BlackBerry To Introduce Free Voice Calls on BBM In February

Smartphone maker BlackBerry will introduce free voice calls on its instant messenger app over next month through an update which will also allow users to surf and create BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) channels, share content and geographical location on the go.

Krishnadeep Baruah, senior director, channel marketing in Asia Pacific for Blackberry, told ET that the global update of the app will happen ‘within a few weeks’, which will put BBM in direct competition with apps like Viber, Line and WhatsApp, that allow users to make free calls and send audio as chats.

The Canadian company that had launched BBM voice for BB 10 users last year, will make the free calling feature available across Android, iPhone and BlackBerry OS 5 upwards smartphones. Around 100 million people worldwide use BBM across OS platforms.

Baruah said that video call on BBM, that is available on BB 10 devices, will be available for users across platforms in the near future, but declined to confirm whether it will be part of the next app update. The company may also launch BBM for Windows devices in the future, the only operating system that does not support BBM at present. “We’re constantly evaluating and hopefully at the right time we will be able to launch on newer platforms,” Baruah said, without specifying a timeline.

The smartphone maker that has lost significant market share in India, from 5% to 0.5% in a year since September 2012, is looking at monetising BBM and BBM channels globally and locally.

BBM Channel is an extended version of the messenger where users can upload content and subscribe to public (free) and private (paid) channels of other users, which may include companies or individuals. Channel owners can post messages, share pictures, start discussions, post animated images and chat directly with subscribers.
The social media platform which was launched in November, a month after BBM was made available across platforms, has over 250,000 channels globally.

Companies like Bharti Airtel, Loop Mobile, Cafe Coffee Day, music website Gonna.com and news portal Firstpost already have their BBM channels that will be available for users to subscribe in India, once the app is updated. Baruah said that the company wanted to capitalise on the instant messaging phenomenon which has elbowed out traditional text messaging, and is expected to explode over the next couple of years.