Let’s take a look:

First, we’ve added “Facebook Groups” to the app. Facebook Groups keeps you connected to the different groups and organizations that you belong to. You can keep tabs on the Groups you’re already a member of, right from your BlackBerry smartphone. You’ll be able to post your updates, comments and media. You can even check out the profile info of fellow group members and get notifications when other members make updates.

Sharing comments and discussing others’ posts is at the core of what makes Facebook fun. With this software update, you can now “Like” individual comments from within the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app. I’m personally looking forward to the simple satisfaction of giving a much-deserved thumbs up to the wittiest comments posted by friends and family. Of course, it’s always good to be on the receiving end of some kudos, too.

There you have it — two awesome new features have been added to Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones. Like what you see? Be sure to swing by the BlackBerry App World™ storefront for a free download of the Facebook for BlackBerry® smartphones app, and tell us what you think in the comments.

*App may take up to 24 hours to appear in BlackBerry App World

The BBM™ Music team has been very busy over the last few months launching our BBM-connected social music service in eight different countries around the world. We are excited that BBM Music* is now available for download in Canada, the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Netherlands and Australia – with more regions still to come, so stay tuned! If you haven’t yet tried BBM Music, we are even more excited to let you know that in the month of February 2012, you can download BBM Music FREE for up to 4 months** in Canada or the US, or FREE for up to 6 months** in the UK, Spain & Italy.

Along with the free trials, we’ve added some new features to BBM Music v1.1 that we wanted to share with you.

Invite friends on Facebook & Twitter

We’re making it easier for you to reach out to more friends so that you can grow your music collections together! BBM Music users can now invite their friends on Facebook® and followers on Twitter® to be a BBM Music contact. This option is available from the “Add Friends” tab (along with the existing options: BBM Contacts, Email, BBM Group and PIN). Personally, I can’t stop recommending BBM Music to friends on my social channels – it’s amazing how much you can learn about someone through their song choices, and now I’ve got access to hundreds of songs I would have never discovered on my own.

Show What I’m Listening To with BBM Music v1.1

We know how much you like the “Show What I’m Listening To” feature, and now you can let your BBM friends see what you’re playing on BBM Music by opting to share through Profile Updates. I’m finding that many of my BBM conversations with friends are now initiated by what song selections each one of us has made, and by the memories associated with some of our favorite songs.

Gift Request Feature with BBM Music v1.1

Wish someone would gift you a BBM Music subscription? Well, now we’ve got that covered! You can ask your BBM contacts for a subscription to BBM Music through a ‘Gift Request’***. Here’s how it works:

• If your trial is over, you can access Gift Request by clicking on the grey “Upgrade to BBM Music Premium” banner.
• If your trial isn’t over, you can go to the “Account Information” tab within the Options menu. From there you can select ‘Gift request’, and select a BBM contact from whom to request the subscription and send the gift request.
• Your BBM contact will receive the gift request within a BBM chat, where they can open the request and choose to accept or decline to “Gift” you a subscription.

So if you haven’t already, download BBM Music today and take advantage of the February free trial offer. For more info on how to use BBM Music – whether it’s adding a friend, sharing a playlist or finding more tracks – check out this BBM Music how to video. Once you’ve downloaded BBM Music, don’t forget to let us know what you think!

* BlackBerry ID and data service required. Monthly subscription required for full track access. Songs must be available in BBM Music catalog in user’s home country. Users can have up to 50 songs in their profile and change up to 25 songs per month. Friends must be using BBM Music and have a monthly subscription for you to access their full tracks. Limit of 50 songs per friend. Accessing the service while roaming may incur additional data charges. When traveling outside of home country, only songs available in user’s home country BBM Music catalog are accessible. Songs may be cached to play off-network. Storage card and sufficient available memory required for caching. Songs will only play within the BBM Music app. When users change songs in their profile, deleted songs, included cached copies on their device, are no longer accessible. See
http://www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic/legal
for complete details and restrictions. Terms subject to change.

** New BBM Music users only. May not be combined with other offers. Payment information required to receive full trial period. Following trial user placed into automatically renewing monthly paid subscription plan unless cancelled before end of trial period. Limited time introductory offer may vary by BlackBerry device or carrier. Additional charges may apply. Subject to change. See www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic for complete details and restrictions.

*** Can only request gift from existing BBM contacts. Gift is reoccurring monthly subscription which continues until cancelled by gift giver.

If you’re a movie buff or a TV addict, you’ve probably experienced the moment where you see a writer or producer’s name you recognize, and instantly you know that you’re about to see something awesome. For apps, the equivalent of that for me is seeing the “BBM™Connected Application” pop-up when I launch a new app from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront. I instantly click “Connect” and seconds later – BOOM – my app experience is now BBM enabled! There are over 200 BBM-connected apps available in BlackBerry App World today, with more and more being added each day. But I wanted to share my top 6 picks.

First, some background: Many of these apps are ones you know and love, but what’s really exciting is that developers are building brand-new apps from the ground up using the BBM Social Platform APIs. We’re also hosting BBM App Hackathons around the globe, where developers and Research In Motion® (RIM®) Developer Relations experts are getting together to learn about creating some awesome apps.

Let the countdown begin…

foursquare – [Free]
If I don’t count email, then my #2 most-used app after BBM is definitely foursquare. Their integration with BBM is my favorite example to use when explaining the awesomeness behind the BBM Social Platform APIs. With BBM, you and your close connections already have instant communication established. With the addition of foursquare, you now have location too! I knew this pairing was perfection when I checked into Toronto Pearson International Airport and was BBM’d a few seconds later by a friend of mine who was there too! We were able to meet up and grab a drink before our flights – which definitely made the two-hour wait fly by.

Screen Muncher™ – Now with BBM™! – [$2.99]
The BlackBerry App World team is spread around the world – from Ottawa to Mountain View, CA to Bali, Indonesia. When someone in my building here in Waterloo has a question about something on their BlackBerry® smartphone, they can just show me their screen in person. What do we do for the people who aren’t in the same office? Easy: Screen Muncher – and even easier now that it’s integrated with the BBM Social Platform APIs. My convenience key is set to Screen Muncher, and presto – a screen capture is taken of what’s on my BlackBerry. I can instantly share my screen capture with a co-worker over BBM!

Groupon – [Free]
I’m always on the lookout for new things to do around town, and Groupon delivers. Groupon’s recently updated app for the BlackBerry platform lets you share the “deal of the day” with your BBM contacts via the chat function within the app. (And who doesn’t like a good deal?) I recently saved 60% on a round of mini-golf for my daughter’s 3rd birthday party!

Jingu Avatars – [Free]
I typically use pics of my daughter doing something silly as my BBM avatar. But every now and then (especially on “Talk like a Pirate Day”) I like to create a custom BBM avatar, and the app I use for this is Jingu Avatars. Their BBM Connected app lets you create your own personalized avatar and upload it to your BBM profile with just a couple clicks!

EZLinks for BBM – [$0.99]
One of the coolest examples of a BBM-connected app I’ve seen is EZLinks. I update my BBM status 10-15 times a day – and let’s be honest, there’s a couple clicks to get there. EZLinks gives you a menu option to “Change BBM Status” and then has a really cool pop-up dialog where you can update your BBM status instantly. Definitely worth checking out.

Nic Nac Noe for BlackBerry – [$0.99]
Last but certainly not least is Nic Nac Noe. There are a lot of awesome games available that let you challenge your BBM contacts, but my favorite is definitely Nic Nac Noe. Nothing beats Tic-Tac- Toe –but with ninjas!

I’d love to know what your favorites are. Leave them in the comments below so I can try a few!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Inside BlackBerry® Blog readers! We’ve got a new post for you from Sonia, announcing yet another great app for #TeamBlackBerry…read on for more! – Ed.

The BBM™ Music app is finally here, and will be available for downloading within the next 24 hours in Canada, the United States and Australia (more regions will be launching shortly, so stay tuned).

First, let’s clarify one misconception: with a BBM Music Premium subscription, you can access far more than 50 songs. To start your BBM Music profile, you can choose up to 50 songs from the millions in our catalog. But, that’s just the beginning! Add more music to your library by adding friends and get access to your BBM friends’ music profile songs. The more BBM friends with BBM Music Premium subscriptions you have, the more songs you can share! And the sharing goes both ways. Your BBM friends with BBM Music Premium subscriptions will have access to your profile music too, and can access it anytime.

So, let’s say you have 10 BBM friends with BBM Music subscriptions, and they each have 50 songs in their music profiles. From those friends alone, plus the 50 songs you downloaded to start your profile, you could have 550 songs in no time, right on your BlackBerry® smartphone!

Now, how about a quick refresh on the beta release: BBM Music is a BBM-connected social music service that allows BBM and BlackBerry smartphone users to discover, play and grow their music collections together. In other words, BBM Music helps you connect with your friends around music on a whole new level.

Turn your friend list into a playlist

With BBM Music, you can grow and keep your music selection fresh by swapping songs every month and by inviting friends to gain access to your music. And remember, when you invite friends to BBM Music, you get access to their musical playlist (which means you get access to more songs); you can build new playlists that include your songs and their songs, you can comment on your friends’ music and you can start a chat with any of your BBM friends from within the BBM Music app in real time. All of this music activity is automatically posted to the homescreen timeline so that you can keep up with friends without missing a beat (literally)!

What’s more, you can cache your BBM music (or save your music to your microSD card) for easy offline listening. Choose the full track experience via the Premium Subscription version or the Free Subscription version – here’s what those options include:

• PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION: The Premium ‘full track’ BBM Music experience is available for a monthly subscription of $4.99 USD ($4.99 CDN and $5.99 AUD). The Premium version will feature a free Premium trial offer.
• Free Premium trial offer*: With the free Premium trial offer, you can use all the features of a Premium subscription for a limited time. Get up to 2 months* free in US and Canada, and one month free in Australia.
• FREE SUBSCRIPTION: There will also be a Free subscription to the service that delivers the same social experience as the Premium subscription, but with 30 second song previews versus full song tracks. After your Free Premium trial offer period ends, you can opt to continue using BBM Music without a paid subscription by using this Free subscription. You can upgrade from a Free subscription to a Premium subscription at any time.

What BBM Music Beta users like most

We’ve received tons of great feedback and suggestions from our beta participants – 8 out of 10 said they would recommend this service to a friend. Sharing songs with others is one of the most popular features, as is ease of use. Here’s what some of BBM Music users have to say:

“This app is by far the best music app out there… I love the way we can share music with friends!”

“I like the feature of sharing your music with your friends.”

Based on feedback from Beta users we have added a “stop” button alongside the “pause” button, enhanced music discovery by presenting sorting options in all music and contacts screens and improved conversation around music by adding an external notification icon when you receive a comment about your BBM Music. We thank you for your feedback!

Download BBM Music today

I have admittedly become addicted to the beta version of BBM Music, and I’m very excited for this to officially launch. I’ve quickly amassed well over 1,800 songs (a combination of my own song downloads and my friends’), and I have hours’ worth of music that I’ve sorted into Indie, Jazz and Chill playlists, among others. Even my kids have their own playlists (which were handy on the beach this summer), and I’m constantly checking in for new music and updates from BBM friends. In short, I think you’re going to like it.

Download BBM Music today, and stay tuned for more blog posts on BBM Music as the service continues to evolve and becomes available in more regions.

*New BBM Music users only. May not be combined with other offers. Payment information required to receive full trial period. Following trial user placed into automatically renewing monthly subscription plan unless cancelled before end of trial period. Limited time introductory offer may vary by BlackBerry device or carrier. Additional charges may apply. Subject to change. See us.blackberry.com/legal/bbmmusic.jsp for complete details and restrictions.

Hey Inside BlackBerry Blog readers! We’ve got a great guest post here from Sonia, who’s eager to tell you about a new update to a particular social networking app…read on! – Ed.

Today we’re releasing BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) v6.0.1, a new version that is designed to make it easier than ever to discover a sample of BBM-connected apps from within BBM. This is great news for developers who leverage the BBM Social Platform because it can make their apps more visible and easier to find. It’s even better news for BBM users who are seeking to discover and share new app experiences with their BBM contacts.

Let’s walk through what’s new in BBM v6.0.1.

BBM 6.0.1 Key Features:

• Explore BBM-connected Apps

BBM users will now be able to pull up “Explore BBM-connected Apps” from a menu in the BBM Contacts screen. This action is designed to automate a BlackBerry App World™ storefront search for “BBM” by redirecting users to a list of up to 25 of the most popular BBM-connected apps available.



• Sharing App content with your BBM Contacts is easier

Many BBM users have told us that they love sharing app content with their BBM friends who use the same app, but they also wanted to share content with their BBM friends who don’t have the app. BBM v6.0.1 is designed so that you can now share app-specific content with your BBM contacts regardless of whether your contact has the app installed.

For example, foursquare users may want to share a tip or badge they’ve recently earned, or Huffington Post users may want to share a breaking news story with their BBM contacts. Your friends or contacts will also be prompted to download the BBM-connected app if they don’t have it installed.

• Include BBM v5.0 users in application invites

Now you can include even more friends in the fun! You can now invite BBM v5.0 & BBM v6.0 contacts to join in the fun and share BBM-connected app experiences. Your BBM v5.0 contacts will be prompted to download BBM v6.0 in order to access BBM-connected apps. For users new to BBM v6.0 and BBM-connected apps, here’s a quick rundown of some benefits to upgrading (make sure to read our BBM 6: Apps Made Social blog post for more information).

• Inviting BBM friends to experience your favorite apps
• Chatting with BBM contacts from inside BBM-connected apps
• Discovering apps and updates through friends by browsing their recent profile updates of their contacts profile

You can download the new BBM update from your BlackBerry smartphone here. I look forward to reading your comments on the newest version of BBM! Let us know what you’re sharing with friends and family.

The Research In Motion® (RIM®) Developer Relations team recently hosted a BBM™ Hackathon event in NYC. Developers were invited to apply for a chance to participate in the event, getting one-on-one time with BlackBerry® platform experts and network with other developers while working on integrating social elements into apps using the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM) APIs.

Attendees told us that they found the direct contact with our social platform experts to be invaluable – and we liked hearing that so much that we’ve decided to host more of these hackathon events across the globe in the coming weeks.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »

It is my extreme pleasure to give you an inside look at the BBM™ Music app Research In Motion (RIM) announced today. Hot on the heels of our BBM 6 launch in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront, BBM Music is expected to be available later this year for a monthly subscription fee of $4.99 USD, plus tax (to sign up to get more details later on availability and free trial in your country, please visit www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic).

BBM Music is a BBM-connected social music service that allows BlackBerry® smartphone users to share and discover music through your BBM Music friends (note: users must also have BBM 6 installed). Once you have created a BBM Music sharing friendship with a BBM contact, you can make use of all that BBM Music has to offer (like other BBM-connected apps, BBM Music was built using the same BBM SDKs extended to the BlackBerry developer community. To see a list of other great BBM-connected apps, check out our BBM 6: Apps Made Social post).

BBM Music has been designed to allow you to:

• Build your music profile from a Catalog of millions of tracks (with more to be added over the coming weeks)
• Invite friends to BBM Music from your BBM contacts and gain access to their music and share your music (once they subscribe or join the free trial)
• Create playlists from your BBM Music songs plus your friends’ songs
• Share playlists or single songs with BBM Music friends
• Follow your friends’ BBM Music activity via timelines and comments, or start up a BBM chat about your favorite bands
• Cache music for easy offline listening
• Seamless integration with other BlackBerry music services

Let’s dig deeper into how BBM Music works and why it might become the must-have app for audiophiles and the über-social.

More friends = more music

What if every new friend came with a new favorite song? With BBM Music, they could, as long as they have agreed to share their music with you! Each BBM Music user can create a profile of up to 50 songs from the millions of tracks available in the BBM Music Catalog. In addition to those 50 songs in your profile, the more BBM Music friends you have, the more songs you can add and enjoy! In other words, your BBM Music friend’s music library = your music library.

BBM Music paid subscribers will get to discover, select and share full audio tracks. This includes not only the tracks in your 50-song profile, but also all the music in your BBM Music friends’ profiles, too (if they are paid subscribers or using the trial version).

A great way to stay up on what your BBM Music friends are listening to is by viewing the activity timeline on the Home tab. From there, you can see what playlists your BBM Music friends are creating, what songs they’ve added to their profiles, and the comments friends are posting on your track selections (BTW: My coworkers at RIM seem to really enjoy my addiction to indie rock =D).

From the Me tab, you can see your own BBM Music profile, including your 50-tracks and playlists, as well as the comments you’ve posted. You can also quickly see how many listens your music selections have received from your BBM Music friends, or shuffle your track list.

The Friends tab is the place to go to see your BBM Music friends and discover what they’re listening to. You can view specific friend’s playlists and tracks, add them to your own playlists, or post a comment. This is also the place to accept new BBM Music friend requests or send out some requests of your own. Of course, because BBM Music is a BBM-connected app, you can also start a BBM chat with any of your BBM Music friends from this tab.

Even more ways to discover music

If you’re looking to branch out and try something new, the Catalog tab is the place to go to find new tracks to add to your 50-song profile. Besides a general artist, album, song search, the Catalog tab also features preset song suggestions based upon genre, what’s new, top and most recommended tracks, and even picks from the BBM Music team. BBM Music will also tell you if a song of your choosing is in one of your friend’s music profiles, so you can grab it from them and not subtract from your 50-song total.

BBM Music also provides easy access to and from other BlackBerry music services for additional discovery and purchase. For example, if there are songs you love so much you’d like to purchase them, you can select the buy option and purchase directly from the Amazon MP3 Music Store.

No coverage = no problem

BBM Music tracks are cached to your SD card for offline listening, and you can do this for playlists, too, via the Options menu. This is a great feature for commuters, as you can access your music library even when you’re travelling to out of coverage areas. BBM Music also allows for music streaming over Wi-Fi, which together with the cache storage helps save on data usage.

BBM Music strikes a personal chord with me for two reasons. First, mobile music typically tends to be a solitary experience. BBM Music takes that solitary experience and makes it social with the people that matter to me most. Secondly, as life gets busier, I have less time to discover music (sad, but true). BBM Music allows my BBM friends to introduce me to the tunes I’m missing, and vice versa. I think BBM Music could become the “mixtape” for a new generation of mobile music users.

Stay tuned for more blog posts on BBM Music. Also, be sure to head over to the BBM Music page and sign up to be notified once the service launches.

For now, post a comment and let us know what you think (and maybe post a list of your all-time favorite songs or some great new indie bands I should be adding to my profile). I look forward to reading and hearing what you think!

With the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) v6.0 client now officially launched, we’re excited to announce that the BlackBerry® Partners Fund’s 2011 BlackBerry® Developers Challenge has just opened submissions for the ‘Most Addictive Social App Using the BBM Social Platform’ competition*! You can now test the apps you’ve been creating with the BlackBerry® Messenger SDK against the gold release of the BBM v6.0 client and submit them to the competition. If you haven’t created an app yet that integrates BBM features, you still have time to get to work. Submissions for the BBM competition close September 23rd and we’ve compiled a list of resources to help you get started:

Three-part webcast series: ‘Integrating with the BBM Social Platform, One Step at a Time’

• Step 1: Viral Distribution and the BBM Contact List
• Step 2: User Profile and Custom Profile Box
• Step 3: BBM Chat and Embedding Chat within your App

Blog posts:

• BBM Social Platform – Help Your App Go Viral!

Tools and Resources:

• Visit the BlackBerry Messenger Social platform landing page to download the latest BBM™ SDK and documentation. You can find the BBM v6.0 gold client in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.
• Twitterview with Research In Motion® (RIM®) development experts on @BlackBerryDev – Tuesday August 2nd at 2:30pm EDT. Bring your BBM questions!

We look forward to seeing your creative ideas come to life through your apps! Submit your app to the ‘Most Addictive Social App Using the BBM Social Platform’ competition today and be among the first to be considered for an incentive prize package (see the terms and conditions). For more information on this year’s BlackBerry Developer Challenge, see
http://www.blackberry.com/developers/challenge
.

*No purchase necessary. Submission deadline: 11:59PM EST on September 23, 2011. See Terms and Conditions for complete details and restrictions. Void where prohibited.

Please note that to take full advantage of these BBM connected apps, you must first download BBM 6. The BBM 6 update and BBM connected apps may take up to 24 hours to appear in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront for some users.

Check out some of the new social experiences BBM 6 enables:

(YouTube link for easy mobile viewing)

More BBM status updates via BBM connected apps

BBM 6 allows for more status updates on your BBM profile when you use BBM connected apps. BBM 6 features a custom area within your BBM profile where BBM connected apps can insert status updates (such as high scores, trophies, achievements, etc.). For example, you can choose to let your BBM friends see your recently earned foursquare badges or your highest level in Dark Galaxy.

I personally love this new twist on BBM status updates because it allows me to venture out and share even more of what I do on my BlackBerry smartphone with my friends on BBM.

Share BlackBerry app experiences with your friends via BBM 6

With BBM now integrated into many of your favorite apps, the apps you love just became socially-enabled. That’s right – news apps, games, sports apps, productivity apps and multimedia apps – are experiences you can now share with your BBM friends. Select BBM contacts right from the app to invite them to download the app or join in on the fun. For example, imagine inviting a BBM friend from across town or across the globe to play a game of Backgammon King by Magmic – all without ever leaving the app.

(YouTube link for easy mobile viewing)

Start a BBM chat from within a BBM connected app

Many BBM connected apps allow BlackBerry smartphone users to have a BBM chat within the app. The video above shows how easy it is to start a BBM chat from within ScoreMobile after checking the latest sports scores to lay down a little trash talk in support of your favorite team.

Discover BlackBerry apps through friends via BBM 6

I’ve already told you how you can let your friends know when you’ve discovered a great new app via BBM 6. But, do you know you can also discover apps via your BBM friends’ profiles, if they decide to share? With BBM 6, you can launch or install the app by clicking on its icon within your friend’s profile update. This means you can discover great apps simply by reading the profiles of your trusted friends.

Tip: Look for new BBM connected apps to be added to BlackBerry App World. You can easily spot them on BlackBerry App World by looking for the “BBM connected” app icon. To help get you started, we’ve compiled a list of the connected launch apps below. Post a comment and let us know which apps are your favorites!

News and Sports:

• ScoreMobile
• Navita Sports
• Goal Mobile
• Placar UOL
• Huffington Post
• Azteca Noticias
• TVGuide

Location and Travel:

• Poynt
• foursquare
• Navigator
• Celebrate with Mobiesta – A Fun App for India
• asklaila Streetsmart
• Navita Translator

Music:

• Nobex Radio

Games and Entertainment:

• Jingu
• Backgammon King
• Forces of War
• Pocket Ants
• Photo Booth
• Battles on BBM
• Dark Galaxy
• Villains

E-commerce and Finance:

• Mercado Livre
• El Economista

Productivity and Collaboration:

• PowWow
• PowWow Premium
• Gist
• FileScout – the complete File Text Zip and Image Manager

(YouTube link for mobile viewing)

The Facebook® team here at Research In Motion® (RIM®) is excited to announce that the official Facebook for BlackBerry® smartphones v2.0 app has left beta and is launching in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront! For those of you who haven’t had a chance to check out Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 in BlackBerry® Beta Zone, you’re in for a real treat with this next generation of the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app. This is our most significant release since the initial launch more than three years ago. The Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 app features a complete user interface makeover and is packed full of new features that we’re sure our 38+ million active users are going to love.

(Please note: The Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 app is available for users running BlackBerry® Device Software v5.0 and up. To check your device’s version of software and update if applicable, see this Inside BlackBerry Help Blog post: How to identify BlackBerry Device Software versions.)

We shot a video of Douglas chatting with Blake from the RIM Facebook team about the top five Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 app features. Click the link below if you want to read along with the video!

1. Brand New User Interface

It’s impossible to miss the sleek new design of the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 app, which includes a new navigation grid and a notifications bar that borrows from the BlackBerry® 6 “Today View”, plus Messages, Friend Requests and Chats all in one handy location.

2. Facebook Chat

You asked for it and now you’ve got it! Facebook Chat is fully integrated with your BlackBerry® smartphone, so you can start a conversation within the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app or from the Messages app on your smartphone. You’ll never need to worry about missing a chat message, since you’ll be notified of new chat messages even when you’re not using the Facebook app. Now that’s reliable communication!

3. Improved News Feed

Now you can scroll effortlessly through your Facebook News Feed without accidentally clicking ‘Like’, and you can interact with your friend’s posts in just two clicks. Simply click the ‘More’ button (+) to ‘Like’ or add a comment to a post. The enhanced publisher functionality allows you to post photos to your Wall, add an update, or check in to a Facebook Place right from the News Feed.

Additionally, there’s Redefined Notifications – you’ll never miss a beat in your social life now that you’re notified of polled items (that is, notifications that aren’t delivered through BlackBerry® push technology), such as ‘Likes’ and Event Wall posts.

4. Enhanced Profiles

The new Profile interface now provides Wall, Info, and Photos tabs for an even better browsing experience. New to v2.0 is the ability to view key information on Profiles and Pages, such as contact info, basic info like birthdays, hometown and relationship status, and likes and interests. Plus, you can discover which friends you have in common with another user with the Mutual Friends feature. You can also now view a user’s Friends List from their Profile if their privacy settings permit this.

5. Core Integration with your BlackBerry smartphone

Nothing says Super App more than deep integration with core BlackBerry functionality! The Facebook for BlackBerry smartphone v2.0 app is integrated everywhere you expect it to be, like your BlackBerry Message list, BlackBerry Contacts, BlackBerry Calendar, BlackBerry Browser…and now it’s even integrated with BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™). You can share Facebook posts with BBM contacts and invite friends to BBM when you come across a PIN posted on Facebook.

There are many other new features for you to discover in Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0. For more information, you can check out our previous beta blog posts, or better yet, head on over to BlackBerry App World to check out the app for yourself. Please note: It may take up to 24 hours for the new version of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 to appear in BlackBerry App World for some users.

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, so drop us a line in the comments below and tell us what you think, and if you haven’t already, make sure to Like our Official BlackBerry Facebook Page.