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.

The release of the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) Social Platform opens a gigantic world of possibilities to application developers. While some are obvious, such as allowing your users to chat with each other, others may be a little more subtle. This post is the first in a series that will talk about how to easily add social features to your application using the BBM Social Platform. And there’s no better time to update your app! The 2011 BlackBerry Developer Challenge is on, and submissions for the Most Addictive social app using the BBM™ Social Platform category will open later this summer.

One of the greatest benefits of the BBM Social Platform is enabling application developers to access the enormous social graph of their users. Friends often place a much greater level of trust in each other’s suggestions when compared to anonymous reviews and advertisements. With the BBM Social Platform, leveraging this ability to help expand your reach and increase your user base is so simple that I will demonstrate it here.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »