BBM Channels is here!

After months of beta testing, BlackBerry is finally taking the beta tag away from Channels, its broadcast-slash-forum-slash-engagement feature aimed at businesses, brands and, of course, celebrities. Within the BBM universe, Channels exists as a way for individuals to follow and engage with companies and products in a safe, forum-like community, and for those companies to track the myriad data points and metrics to use in their own analytics.

While the launch is currently limited to BB10 and legacy BlackBerry devices, the Waterloo-based company says that this is just the beginning for Channels, and promises to roll the feature out to Android and iOS users in the coming months. And though there is no monetization strategy yet, BlackBerry is looking to aggressively sell BBM Channels to brands and companies, and may eventually charge for premium features or sponsored content; they are already charging companies to use a version of the desktop-based Channels manager, and many are already on board, from Coca-Cola to UPS.

Less corporate, and perhaps more along the lines of how most people will use BBM Channels, is the potential for education-based broadcasts and discussion. Picture a university study group or tutorial using it, where the professor posts an assignment and students discuss it among themselves, in-line within the feed, or privately in a separate BBM chat. Channel owners can set public 'discussion' or chat times, where participants can publicly ask questions - kind of like office hours at a university.

Though this is just the beginning, BBM Channels does seem to have a lot of potential. It will definitely be interesting to see how BlackBerry works it into their Android and iOS apps, especially as user traction continues to rise.

Note: BBM Channels will begin rolling out to BlackBerry users at 3PM ET today.

via Odienk News copy copy http://#