BBM Voice, Channels and more coming to Android and iOS app

BlackBerry has just released its plan for the coming year as far as BBM for Android and iPhone is concerned, and there are indeed a few impressive tricks up the Canadian company’s sleeve. BBM on third-party OSes is one of the things that seems to be going really well for the company, and obviously BlackBerry wants to capitalise on this.

In a blog post , Head of Product Manager for BBM, Sean Hungerford, charted out the plan of action for 2014 as far as the messaging app goes. “We’ve been working on some new ways to make it faster and easier to share with your BBM contacts. Whether it’s talking with BBM Voice, connecting over a BBM Channel, sending a quick photo, or even sharing your location, there’s more to BBM than just chatting,” he wrote.

Voice is coming to BBM for Android and iOS

So what’s going to happen to BBM? For one, BlackBerry is planning to bring BBM Voice to iPhone and Android. You will essentially be able to use BBM like Viber, Line, Skype or Hangouts and be able to make free BBM to BBM phone calls from anywhere to anywhere. BBM Channels is also coming up for the app on both platforms. Essentially, Channels will be a BBM-only social network. You can have your own channel or follow others, or just join in on conversations with brands and celebrities.

Both of these features are currently only available for BBM on BB 10 running phones and with an eventual rollout, will end up making the app the same on all three platforms.

Hungerford also says that faster and easier sharing of photos, voice notes, locations and more are coming to BBM. Lastly, the fun emoticons will find more of their kind in 2014. “We’ve got loads of new emoticons to help you make your point. 100 new emoticons in all! This includes a bunch that came from you, our fans. We can’t wait for you to meet all our new emoticons from ROTFL, Epic Fail, Face palm, a serious hug and yes, even a smiley-poo,” Hungerford writes.

So are Channels

These features are currently being beta tested for release on Android, iPhone and some new features are being planned for BB10 too. The tests are slated to go on for a few more months, so they may not exactly be on time to wish you a happy new year. If BlackBerry can, however, deliver on its promise, 2014 will be a pretty good year for both, the company and BBM fans across board.