During its recent event in Orlando, Florida, BlackBerry announced that its popular application BlackBerry Messenger may be going cross-platform. In summer BBM will finally come the numerous users of iOS and Android OS. Notably, the app will be available for free.
For Android – BlackBerry Messenger will run onAndroid 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and above, while iOS devices will have to run iOS 6. BlackBerry Messenger will be primarily offering messaging only and there will be the support for the group chat. Later, according to an announcement by BlackBerry, the Messenger will obtain some new features like screen-sharing, BBM Video, and BBM Voice alongside with a new service -BBM Channels, announced by the company on May 14.
The new features will definitely be loved by the users, and will hopefully get some substantial boost to BlackBerry user base. The company is seeing some tough times, but recent releases are keeping it afloat quite well. The new Z10 smartphone and BlackBerry OS 10 are the key to future success, BlackBerry hopes. The new cross-platform services and apps may help the Canadian once-powerhouse steal some users from other popular services like WhatsApp and Viber.
BlackBerry Messenger also steps into a market where its powerful rival iMessage from Apple is traditionally showing extremely high performance. Even the first-party services like it may feel a bit uncomfortable when a new player like BlackBerry Messenger comes around. Android and iOS users – most importantly – will be able to reconnect with their BBM contacts. Is BBM coming to android is not a question any more – the release is coming shortly.