BlackBerry Launches Mobile Conferencing App

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a story on making conference calls with a BlackBerry. Well the folks over at Research In Motion (RIM) must have read my article (Boom!) and pushed the BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing App out of Beta and into the BlackBerry App World.

The app is designed to work with your existing conferencing system to make scheduling, joining and rejoining conference calls from your BlackBerry quick and easy from almost anywhere. Instead of trying to remember conference call codes, and multiple button sequences, the app offers up a single ‘Join Now’ button to make joining calls a breeze.

Additional feature include:

One-Click Join – Before a conference call starts, a pop-up reminder displays a “Join Now” button that, with a single click, dials the conference bridge and enters the appropriate codes to connect the user to the conference. If the call gets disconnected or the user needs to drop off, the app will present a “Reconnect” button, which dials the user back into the call with one click.

Easy Conference Scheduling – A user can schedule a conference call complete with conference bridge details directly from the BlackBerry Calendar in an easy two-step process. To enable this capability, the user sets their conference call profile once in the BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing app, including dial-in numbers and access codes, then simply adds the profile as part of the calendar invitation. (The moderator code is kept hidden from participants in the calendar invitation.)

Optimal Conference Call Number Selection – If multiple dial-in numbers are provided to accommodate participants in different regions, the application can automatically choose an optimal number to use (for calls within North America), such as using the local number if the user is within the local calling area rather than a toll-free number; or a toll- free number if the dial-in number would otherwise be long distance. Users can also select or modify a specific dial-in number manually.

The app supports many of the leading audio conferencing systems, so no matter if you are trying to join or schedule a call, the BlackBerry Conferencing app has got you covered. The app is a free download from the BlackBerry App World (OS 5.0 or higher).