BlackBerry updates BBM with timed messages and message retraction

BlackBerry today released a new version of BBM, adding
timed messages, message retraction, and HD picture
transfer, among other features. If you don’t see the
update just yet, note that the company says it “may take
24 hours or more” for it to appear in your app store
“depending on your mobile platform and region.”
First up, you now have a lot more control over your
communications. Before you send messages and
pictures, you can set how long your contacts have
access to them in a chat. After you send messages and
pictures, you can also “retract” them from your BBM
chat.
BlackBerry is pushing these two additions as new
privacy features that let users “take control over the
messages and content that they share, so they can
communicate with more discretion and freedom than
ever before.”
The company first showed off the new additions to
messages two weeks ago in a beta release; testers
apparently have been giving “incredible” feedback,
saying that controlling their messages adds “a whole
new dynamic to BBM.”
Nevertheless, for both of these features, BlackBerry did
offer an obvious warning to its users:
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.
Privacy additions aside, BBM has received a new sticker
picker that the company claims is faster for adding
stickers to your chats, the ability to transfer HD pictures
so you can send higher quality versions of your photos,
and an option to see what music your contacts are
listening to in BBM Feeds. None of these are as
significant as the privacy additions, but they do round
out this release as a major one.
Paid subscription
For some time now, BlackBerry has been talking about
monetizing BBM. The company has started offering
stickers, noting that many messaging applications,
particularly in Asia, have successfully built new revenue
streams by opening up a sticker shop for their users to
peruse.
Today, BlackBerry revealed that it plans to offer a paid
subscription for premium features. It didn’t share many
details, but the company did say that timed messages
and message retraction will be included in the package.
The features will be available for free and without
restrictions over the next three months. In other words,
we can expect a BBM subscription to arrive within the
next quarter.
Via : ventureBeats