Yesterday, RIM announced that they will be opening up certain BBM features so that developers can build them into their apps. BlackBerry Messenger has grown from a humble messaging app to one of the more significant and useful mobile communications platforms. A lot of the available features if developed from scratch would take a long time to implement in comparison to getting you app Super App and BBM ready.
There are lots of advantages that BBM brings to BlackBerry software. BlackBerry Messenger’s social elements allow developers to build in social connectivity based on your pre-existing BBM contacts instead of having to develop and build social connections separately for each app. With 28 million users, there is also incredible word-of-thumb marketing potential when promoting your application.
Developers can also take advantage of BBM’s location-based services, as well as access the device’s video camera for video streaming.
Here’s a list of the APIs that developers will be able to utilize.
- Invite other BBM users to download your app, or start a social interaction from within your app.
- Determine which of your BBM contacts has downloaded your app
- Access to BBM user profiles, including avatar, status, and location
- Add an application box to a user’s BBM profile that can display and broadcast achievements and updates
- Create BBM groups for your app
- Start embedded chats with BBM contact without leaving your app
- Sharing content with your BBM contacts
- Create sub-communities within your app, even if users are not each others’ contacts
- Allow social interactions within your sub-communities
- Stream data between users running your app, such as communication, multiplayer or turn-based gaming, and location
These new APIs will be available in early 2011, register with RIM to receive updates and stay current with the new BBM social platform.
