Hey everyone! Sonia’s back with a great new beta app update to a particular #TeamBlackBerry favorite…read on for all the details! – Ed.

Great news #TeamBlackBerry! The beta version of BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) v6.1 is available for download from BlackBerry® Beta Zone — now you’ll have even more ways to personalize your messages – and add a little fun – including animated avatars, fun new emoticons, customized colored chat bubbles, increased character count for personal messages and display picture integration.

We’re glad to share that many of these new personalization features were added due to popular request from our BBM community and beta testers.

Let’s take a look at these new BBM features in more detail.

Animated avatars – We’ve added a new dimension to the options on your BBM display picture – animated avatars! These avatars use controlled animation, which means that motion is activated when you scroll over the avatar. Three animated avatars are available as part of this beta as a sneak peek (including a “smile,” “laughter” and “in love”). We’re planning to add a larger selection of animated avatars after the beta trial is completed. You can access these avatars when changing your display picture within the Avatars folder. (Note: Animated avatars are only supported on BlackBerry® smartphone OS 5.0 and higher.)

12 new emoticons – A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the saying goes. With the addition of 12 fun emoticons in your BBM catalog, there are now more ways for you to express yourself and personalize messages to your friends. These new emoticons were created based on suggestions from customers participating in beta trials – look for more to come in future releases. And please make sure to leave us a comment and let us know what other emoticons you’d like to see. We’re listening!

Increased character count for personal messages – Whether it’s keeping your contacts posted on your whereabouts or sharing your mood for the day, you can now say more in your regular updates to your BBM friends. We’ve more than doubled the size of your personal message space to 160 characters, so that you can now share your trials and tribulations in much greater detail.

Colored chat bubbles – BBM users can now customize the color of chat bubbles for contacts. With 10 colors to choose from, you can pre-assign colors to your contacts by simply going into your BBM contacts’ profile and selecting a desired contact chat color. This feature is great for organizing the many BBM contacts you have and makes it easier to recognize types of conversations (I’m assigning colors to work, friends, and family. My boss is blue, my family is yellow, and colleagues and friends will get their own color-coding, too.)

Camera/Display Picture Integration – Now you’ll be able to snap a picture and display it right away! There are now fewer steps between taking that great picture with your BlackBerry smartphone and making it your BBM Display Picture. Now you can update your BBM avatar right from the BlackBerry smartphone camera app by selecting “Set as BBM Display Picture” from the menu options.

Check out all of these fun new features for the beta version of BBM v6.1 by downloading it from BlackBerry Beta Zone today. Don’t forget to leave us a comment and let us know what you think!

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.

We are pleased to announce the availability of the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) Social Platform SDK v1.0 for BlackBerry® WebWorks™! The SDK is now ready for download and hardened thanks in large part to your beta feedback. So now it’s time to realize the power of social interactions with BBM right within your BlackBerry WebWorks application.

In conjunction with BlackBerry WebWorks SDK v2.2, this documented set of APIs is designed to give developers the ability to accomplish the following with BBM:

• Access and update fields in the user’s profile such as status, avatar and personal message
  create app-specific custom areas within the user’s profile for promoting your app and recent activity
  related to it, e.g. achievements
• Initiate BBM chats with BBM users
• Initiate file transfers
• Share applications for download virally with friends in the contact list
• Initiate application-to-application background communication through BBM for sending and receiving application signaling, data

Furthermore, we’re excited to share a few changes that complement this SDK since the last beta release and here’s what you can expect to see:

• Published sample code and documentation for a BBM version dependency checker
• included all BBM WebWorks APIs into the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK as of version v2.2
• BBM WebWorks API documentation now published with BlackBerry WebWorks API Reference

To get started, download the SDK of the BBM Social Platform for BlackBerry WebWorks from the BlackBerry Developer Zone. For on device testing with the BBM Social Platform SDK, you will need to upgrade to the latest BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 version available on BlackBerry App World™. BBM-Connected Applications are supported on BlackBerry smartphones versions 5.0 and later.

To get started with the BBM Social Platform SDK 1.0 for BlackBerry WebWorks and review all the supported features, be sure to check out BlackBerry® Developer Zone’s BBM Social Platform page, and as always, stay tuned to the BlackBerry Developer Blog for more updates on our platform.

We look forward to hearing about your experiences combining the power of the Web and the BBM Social Platform!

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 »

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

I’m excited to let you know about the BBM Apps Hackathon Contest (“Contest”) that will give developers the opportunity to participate in an exclusive two-day BBM Apps Hackathon Event (“Event”) in New York City where they will receive help to build an app using the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) Social Platform.

The Event – taking place on August 11-12, 2011 – will give direct access to people from Research In Motion® (RIM®), including members of the BBM development and product teams who can help attendees understand how to integrate the BBM social platform into their application. Attendees will be able to learn different techniques to integrate viral/social aspects into their application and the experts will be on hand to answer their questions.

Enter the Contest for your chance to win* a trip to New York City, including flight, hotel accommodations, $500US and exclusive attendance at the Event. What could be better than that?

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »

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 »