Good news for Windows Phone users, BBM is now live for download on the Windows Phone store, but only for those who signed up to become beta testers.
I have BBM installed right now on the Lumia 630. I will do a complete review at a later time. In the meantime, Blackberry has made a list of key features available that require beta testing:
- BBID Setup and Log-in (for Whitelisted BBIDs)
- Create BBM Profile
- Invite a contact and suggested contacts (people you know)
- 1-to-1 & Multi-person Chat
- Contact Categories
- Manage Settings
- BBM Groups
- Pin to Start
- Notifications and in-app “splats” for new content. See them in Feeds, Contacts when they’ve sent you a message, etc.
Blackberry has also been nice enough to list some of the known issues with the current build:
- Invites and acceptances don’t send when Windows Phone goes out of WiFi coverage
- A few newer emoticons are not rendering properly (i.e *brrrr*, and *flex* and @-@)
- Windows Phone shows as available for BBM Voice call although feature is not supported (seen on Android and iOS, not BlackBerry 10)
- Error popup appears when using “Find Friends” and the “OK” button is selected
- Suggested Contacts tab only shows users already using BBM, but lists them as potential contacts when BBM is initially launched
Blackberry is yet to make a statement on the official public launch date for BBM for Windows. However, it is looking like less likely that it will go public this July.
