Using contextual menu options in BlackBerry 6

by on March 3, 2011

One thing I love about BlackBerry OS 6 is that it makes navigating the device so much easier. I brought this up yesterday when discussing the need for themes in BlackBerry 6, but it goes beyond that. Whether you have the default theme, or a custom one, you can take advantage of one of my favorite navigation techniques: contextual menus. For touchscreen users, this involves pressing and holding an icon. For non-touch users it means pressing and holding the trackpad. When you do that you’ll see various options for the application you’re currently running. It’s the easiest way to get around your BlackBerry. As you can see in the screenshot, this comes in quite handy when you’re flipping through email. Instead of going to the full menu, you can just click and hold the trackpad (or the screen) and you’ll see these options appear. That makes it quite easy to reply, forward, flat for follow-up, and more. The only downside, at least in this case, is that third party menu additions won’t show up. I’m hoping this will be a feature in OS 6.1 when it is released this summer. I’d love to have Forward, Reply and Edit on that contextual menu. This works with almost every native function on your BlackBerry. If you click the contextual menu on a contact, for instance, you’ll get the options to call, text, email, edit, or view. If you do it over a BBM contact you can send a picture, send a voice note, send a file, end the chat, or open the chat. Picture? You can assign to a contact, set as wallpaper, delete, send as, open, copy, and more. Basically, anything that comes on your BlackBerry can be navigated with these contextual menus. Give it a shot. I really hope we get some deeper integration in this regard with the next OS iteration. It is definitely one of my favorite BlackBerry 6 features.

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.

1 comment… read it below or add one

jvmec March 3, 2011 at 1:05 pm

Awesome tip! I wasn’t aware of this. Thanks.

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