After Botched Rollout, BBM For iOS And Android Not Likely To Launch This Week

Don't expect to witness the advent of "BBM for all" anytime soon. According to BlackBerry, its Messenger or BBM service is not likely to launch this week on iOS and Android. Officially announced last May and scheduled to be released by the end of the summer, BBM for iOS and Android was confirmed to launch last weekend. The app's global rollout had been initiated, but it was later halted as a result of a leaked older version of the BBM for Android app, which apparently caused some serious issues in BBM's system. In a new blog post on the official BlackBerry blog, BBM head Andrew Bocking gives an explanation for the botched rollout:

We attempted to address the problems caused by the unreleased version throughout the day on Saturday, but as active users of the unreleased app neared a million – and accelerated – it became clear that the only way to address the issue was to pause the rollout for both Android and iPhone.

Bocking also provides an update on the resumption of the rollout of BBM for iOS and Android.

The team is now focused on adjusting the system to completely block this unreleased version of the Android app when we go live with the official BBM for Android app. We are also making sure that the system is reinforced to handle this kind of scenario in the future. While this may sound like a simple task – it’s not. This will take some time and I do not anticipate launching this week.

So, if you've been looking forward to using BBM on iOS, rest assured that that the app is going to be launched, even as BlackBerry has agreed to be sold to Fairfax Financial for $4.7 billion.

Related articles