It’s been awhile since we’ve received any substantial updates for BlackBerry Messenger on our Android and iOS devices. While the BlackBerry 10 version continues to get the lion’s share of the attention (not surprisingly), the versions for iOS and Android are still awaiting voice and channels features.
In the meantime, BlackBerry has released a new friend finding feature that it says “makes it easy to quickly build your contact list by helping you find and add friends.” It’s a feature that we’ve seen on a number of other applications before, such as Tango and WeChat.
The new friend finding feature comes with version 1.0.4.97 (Android) and version 1.0.6.157 (iOS) and is the only change that comes with the new versions.
BBM had acquired 40 million registered users in its first 60 days on the platform. While this is indeed impressive sounding, there’s no telling how many of these users are actually active. Meanwhile, WhatsApp continues to dominate the messaging landscape with over 400 million active users.
BlackBerry Messenger is, however, one of the most highly demanded features by Windows Phone users, though BlackBerry has made it clear that BBM for WP won’t be happening anytime soon.
Download the latest BBM update to find your friends more easily via Google Play and iTunes.