BlackBerry Messenger Finally Coming To iOS And Android This Summer
May 14, 2013
Around this time a couple of years ago, rumors claiming that BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) would be launched on iOS were spread … and subsequently debunked. But now, BlackBerry itself has announced that its popular messaging service will indeed be coming soon not only to iOS but also to Android. As soon as this summer, in fact.
The latest post on the official BlackBerry blog has the following announcement:
BlackBerry plans to make BBM, our wildly popular mobile messaging service, available for the first time to iOS and Android users this summer, (subject to approval by Google Play and the Apple App Store, as applicable). This means that, once available, you can welcome your friends and family using these other mobile platforms to connect over BBM and share in the Team BlackBerry love.The upcoming multi-platform BBM app is expected to feature one-on-one and multi-person chats, voice note sharing, and group file sharing, among other features. If approved by Apple and Google, the BBM app will be available for free in the App Store and the Google Play store. The Verge notes that it will be compatible with iDevices running iOS 6 and later and with Android devices running software version 4.0 and above. The BBM app will certainly face competition from the plethora of popular messaging apps that are already on iOS and Android, including WhatsApp, Line, Viber, and KakaoTalk. But the fact that the BBM service already has more than 51 million daily active users on the BlackBerry platform alone should give it a considerable ascendancy over rival multi-platform messaging apps.