Use Fancy Characters to insert symbols on your BlackBerry

Earlier this month we posted a quick tip on how to insert a symbol into your BlackBerry Messenger name, or anywhere else on your BlackBerry. The process can be a bit of a pain. You have to get a text file onto your BlackBerry and then copy and paste the symbol. Some of the characters don’t render properly, and it’s no certainty that you’ll get the character you seek. I was browsing our store today and I came across an application that can take care of your symbol insertion needs. Check out Fancy Characters. It costs money, but it probably does what you want to do better than the text file method. The process is pretty simple. When you want to insert a character, click the Menu button and you’ll see an item that allows you to insert a Fancy Character. Select that and you’ll be able to browse through the Fancy Character library, which contains symbols of all types. There are a few limitations. If you’re a CDMA user you won’t be able to insert a symbol into your SMS. For everything else — email, BBM, status messages — you’re fine. But apparently CDMA SMS is limited. I did not know this, but this is what the developer, Sergey Demyanov, says. You also might not see all the symbols you like. You can get more by installing East Asian Language and Input Support, which you can find in Desktop Manager. Finally, you’ll need BBM 5.0.0.57 or better in order to see colored smileys. For some of you, I’m sure the free copy and paste method works just fine. If you want this selection of easy to use symbols, though, you can get Fancy Characters for $1.49.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.