BBM Channels annoucned: Beta Zone
 

BBM Channels Announced at BlackBerry Live 2013 «Inside BlackBerry - The Official BlackBerry Blog

If you’re anything like me, seeing that ‘R’ in a delivered BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) message is like colour to my eyes (see what I did there?). I am obsessed with knowing that my messages have been delivered, read and when they’re being responded to.

Today, BlackBerry takes BBM to the next level with BBM Channels
extending the BBM experience to brands, artists, businesses and communities, you will now be able to connect with individuals and groups in real time. Stay up to date on your favorite things. Receive timely updates and participate by commenting on, liking and sharing posts. Or choose to express yourself and create a channel of your own – and create, edit & publish in an instant.Starting today, BBM customers can connect and share the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team on their BBM Channels.


Top BBM Channels Features:
Create a channel – Create, edit and publish in an instant, and there are no limits to the number of followers you can have in your channel. Securely manage your channel from either a BlackBerry smartphone or the web.
Discover channels – BBM Channels includes a carousel that lets you discover new channels. You can share channel invites within a BBM chat, and people can be added or invited using the channel’s PIN or QR code.
View – View profiles for each BBM Channel you choose to follow.
Subscribe – Subscribing to a channel allows the channel owner to send you timely and relevant updates, giving the subscriber instant access to your news, deals, events or whatever you want to communicate. Subscribers can choose to receive notifications when new posts are available.
Participate – Participate and engage in conversations with your favorite people or communities by “Commenting” and “Liking” posts from channels you subscribe to. Channel owners have the option to directly chat one-on-one with a subscriber.
Monitor engagement – Easily use built-in measuring tools to assess and monitor follower engagement and interaction
Today, BlackBerry also announced plans to bring BBM to iOS® and Android™ users this summer. BlackBerry expects that iOS and Android users will also be able to experience BBM Channels later this year, subject to approval by the Apple App Store and Google Play.

BBM with BBM Channels is now available in beta for BlackBerry 10 smartphones, as well as BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry 5 OS through 7.1. For BlackBerry OS customers*, BBM Channels is part of the new BBM version 8, which also offers enhanced navigation tools, with tabbed viewing for quick and easy access to contacts, chats, groups, recent updates and BBM Channels. Furthermore, it allows the option to share your enhanced profile information with BBM contacts or within invitations. The beta releases can be downloaded for free on BlackBerry Beta Zone**. Customers can sign up to BlackBerry Beta Zone for free at BlackBerry Beta Zone. For more information about BBM, please visit BBM Video with Screen Share - Download BlackBerry Messenger - US.

Source: Blogs.BlackBerry.com

Re: BBM Channels annoucned: Beta Zone
 

It's good stuff. Integration into one app instead of having to jump in and out of IM/Social Networking apps... pure genius!