BlackBerry’s BBM messenger was once king of the chat world on mobile devices, and although it’s now overshadowed by the likes of apps such as Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp, BBM still has plenty to offer, especially those who were once loyal BlackBerry users and may still have plenty of contacts who use the service. Today, BlackBerry is bringing more features to the app which also add more value, as it’s announced that BBM Video is now available to Android users in both the U.S. and in Canada. According to the team over at BlackBerry who is responsible for BBM development, users have been requesting a video calling feature for quite some time. Now with BBM Video available to BBM users, it puts the offering in league with other apps who already have a video calling functionality, such as Hangouts, Messenger, WhatsApp, Line, and more, all of which are fairly popular chat apps and all are available on Android devices.
While BBM Video is now available to Android users, it’s currently in a beta status which means it’s not yet fully polished. This leaves room for some improvement to come along which could mean a smoother user experience or simply new features that are part of it. Users can access BBM Video by updating their BBM app, however, it’s worth noting that the update to BBM may not show up for everyone right away, and the beta availability of the video calling feature is going to be limited so BlackBerry is able to monitor the performance in its current state.
BBM Video will be cross platform, so once it opens up to other platform users, like iOS, people will be able to place video calls to each other for free regardless of which platform they’re on. Once users have the most up to date version of BBM, making a video call is simple and requires no approval. Simply tapping the call button will initiate a prompt asking the user whether or not they’d like to try a voice call, or move forward with the video call instead. Making the video call will also be dependant on if the intended recipient is able to use BBM Video as well. If you’d like to try out BBM Video, head to the Play Store and try to update the app.