The very popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service will be made available to all major platforms which includes Android and iOS. The mobile giant announced that they appointed a special committee to explore “strategic alternatives” for the additional platforms to receive the new offering.

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Blackberry CEO, Thorsten Heins, announced at the at the BlackBerry Live conference in May, that one of their flagship products was to become a multi-platform application. Heins added that only messaging and group features will be available, however he also said that the rest of BBM will eventually make its way to the Android and iOS versions including screen sharing, BBM voice, and the newer BBM channels.

It is difficult to dismiss the fact that it is still be a very difficult market to channel a comeback, considering the the large amount of existing messaging apps that has stormed the market in last few years. Whatsapp, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts and many others are strong contenders with faithful followers of their service offerings. We will have to see what BBM will offer and more importantly at what cost. BBM gained popularity due to the instant-message with other BlackBerry users without paying text-messaging fees.

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Regarding the release dates a BlackBerry representative told the International Business Times:

“We have not officially announced the date of launch for BBM on Android and iPhone,”

Those of you interested in the application can sign up at the company’s official site. Android users should be wary of the numerous apps describing themselves as BBM for Android in the Google Play store, as numerous fake versions have appeared that install malware on users’ devices.

 

Check out the announcement