NOTE: PLEASE backup your phone using Desktop Manager before you upgrade! We have been hearing a few reports about people’s devices not upgrading correctly and would hate for you to lose your information.

bbm5_release Enhanced Group and group chat

  • I am not sure if this is a replacement for the BlackBerry Groups app that has yet to be replaced but it is awesome! Groups is really a collaborative chat room for you and your BlackBerry buddies. You can view group members, share pictures with included voice notes, share task lists, and even have a group calendar. It works quite well but I have been hearing some reports that it might be a battery drain… Let us know!

bbm5_release2_thumbEnhanced threaded SMS

  • This cool new feature requires OS 5.0 but lets you have threaded chat like SMS conversations. There are quite a few restrictions on this that I am not too happy about but it is still really cool. As RIM details in this article: “SMS messages will only appear in BlackBerry Messenger if the user added to BlackBerry Messenger and the SMS conversation is started in BlackBerry Messenger”