Much-awaited free voice call on BBM arrives

Looks like the ban on one of BlackBerry Messenger’s most sought after feature - BBM Voice - has been lifted.

A new update rolled out by BlackBerry in the UAE since Thursday has silently pushed the voice call feature.

All those who have installed the new update, be it on a BlackBerry device, an iPhone or any other Android device can find a green box with a call button displayed prominently on the top right hand corner of the screen.

The feature allows users to make calls to anyone using the BBM messenger on any compatible device either over Wi-Fi or data connection.

Mobile users in UAE have had a history of technical issues with VoIP services.

BBM Voice was disenabled for users here since BlackBerry introduced the feature on BlackBerry 10 devices (in 2013) and later (in February 2014) rolled it out to BBM users on other platforms.

BBM alert for iPhone and Android users in UAE

The block on Skype, which was officially unavailable since the service existed, was removed in April 2013. Users were able to access the skype.com domain and even recharge their talk time. However, most users continue to experience scrambled voice when calling over data connection.

Will UAE telecom providers give BlackBerry its voice back?

In fact, even Apple devices that are officially sold and distributed in the UAE comes with Face-time disenabled. Both Telecom Regulatory Authority and telecom operators in the UAE have, however, said they have not requested Apple to remove Face-time from devise sold here. Yet, there has been no official explanation from anyone including Apple as to why the feature remains unavailable.

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