messages and content that they share, so they can communicate with more discretion and freedom than ever before.

We have been testing these features with customers over the last few weeks and the feedback has been incredible. They’re telling us that Timed Messages and Message Retraction add a whole new dynamic to BBM – unlike any other chat app out there today.

Check out this short video we made to help illustrate just how valuable these new features can be! We’ve got a few more videos on the way over the next week to highlight the extreme lengths people will go to regain control over a message.

Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll find in this latest release of BBM:

• Timed Messages: Set how long contacts have access to messages and pictures shared in a chat*
• Message Retraction: ‘Retract’ a message to remove it from your BBM chat*
• A quicker sticker picker: Adding stickers to your BBM chats is now even quicker with a new picker
• HD Picture Transfer: It’s easier than ever to get a high quality version of the pictures you receive in BBM
• Discover Music: See what music your contacts are listening to in BBM Feeds.

With these new features, now is the time to get your friends on BBM to start enjoying the unmatched level of privacy and control. Timed Messages and Message Retraction features are premium features that will be available free and without restriction over the next three months. After this time, unrestricted access to these features will become part of a broader bundle of features that will be offered as part of a BBM subscription.

It may take 24 hours or more for the update to appear in your app store depending on your mobile platform and region.

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*Note: While these features are designed to remove the message or picture from the recipient’s BBM chat view, they do not prevent recipients from capturing an image of the content by taking a screenshot or using an image capture device. Retracting a message after it has been read by the recipient will remove the message from the BBM chat view, but will not affect copies of the message that the recipient may have made prior to the message being retracted.

New BBM Beta: Ultra-Private, Yours to Control

Privacy and control. At BBM, we recognize that these two ideas are more important today than ever before for users of IM apps. People are looking for simple ways to help guard against their messages getting in to the wrong hands and being seen by anyone other than the intended recipient. There are lots of scenarios out there, from someone picking up the sender’s phone and snooping around, to the recipient showing a message or picture to others around them, or maybe those times when a message is sent to someone by mistake. No matter how you look at it, no one likes being out of control.

Here at BBM, we believe that when people can chat and share with privacy and control, they are able to communicate with more discretion and freedom. That’s why today, we’re excited to give you a preview of two incredible new premium features coming to BBM in our next release.  With these new features, what you share is yours to control  – even once it’s left your phone.

Timed Messages

By setting a timer you can control how long messages and pictures you share with contacts can be viewed within BBM. Setting the timer is super easy: Before you send your message or picture, you just tap on the timer icon next to the text bar and choose a length of time you want the recipient to be able to view that message. The message is hidden until the recipient touches and holds on the chat. Then, once the timer has expired (or if the recipient takes their finger off the screen), the message is no longer visible. What I love about the timer is that I can move seamlessly between timed messages and normal messages in a single chat depending on what I’m sending. Oh, and don’t get any smart ideas about screen shots…if a screen shot is detected, the sender is notified.

Message Retraction

We’ve all been there, that time when you sent a message to the wrong person. Wouldn’t it be great if you could recall that message before they see it? Or maybe you’ve sent a piece of sensitive info to a contact – like your credit card number so they can buy some concert tix for you – and you don’t want that information to remain in the BBM chat it… Well, now you can retract your message to remove it from your BBM chat. Just touch and hold on the message you want to retract and choose ‘retract message’ from the menu. This one works with messages, not pictures, and is only available in one-to-one chats.

If you want to see these new premium features in action check out this video demo.  We’re testing these now in a limited beta for users on Android and BlackBerry 10. Timer and Retract will be available in the 2.5 release of BBM for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry 10 coming very, very soon.

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Note:  While these features are designed to remove the message or picture the recipient’s BBM chat view, they do not prevent recipients from capturing an image of the content by taking a screenshot or using an image capture device.  Retracting a message after it has been read by the recipient will remove the message from the BBM chat view, but will not affect copies of the message that the recipient may have made prior to the message being retracted.

BBM has More in Store for its 91 Million Active Users

October is here and so is the start of our next BBM beta. Before we dive in, let’s first recap the last few months.

We launched BBM Protected ahead of schedule for BBOS devices and BlackBerry 10 smartphones running in regulated work space mode. The response has been positive with a number of customers adopting BBM Protected in regulated and security conscious industries like defense, national security and finance.

Over the last couple months we released a number of updates to BBM for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry smartphones improving the experience. From a simplified flow for attaching pictures, files and other content to BBM chats to improvements in how you add and invite new contacts and more, we’ve really put a focus on quality. We’ve also grown the BBM Shop to include over 55 sticker packs and continue to add 2 new packs every week.

We also marked the release of the first version of BBM for Windows Phone!

In September, we announced two new BBM payment initiatives – an enhanced BBM Money service in Indonesia and integration with TransferTo allowing BBM users to gift mobile airtime minutes to their BBM Contacts globally. We also launched a new integration between Hootsuite and BBM Channels to allow Channel owners to engage with fans and followers alongside other social networks through the Hootsuite social media management platform.

It has been a busy last few months! The BBM community now includes over 91 million monthly active users around the globe.

But we’re not done yet – not by a long shot. We have a lot more in store for BBM this year and it starts today with the next BBM beta, which you can download here.

With this beta release we’re showing that we’re listening to you, our users, and are focused on adding some of the features you’re asking for. This beta introduces:

• A new sticker picker to make it faster and easier to browse, select, and use the sticker packs you love.
• High Quality image transfers by default – no more need to request an HQ image
• Plus, Android users will be able to share what they’re listening to with their BBM contacts through BBM status updates

This is just the start of some great new BBM experiences that we have on the way this fall. We think you’re going to love what we’ve got coming next!

Important update for Android BBM users

Earlier this week we released the BBM v2.4 for Android devices. We’ve discovered a bug where a very small percentage of users (less than 1%) encountered a ‘Temporary Server Error’ message.

Our team has worked to quickly address this issue with an update that was released to Google Play this afternoon (v2.4.0.9).

Users who are receiving the temp server error, and the retry button doesn’t resolve the issue – they need to uninstall current version and re-install the new version from Google Play found here. Your BBM contacts, and groups will be restored when you log in using your BBID account.

To the small number of users this impacts we offer our apologies for the inconvenience.

Why BBM Isn’t Vulnerable to iMessage’s Reported Spam Problem: 5 Ways

We all hate spam, whether in our e-mail inbox, or, even more jarringly, when it comes as a mobile message. Yet according to an article in WIRED, “Apple’s iMessage is being taken over by spammers” and Cupertino is “moving slowly” to help out “beleaguered users.”

“A year ago, Tom Landesman—who works for security and anti-spam company Cloudmark—had never seen an iMessage spam. But he and his company now say that, thanks to one particularly aggressive campaign from a junk mailer, it accounts for more than 30 percent of all mobile spam messages.”

WIRED reports that it is “very easy” to spam an iMessage user because of the integration of Apple’s computers (MacBooks and iMacs) and its mobile devices (iPhones and iPads). A spammer only needs to create a dummy email account, and then hack into the iMessage database to message anyone with your iMessage details (such as Apple ID or phone number). Landesman from Cloudmark calls it “a spammer’s dream,” adding “with four lines of code, using Apple scripts, you can tell your Mac machine to send a message to whoever they want.”

This hack not only lets spammers target you, it also lets them verify your user name and also whether you read the spam. In today’s BYOD world, this could cause additional problems for security-conscious organizations who want to utilize IM to get their work done, but can’t afford to put their organization at risk of a security breach. That is, unless your company is fortunate enough to be running BlackBerry’s Enterprise Mobility Management solution, BES10, which lets IT managers turn off iMessage.

That’s a drastic step, though. You as a user may be better off doing what the New York Times recently suggested, which is to “try BBM as an alternative to iMessage.” Here’s five reasons why:

1) BBM is architected in a way that protects our 85 million users against spammers.

iMessage works off of phone number or Apple ID. Anyone who has your number or Apple ID can send you messages whether you want them to or not. With BBM, users have a lot more control due to our “invite and accept” paradigm. In other words, both parties need to be mutually committed to being contacts in order to send and receive messages.

2) BBM gives you control.

There’s no spam on BBM due to its self-policing system. Users are in control of their contact list and there is no way to send a message without being contacts. You can’t control someone showing up to your house, but you don’t have to open the door. With BBM someone can request to be added to your list, but you don’t have to accept their invite.

3) BBM Protected ups the security ante.

Privacy is the main issue with iMessage and spam. BBM protects your privacy by only allowing users to send messages to approved contacts. Our secure enterprise messaging service, BBM Protected, takes it a step further by adding an advanced layer of encryption. This ensures your messages aren’t vulnerable to spying or hacking while being transmitted.

4) BBM empowers you to protect yourself from unsolicited messages.

On the rare chance that you get spam or an unwanted ad, you only need to block the person from your contact list and refuse further attempts to reach you in the future.

5) BBM’s anti-spam features work on any platform.

BBM is structured so that each user has a unique PIN that’s unique to him or her, regardless of what device is used. Here’s the added bonus: BBM is a true multi-platform network that allows you to securely message users on BlackBerry, iOS, Windows Phone and Android. That’s virtually 100% of all smartphones and tablets out there today. iMessage is only available on Apple products.

BBM Protected now available for Balance enabled devices

BBM Protected Balance

When we launched BBM Protected ahead of schedule in June, we were focused on enterprise customers in regulated industries with BBOS devices and BlackBerry 10 smartphones operating in work space only mode. We were able to offer a value proposition to these customers of improved employee collaboration through the speed and reliability of BBM plus the added security offered by advanced BBM Protected encryption, using public/private encryption keys held by the enterprise.

This advanced encryption model has been designed to protect security conscious organizations from threats like spying, hacking, accidental data leakage, non-compliance and more. As the only secure IM client to use a FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic module making it secure enough for government communications, we’re confident that BBM Protected lives up to the demanding needs of our most security conscious customers.

(As of February 2015, BlackBerry holds 70+ security certifications and approvals from governments.)

The early response to BBM Protected has been fantastic, with customers in regulated industries like healthcare, finance and government expressing interest. Here’s an example of how a health care provider is using BBM Protected to securely connect staff.

Today we started phase 2 of the BBM Protected roll out, adding support for BlackBerry devices using Balance technology. This step allows BBM Protected to work in BYOD, Balance, and COPE (Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled) environments as well as COBO (Corporate Owned, Business Only).

For security conscious organizations using Balance technology we’re excited to be able to offer enhanced BBM Protected level encryption to the intra-company BBM messages being sent between employees inside the company as well as inter-company BBM messages being sent to employees at other companies using BBM Protected.

Just as before, enabling BBM Protected for Balance enabled devices is as simple as turning on an IT policy through the BES console. And for end users, the experience remains as simple and hassle free too – keep using BBM as you do today! End users will continue to use the same BBM app they currently have and BBM messages to other BBM Protected users (either at their company or at other companies using BBM Protected) are encrypted automatically using the advanced BBM Protected encryption. Messages sent to friends and family use the standard BBM encryption.

If you’d like to learn more about BBM Protected, please visit http://www.BlackBerry.com/BBMProtected or watch this short video below:

Q and A with BBM Sticker Designer Emmy Lincoln

We recently added the BBM Shop to BBM so we could offer stickers, which are cute, funny images that you can use to spice up your chats. They’re like the ubiquitous smiley face emoji:
But way, way better: more colors, more characters, better graphics, etc.

Where do stickers come from? Good question! Some, like our Frozen and Disney Villain stickers, we license from Disney. Most, however, we hire artists to create for us.

Designing mobile messaging stickers sounds like a pretty sweet gig to me. One of my favourite artists we work with is Swedish designer Emmy Lincoln, aka Itchy Soul. I wanted to know more about how she does what she does—and I thought you might too. So, I emailed her a list of questions to learn more about her background, her process, and the stories behind her sticker characters.

JG: How did you get started drawing?

EL: I was one of those kids who was always drawing. I grew up in a small town in Sweden, where my mom did pottery and my grandmother was a painter. So I had close family to inspire and encourage me to draw. Later I studied graphic design and I’ve been working with graphics for mobile phones for the last ten years. I’m now freelancing as a visual designer and artist, and still have great use of the drawing skills I taught myself as a kid.

JG: Tell us about your design process. If you’re sitting down to design an emoji, what do you do?

EL: I begin by hand sketching and by trying to figure out the personality of the character. Then I write a list of all the different expressions I want to use, and make some sketches of how they might look. You have to trust your own experience and instinct to know if you’re on to something good. Asking other visual artists for feedback can help to improve your design, but sometimes compromising to please others will weaken your own idea. We can all fail, but if you make something that you like yourself then chances are that others will too.

JG: What defines a good emoji or sticker? As you’re creating them, what do you strive for in the finished product?

EL: I suppose a “good emoji/sticker,” from the provider’s point of view, is one that sells well or that is used most frequently. Generally, that would be a design that doesn’t offend or exclude too many people, a character that is positive and familiar. But sometimes a “good emoji/sticker” can be the opposite, a design with edge that makes a statement and brings value to the brand. Personally, I look for something that stands out from the rest, something that has an interesting style or unexpected elements, and perhaps something with a bit of darkness behind the cuteness.

JG: Which sticker sticker packs have you designed for BBM?

EL: I designed the CosCat and SkeletonGirl stickers.

JG: Of all the emoji and stickers you’ve created, do you have a favourite?

EL: I like my crying SkeletonGirl the most out of my own stickers. I’m quite an emotional person.

JG: When is the best time to use emoji?

All the time! They help lighten the mood or express something that’s hard to say in words.

JG: The CosCat sticker pack is a team favourite here at BBM. Maybe you can settle a debate for us. In your mind, is it just one cat dressed in a bunch of different costumes, or a bunch of different cats in costume?

EL: It’s just one cat in different costumes.

JG: Tell us about this cat. Seems like it’s fairly mischievous, doesn’t like getting dressed in doll clothes, and also uses a BlackBerry.

EL: CosCat is inspired by all the wonderful pictures people post on the internet of their cats in silly outfits. It’s just the funniest thing ever, seeing a cat in a costume. Especially when it has that offended, sulky look on it’s face, completely unaware of how funny it looks, being a cat of course. Love pets in costumes!

JG: You also designed the Skeleton Girl sticker pack. Tell us about her.

EL: SkeletonGirl is a character I paint sometimes. She is a fierce fighter with a big heart. She was born out of the earth atop a great mushroom in the forest and was adopted by a family of big, fury, peaceful creatures. All they ever did was to sit happily on giant mushrooms all day, and as SkeletonGirl grew older, she found it harder to fit into their tranquil life. She left the forest to go on adventures with her friends, and trained to become a warrior and earned her pink wig — the sign of a sword master. From then on, a whole bunch of new adventures await my little SkeletonGirl! If you’d like to see some of the original paintings behind the character visit itchysoul.se. I recently exhibited a series of SkeletonGirl paintings at the Pictoplasma character design conference in Berlin.

BBM for Windows Phone Beta is Here!

Update – July 31, 2014

BBM for Windows Phone is now publicly available for download

We’ve gotten an incredible number of requests for BBM to come to Windows Phone. In the coming weeks we’ll be ready to welcome millions of Windows Phone users to the growing BBM community.

Sharing Experiences with Control and Privacy

In this first release of BBM for Windows Phone, we’re focused on introducing Windows Phone users to the power of sharing experiences in the moment through the immediacy and privacy offered by BBM. Users can engage in BBM Chats with one or many contacts, with the ability to share pictures, voice notes, contacts and location.

BBM Groups let you connect and share with up to 50 contacts. In addition to a private group chat, BBM Groups offer you a shared photo album where group members can chat about pics as well as shared calendars and shared lists. Broadcast messages will also be included in the first release, providing a way to quickly reach large groups of contacts as well as creating a feed where you can check out news from all your BBM contacts.

We’ll be working to quickly add more features to BBM for Windows Phone such as stickers, BBM Voice, BBM Channels and location sharing powered by Glympse in the months ahead.

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A Fresh New Native Look & Feel

Customers love apps that are simple, easy to use and beautifully designed. Over the last couple of releases we’ve focused on simplifying the BBM user experience to make it easier to sign up, sign in and add BBM contacts. When it comes to design, we’ve heard users asking for a native experience that matches the experience they’re accustomed to on their phone.

I’m excited to announce with this release of BBM for Windows Phone we will be moving to a more familiar, native user experience that embraces the clean, modern design of the Windows Phone UI.

The BBM for Windows Phone interface focuses on three key areas core to the BBM experience: Contacts, Chats and Feeds.

Swiping left and right will move you between these three pages. Common actions are found at the bottom of the page in the footer and additional controls can be found in the menu accessed through the three dots.

Contacts

In Contacts, we’ve created a single centralized place where you will find all your BBM contacts, regardless of whether it’s an individual, or a BBM Group. At the bottom of the Contacts page you have the ability to search for a contact, find friends, create a new BBM Group and select multiple contacts to create a new multi-person chat, send a broadcast message or organize a contact category. Another really cool thing you can do with BBM for Windows Phone is pin a BBM contact to the Start menu for easy access. When you select that BBM contact from the Start menu you will be taken directly to a chat window with them.

Chats

The Chats page is your single destination for all your BBM Chats including group chats, multi-person chats, and one-to-one BBM chats. From the chats page you can start a pick up a conversation or start a new chat, multi-chat or broadcast message. In a chat, you have lots of ways to share. You can attach a picture from your camera, add a voice note, send a contact, share a photo from your gallery or send your location.

Feeds

Feeds lets you see what’s happening with your BBM contacts. Here you will see when contacts update their status or profile photo. If you want to chat about one of their updates, just touch on their name and you’ll be taken to a chat. Here you can also quickly update your own status to share what you’re up to or what’s on your mind.

BBM for Windows Phone Beta Starting Soon

The BBM team here at BlackBerry has been busy getting BBM for Windows Phone ready to go. We’re preparing for an external beta ahead of our launch and are ready to start accepting applications to participate. Now remember, this is a beta and our expectation is that participants will help us make BBM for Windows Phone great by actively participating. If you’re not ready to report bugs, respond to surveys and provide feedback – better to wait just a bit longer for the full release. If you are excited to join the BBM for Windows beta program, please apply at BlackBerry BetaZone.

New BBM Features added for BlackBerry: Wallpapers, Emoticons, Protected and More

A couple of weeks ago when we launched our latest BBM update for iPhone and Android devices we said we had a special release up our sleeves for BlackBerry users.

Well, today’s the day – we have new versions of BBM coming to BlackBerry World for BlackBerry 10 and BBOS smartphones. Let’s take a quick look at what’s in store.

BBM Protected

We’re proud to announce the availability of BBM Protected today, ahead of schedule. BBM Protected is a new service designed for our security-conscious enterprise customers. BBM Protected adds an additional layer of security to the BBM security model for added protection of BBM conversations between employees. You can learn more about BBM Protected at www.BlackBerry.com/BBMprotected.

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Chat wallpapers – now available in BBM Shop

We’ve heard you asking for more ways to personalize the BBM experience and today, we’re excited to introduce a new feature which will help you customize you BBM chats. Introducing chat wallpapers! Chat wallpapers will be available to download from the BBM Shop giving you a way to add some colour to your BBM Chats.

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16 new emoticons

We know BBM users love their emoticons – in fact they use tens of millions in BBM chats each and every day! This release introduces 16 new emoticons that include many suggestions from our BBM users collected through Facebook, Twitter, our BBM Channel and right here on IBB.

Improved experience for adding new BBM contacts by email

This release also makes it easier to add new BBM contacts through email. Today, it’s a somewhat cumbersome and complicated process. This new release will simplify the process so that when you receive a BBM invite by email, all you have to do is click the link and presto, you’re BBM contacts. No need to send a PIN invite back.

Updates tab has been re-named ‘Feeds’

We’ve also re-named what you know today as the ‘Updates’ tab. We’ve changed the name to ‘Feeds’ to better represent what you find there – the latest statuses and profile photos from your BBM contacts and the newest posts from the BBM Channels you follow.

Increased file transfer limit for BBOS users

Today, we increase maximum attachment size to 16MB for BBM users on BBOS devices. This will allow BBM users on BBOS devices to send longer videos, larger files and bigger photos.

As I mentioned earlier, BlackBerry is releasing these new BBM features at YOUR requests. We’re always trying to listen to our users. So let us know what you think about these new features and what else you’re looking for!

BBM Protected Brings Enterprise-Secure Mobile Messaging. Here’s the Deep Dive.

At Mobile World Congress, we announced the eBBM Suite, a new family of BBM products and services that marries the core strengths of BBM with new capabilities aimed at enterprise customers. This will enable mobile workers to be more productive on the go, while meeting enterprises’ needs for security, manageability and control.

We couldn’t be more excited to announce that the first product in the eBBM Suite, BBM Protected, is being delivered ahead of schedule today!

To help you understand just how incredibly innovative BBM Protected is, and why our enterprise customers will love it, I’m tackling the 5 Ws of BBM Protected.

What is BBM Protected?

BBM Protected is a new service that allows enterprise users to take advantage of the speed, reliability and privacy of BBM for faster communication, collaboration and decision making while providing security-conscious organizations the enhanced security benefits of an on premise solution coupled with the convenience benefits of a cloud solution. BBM Protected offers an enhanced security model for BBM messages sent between BlackBerry smartphones that protects corporate data end to end with additional encryption.

Who is BBM Protected for?

BBM Protected has been designed for organizations with the need to protect corporate data at rest and in transit. These could be customers in regulated industries like financial services or government as well as highly security conscious organizations like law firms, or healthcare providers. Security-conscious organizations are caught between a rock and a hard place today when it comes to secure IM. Many consumer IM apps don’t meet the security needs of IT while the enterprise IM apps deployed by IT leave end users seeking more utility and a better mobile experience. No secure IM apps have managed to meet the needs of both IT and end users – until now. Plus, BBM Protected works together with the logging and auditing capabilities available today with BES, allowing enterprise customers in regulated industries to meet their compliance obligations.

How does BBM Protected work?

BBM Protected adds an additional layer of encryption to the existing BBM security model. With the new layer of BBM Protected encryption, messages sent between two BBM Protected users are encrypted using an encryption key unique to those two users. This encryption key is controlled by the enterprise; BlackBerry is not involved in brokering the exchange of the keys between the two devices.

The first time that two BBM Protected users go to establish a chat, they will be required to share a secret passphrase to authenticate their identities and generate the BBM Protected encryption key used to secure their chat. You can see a demo on how easy it is to share a secret passphrase.

The new layer of BBM Protected encryption also applies to multi-person chats and BBM Groups between BBM Protected users. Creating a BBM Protected Group is easy! You can view a short video of how to establish a BBM Protected Group, .

Why is BBM Protected different?

Not all secure instant messaging apps are created equal. BBM Protected is the most secure, most convenient and offers the best end user experience.

BBM Protected is the most secure mobile IM app:

• BBM Protected is the only secure IM client to use a FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic library¹.
• BBM Protected builds on the proven BlackBerry data security model for data at rest
• BBM Protected uses 3 layers of security for data in transit to protect messages

BBM Protected is the most convenient for IT:

• BBM Protected takes advantage of the investment that customers have already made in BES; there is no new hardware to purchase, no new servers to install and no new management console to learn.
• BBM Protected allows end users to securely message other BBM Protected users outside their company, on different BES servers without the need for costly and complex federation. When two BBM Protected users are chatting, their messages are automatically encrypted at this higher level of encryption.

BBM Protected offers the best end user experience:

• BBM Protected is a single app for all chats – inside and outside the company. Users have one contact list and one chat list. They don’t need to install a separate IM app for work messaging.
• BBM Protected security happens in the background without limiting the end user’s ability to take advantage of all the consumer features that IM has to offer. Many other enterprise IM apps limit employees to only communicating with colleagues inside the company. This limits end users who want to message customers, partners, family and friends.

When is BBM Protected available?

BBM Protected will be rolling out in several phases starting today with phase 1.

In Phase 1, BBM Protected will be available to BES customers who meet the following criteria:

• Customers with BBOS devices operating on BES 5
• Customers with BlackBerry 10 smartphones with gold licenses on BES10 running EMM regulated Work Space mode only

Subsequent phases this fall will add BBM Protected support for enterprise customers with BlackBerry 10 smartphones in Work/Personal Balance mode as well as organizations with iPhone and Android.

Where can I get more information on BBM Protected?

We know you have lots of questions about BBM Protected and the eBBM Suite. Head on over to BBM Protected for more information or read up on some of the frequently asked questions about BBM Protected, found here.

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(1) Feature initially supported on BlackBerry OS devices; available on BlackBerry 10 devices in Fall 2014. Source: List of Validated FIPS 140-1 and FIPS 140-2 Cryptographic Modules at http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140val-all.htm as of May 28, 2014. For more information on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP), including FIPS 140-1 and FIPS 140-2 conformance claims that are used by some vendors that fall short of indicating NIST validation, see the FAQ document at http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/CMVPFAQ.pdf ).

As of February 2015, BlackBerry holds 70+ security certifications and approvals from governments.

Show Support for Your Favorite National Team on BBM

BBM shares your passion for the beautiful game. That’s why we’ve been working hard to bring you more ways for you to show your support using BBM. We’ve got new special sticker packs coming, new images for the BBM PIN Card Creator, and as always you can even update your status to include your country flag!

BBM Sticker Packs:

Support your favourite team with new BBM sticker packs with fun team illustrations supporting the teams from Brazil, France, United States, England, Colombia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Argentina, Ecuador, Spain, Honduras, Germany and Australia. Visit the BBM Shop to download and share today!

BBM Country Flag Shortcuts:

As part of this sports celebration, don’t forget the BBM shortcuts for traditional flag icons. Users can add a flag icon of their favourite team when writing in the “Write a message” field or in the “profile name”, as well as in “what are you thinking” fields.

To do this, you only need to enter the country code in any of the fields listed and it will appear automatically.

The complete list of country codes can be found in this previous post from the BlackBerry Blog.

Custom PIN Card Creator:

As the excitement of the big tournament is everywhere, now BBM users can share their PIN and support their team through the BBM PIN Card Creator. BBM PIN Card Creator is a tool that allows you to create BBM contact cards that are as original and creative as you want them to be. This season you’ll be able to personalize your BBM contact card with a country theme. Share your PIN card with friends through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter or via email and add them to BBM.

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BBM is available for free on BlackBerry, Android and iPhone. To download, visit BBM.com

#BBMoments: Using BBM Groups to Plan the Perfect Trip

The #BBMoments keep rolling in and we continue to be blown away at all the fantastic moments that BBM brings you on a daily basis. This week’s #BBMoments selection comes from Joy and her experience using BBM Groups.

Joy uses BBM Groups almost daily for all different reasons, not just chat! Features like Lists, Events and Pictures allow her to stay in touch, plan activities and communicate quickly without needing to access her contact list.

All of these features came in handy when she recently created a BBM Group for a mission trip to Haiti.

“Several of the other missionaries that were traveling had BlackBerry devices and the others were able to load BBM on their non-BlackBerry devices,” she says. “We were able to chat daily about the upcoming trip and talk about specific needs as they arose.”

Once they got to Haiti, Joy and her group used BBM Groups to add date reminders, deadlines and meetings to the calendar, create lists for packing and travel itineraries and of course, share photos of their amazing trip together.

“We were able to communicate constantly even when we were not together. [BBM Groups] truly made the planning process as well as the trip itself, flawless,” says Joy.

More about Joy M.:

Favorite Device: While she has a BlackBerry Z10, a Q10 and a Z30, Joy’s favorite of the three is definitely the BlackBerry Z30. “The Z30 battery is a beast! I can rock that device all day long without having to recharge! I generally switch out devices during the week just for fun,” says Joy.

Favorite BBM feature: Joy has a difficult time picking a fave feature of BBM, but if she had to choose, BBM Groups would lead the pack. “The ability to connect with people, to network, learn, share information, is just fantastic,” she says. BBM Channels is a close second. “I don’t know any other messaging platform that offers a feature like this. It’s so interactive and my channel has really given me a chance to connect with people from all corners of the world,” she adds.

Most Used Emoticon: The sideways laugh! She says her contacts are always making her laugh but there are so many others to choose from. “Who doesn’t love a thumbs up, a cup of coffee, or a ZOMBIE?” she asks.

BBM Voice Connects Continents

We’ve seen so many great #BBMoments come in that it’s getting hard to pick just one each week! Keep ‘em coming though because we’re loving the chance to see all the different ways our users are connecting with others using BBM.

This week’s moment submission comes from Antoine B. in France. Whenever anyone asks Antoine to add them to Skype these days, he instead suggests they download and try out BBM first.

One time in particular, he was helping support a developer in the United States to port their application for Android, iPhone and Windows Phone over to BlackBerry 10. The developer was a former BlackBerry user and had loved previous experiences with BBM.

So at Antoine’s urging, the developer downloaded the new BBM for Android. Right away, he called Antoine using the BBM Voice feature (from New York to Paris) over Wi-Fi, for free. “At the end of the conversation, he spontaneously declared: ‘Wow, we’ve talked for over an hour without interruption and a crystal clear sound. Never happened before! ’” recalls Antoine.

They did it again the following week and as a result, the application may come to BlackBerry 10 in the near future!

Just one more awesome BBM moment where Voice helped connect two continents, resulting in a great collaboration and helping users get more done.

More about Antoine:

Favorite Device: In order of preference, Z30, Z10, Q10 and has been a Fan for more than 3 years now.

Favorite BBM Feature: Video/Voice and Glympse, Group Chat

Most Used Emoticon: *cheers* and 😉

Most Used Sticker: Check Mark or Thumbs Up (Emoticon Sticker Pack)

We love hearing everyone’s #BBMoments – keep sharing and we’ll keep featuring them each week! Feel free to leave yours in the comments below.

BBM v2.2 for Android and iPhone Has Arrived

If you’re a BBM user on Android or iPhone you’ll soon be seeing an update available in your app store. This next release (v.2.2) is focused on streamlining key aspects of the BBM experience.

Our goal was to make it simpler for new users to join the BBM community and to make it faster and easier to add new BBM contacts.

Easier sign up

One of the ways that we’ve done this is by simplifying the sign up process for BBM. We’ve cut down the number of fields it takes to get signed up, so you can start chatting and sharing even faster. Name. Email. Password. That’s all you need to get started on BBM! For those of you already on BBM today, this change won’t impact you at all.

Easier Friending

Another thing we’ve improved is how you add new BBM contacts through email. Today, it’s a somewhat cumbersome and complicated process. This new release will simplify the process so that when you receive a BBM invite by email – all you have to do is click the link and presto, you’re BBM contacts. No need to send a PIN invite back.

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New Emoticons & more

You’ll also find 16 new BBM emoticons in this release – from a hotdog, and maracas, to a hacker and a pair of hot lips. We’ve also re-named what you know today as the ‘Updates’ tab…We’ve changed the name to ‘Feeds’ to better represent what you find there – the latest statuses and profile photos from your BBM contacts and the newest posts from the BBM Channels you follow.

Availability

BBM v2.2 for Android will be available starting later tonight from Google Play and will be coming to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the coming days. [Update: We have now released the update for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. June 02, 2014]

BlackBerry users – hold tight, we have a special release of BBM coming for BBOS and BlackBerry 10 smartphones in a couple of weeks. This special release of BBM for BlackBerry smartphones will include many of the things we’ve talked about here…and a few special things added for good measure.