Five Tip Friday – BBM for Android and iPhone

It’s almost the weekend, which means it’s time for another Five Tip Friday!

Today’s topic is five BBM tips for Android and iPhone that you’ll want to know about.

Add a custom status message

About to start a gaming session? Maybe you’re going on vacation? Let your BBM contacts know by creating a custom status message.

1. Open BBM and tap your profile picture in the top-left corner
2. Tap Status, followed by Add Status Message
3. Enter a status message, followed by tapping Save

To delete a custom status message, use the Edit option in the top-right corner.

Grid or list? You decide

BBM contacts will appear in a grid layout by default, but you can optionally use a list layout. Here’s how:

1. Open BBM
2. Tap  followed by Settings
3. Tap Contacts Layout and select Grid or List

I’m a fan of the list layout; how about you?

Hide the keyboard action bar

The area of your screen used to display BBM chats might be small depending on your device and keyboard. If this is the case, you can optionally turn off the action bar that appears on top of the keyboard to have more space. Follow these steps:

1. Open BBM
2. Tap  followed by Settings
3. Set the Show Action Bar With Keyboard switch to Off

To access the options contained on the action bar when it is hidden, tap anywhere within an active chat and the action bar options will appear along the bottom of your screen.

Join or create a BBM group

Plan events, track to-do lists, share pictures, and chat with up to 30 people in one group at the same time. For example, you can make decisions and confirm your plans in the group chat and then create an appointment that everyone in the group can see.

1. Open BBM and tap Groups
2. Tap  and select Create New Group
3. Set a group image, name and description
4. Optionally set the Allow Members to Invite Others switch to Yes
5. Tap Save

After creating a BBM group, make sure you review the Group Settings to optionally select another administrator and control the ability for group members to invite others.

To learn more about BBM groups, check out the Help documentation by tapping  followed by Help.

Hide particular updates

For those that frequent the Updates screen, you can choose to hide updates from specific contacts so they no longer appear. To do this, switch to the Updates screen by tapping  in the bottom-left corner, followed by tapping  Updates. Within this screen, touch and hold a name and select  Hide Updates from the menu on the right.

To see updates from this contact again, tap  followed by Settings and select Edit Blocked Contacts. Within this screen, tap Updates, touch and hold a contact, and select  Remove.

Bonus – Turn off the BBM for Android Connected Icon

Using BBM on an Android device? You can turn off the BBM connected icon so it no longer appears on your home screen status bar.

1. Open BBM
2. Tap  followed by Settings
3. Set the BBM Connected Icon switch to Off

Got a question, comment or want to share a great BBM story? Post a comment and let us know!