It’s been just over a year since the BlackBerry 10 operating system was released, and the company has now announced that a third major update is in the works.
BlackBerry 10.3 will continue to polish an operating which, whilst none-too-shabby for a first attempt at a touch-only interface, could still do with a fair bit of buffing to keep up with the competition. The update will offer a wealth of UI changes, such as the action bar at the bottom of the screen, which has been updated for a “simpler, cleaner experience”.
“The most commonly used action is in the center of the bar and highlighted with blue color to give it focus,” says the official BlackBerry blog post, “The secondary actions flank the primary or ‘signature action’ for functionality. The main action is static for each app/screen.”
App icons will also be receiving a ‘fresh new treatment‘ (emphasis BlackBerry’s, for some reason), with the boxes around them being removed to give them a cleaner look. Folders have been tweated too, with each one now being able to hold an unlimited number of apps. The running apps grid page of the homescreen is now permanent, even if no apps are running. There’s also set to be more apps on screen, with an extra row added for all-touchscreen users and an extra column for QWERTY devices.
Numerous other apps have been updated, like the camera, calendar and BlackBerry Hub, so if you’re interested in learning more about what’s set to come then check out the full blog post here.
Unfortunately these changes are only viewable for developers for the time being, as a release date for general download hasn’t been set yet.
