Best Ever Free BlackBerry Apps

If you’re looking to make the most of your BlackBerry smartphone without spending any money then you’ll be on the lookout for the best free BlackBerry apps around. Luckily, we’ve tracked down the very best free apps out there and brought them together in one handy place. So, whether it’s a BlackBerry Storm or BlackBerry Curve 8900 you own, prepare to make it even better…

Your BlackBerry is only as good as the apps that are on it and while BlackBerry App World offers a whole host of software, most of it you’ll have to pay for. However, we’ve checked out the best free tools on the site, as well as a couple that aren’t.

Some of the apps we’ve chosen have different requirements – some need 3G, for instance – but on the whole they’ll work with any BlackBerry, especially the BlackBerry Curve 8900, and most with the touchscreen power of the BlackBerry Storm.

1. Facebook for BlackBerry 1.5
£free
Facebook on your BlackBerry is nothing new but Facebook for BlackBerry 1.5 the app no longer simply acts as a front to the mobile version of the site. Instead, it’s a fully integrated app that will sync with your Facebook profile with images of your Contacts from your Address Book. What’s more, as long as you leave it running in the background, it’ll drop all the ongoing conversations into your inbox, so you’ll never be alone again!

2. iTookThisOnMyPhone
£free
Looking for the best photo uploader ever developed? Well, you can have it on your BlackBerry and for free! This app automatically uploads your snaps to multiple image sites (Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, Facebook and more), as well as its own free image service. All you have to do is provide your login details and that’s it, you never have to open it again. The only downside of this current version is that it’ll only Twitter the filename of TwitPics and not the actual file, but otherwise this is a must have.

3. BuzzMe
£free
One of the curiosities of the BlackBerry OS is that incoming calls only support ringtones and not simultaneous vibrating, which makes hearing your phone in crowded areas something of a problem. No longer, as BuzzMe is a simple app you can download and install that adds vibration features to your favourite BlackBerry. Once installed you can simply forget about it and be thankful every time your phone rings and vibrates that you did so.

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4. Windows Live Messenger
£free
Your choice of Instant Messenger (IM) often come down to the one most commonly used by your friends, which is more often than not Windows Live Messenger. This also happens to be our favourite BlackBerry app IM client, largely because you can chat to more than one person in a chatline, unlike Google Talk. If that’s not a problem though, Google Talk is near identical, and you can always have both running in the background.

5: Viigo
£free
Getting your daily fix of news is essential, so having a cracking RSS makes logical sense. Thankful, Viigo is free and also the best RSS reader for the BlackBerry, so what more excuse do you need to download it? Viigo offers a host of recommended feeds to keep your brain fed, but it’s the ability to add your own feeds or even import a Google Reader library onto your BlackBerry that makes this a must have. Once running, the app downloads updates onto your BlackBerry in the background.

6. Qik
£free
Qik is one of the most powerful and versatile video streaming apps out there, so we were surprised to find that it’s still free to download. The idea is simple, start running the app and then start recording video on your BlackBerry and it will instantly be uploaded online for people to watch it being streamed in real-time online. Naturally, this only really works with a 3G BlackBerry but if you’re on Wi-Fi or 3G, the entire video is ready to playback from the beginning online within seconds once you’re done, it’s that fast.

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7: Opera Mini browser
£free
OK, so this app isn’t on BlackBerry App World but it’s still free as a download from the Opera site. Opera Mini is a fast and easy browser to use as it only downloads the essentials of a page and does a great job of showing multiple websites on your BlackBerry device. It’s fast, has its own RSS feed support and is generally an amazing all-round browser that you can’t really afford to be without, especially as it’s free to use.

8. TwitterBerry
£free
Another app that isn’t avaialable to download from BlackBerry App Store but essential for staying in touch is TwitterBerry. This app is great if you love to have profile pics attached to your Tweets, so you know exactly who you’re twittering with. One click of the trackball brings up the update window so you can tap out your 140 characters with ease, while another tap shows you the comments your followers have made. The only downside is there are no option for realtime @reply alerts.

9. Google Maps
£free
You may be thinking, ‘wait a minute, this is already on my BlackBerry!’ and depending on the network you’re on, you’d be right but not everyone gets this as standard on their device. If that applies to you, it’s a great addition to BlackBerry Maps, as pulling up your location can be much quicker when in poor reception areas. The search database is far more detailed than those on BlackBerry Maps and what’s more, if you’re truly lost then you can pull up Street View

10. Google Sync
£free
While we’re in the thrall of Google, then we may as well discuss Google Sync, which is another app you won’t find on BlackBerry App World but is free and essential none the less. Google Sync is another cracking BlackBerry app you need only set up once, as it sets up your Gmail contacts and Google Calendar to your BlackBerry with ease. After that, it runs in the. If you use a desktop calendar like Outlook on Windows or iCal on Mac, just a little tinkering will have events you put in on your computer zapping over to your BlackBerry.