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Blackberry originally promised us that their Android and iOS messaging apps — affectionately known as Blackberry Messenger or BBM — would be coming to us by the end of summer. By our Gregorian calendar, summer ends September 21st, and we’re quickly approaching that date. With that, it’s natural that we start seeing and hearing more and more about the arrival of the premium chat service.
Samsung has oddly been the biggest megaphone for hype, with the company curiously hyping the service up in South Africa as it will eventually launch in their apps store. Now, Blackberry is the one doing a bit of hyping, with the company publishing a sign-up page for the version of their service set to launch on the two leading smartphone operating systems of the world.
We still don’t have a solid date to look forward to, though from what you guys have told us in the past, not many people are exactly “looking forward” to anything. Blackberry Messenger seems a bit unnecessary in this day and age, with folks already comfortable with existent platform-agnostic messaging services, or the default services of their respective operating systems (iMessage for iOS, Hangouts for Android, etc).
That’s not to say Blackberry Messenger won’t have its uses for many people, but it’s just not as big of a deal as it would have been, say, 5 years ago. If you really are hyped for the service, though, be sure to head to the BBM landing site and put your email address into the hat.
This just makes me wish iMessage came to Android. The only thing lacking is Android is quality messaging.
sad but true…we need a unified messaging system similar to iMessage…its a great idea n the only thing im envious from ios…if they add sms/mms to hangouts and totally remove the sms app and they make it not hang like it does for me often thi would be a hugee step in perfecting android…possibly the last step…along with gif support…so silly android doesnt have gif support…like really how simple can that be to code?
Hangouts is supposed to just that eventually. Mixing it with gvoice or something like that.
Native Android texting using Hangouts I think
lol you must of never used BBM.
Nobody uses BBM.
Agreed, iMessage does make you envious of our lack of quality messaging here with Android.
What is the point of this now days? What does this have that regular text/hangouts doesn’t?
what a shame…2 years late to the party…i woulda payed $20 for this when i first got my og droid….now whats the point?
So sad… BlackBerry is like the 45 year old ex-high school quarterback still trying to be cool and hang out with the high school kids….
Useless
I’m open to checking it out, especially if it’ll provide a better service than Hangouts.
Edit: US link – http://us.blackberry.com/bbm.html
hmm shouldn’t hurt to check it out.
Except everyone I know I have already talked into using Talk/Hangouts from their phones and PCs… Now another one? Pfft good luck, plus I do not see mention of a PC app? The think I love about Hangouts is not only is it cross platform for talking but it is cross platform for me! I can seemlessly hold a conversation on my Laptop/Table/Phone….
Noticed how you said everyone you know? So that supposed to be the same way for me and everyone else in the world?
It is likely the same for many long time Android users.
Not judging from some of the recent Hangouts articles.
what table do you have ? and where can I get one?
I want that table…. A table that can seemlessly hold a conversation.. Where can I buy that table??
A what is coming?
Winter.
Weiner
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/im-not-even-going-to-apologize-for-this
I signed up on blackberry India website 20 days ago.
they have came up with sign up page way before
Andddd once again RIM, it’s too little, too late for your beloved Blackberry brand. God, talk about a colossal inability to predict emerging trends. Innovate or die.
RIM is no more. The company name is now just Blackberry.
All twelve people just rushed to sign up.
Isn’t this link and news really old http://s4tips.com/news/bbm-coming-to-android-iphone-very-soon/ ?
“I’m signing up now!” – no one ever
I am signing up now. I have been waiting for this to come out for a long time.
Why sign up? Not like there will be anyone around to finish this little project. “BlackBerry Q10 sales have ‘hit the ground and died’ according to WSJ”
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/29/4671692/blackberry-q10-sales-just-up-and-died-report
This sign up page has been up for months, so I don’t see why you are only just reporting on it now?!?!
this is useful for those countries where people predominantly use cheap blackberry messaging plans. This would let those that can afford a regular smartphone data plan to communicate with the majority of the country
All my girlfriends can not wait to get BBM. I was once a Blackberry user and there is NO OTHER messaging app that can compete with BBM. Not sure why some here are hating on BBM but I guess they are loner losers with no friends. I’ve had an iphone and imessage sucked (yes apple sucks) and now I rock a wicked cool SG4. SG4 with BBM =untouchable .
Loner losers with no friends? Maybe just maybe our friends are already using Whatsapp or any other of the already established 3rd party messaging apps, so there’s no need for BBM – hence the “too late” comments.
Or maybe because you don’t hang out with all those old corporate execs who need their secretaries to tell them how to email something.
Alright. if it is a good app for Android, I don’t care about anything else they do.
Stargate makes a cellphone? that thing must be TITS! ohhhh or did you mean GS4 or SGS4. :-)
BBM is a litle late now for “big” countries like the US and Europe, but i think it will be a killer for smaller, developing third world countries, where Blackberry still has a big share of the mobile market due to the lower costs of the data plans they’re able to offer, I, myself live in the Dominican Republic, BB has more than 1.5 million users here (that’s a lot, considering the whole population is about just 10 million people, not mobile users, ALL OF THE POPULATION), i’ve had Android for a couple of years now, but i can’t comunicate easily with the BB users as most of them have the so calles social plans wich don’t include open data acces, meaning those users can only acces Whatsapp and other messaging services via wifi.
Tha’s why i think BBM will be great in some areas of South America, Asia and Africa, and those countries still have a fare share of the market. Besides, i looooove android and despise BB, but i have to admit that BBM is the best of the best in messaging aps, period.
I can’t wait for bbm most of my friends live in Dominican Republic and all have blackberrys
Does anyone still care about BBM? This might have mattered 5 years ago, but now it’s too late. I’m a corporate network administrator and we just told our last BB user to get a new phone and decommissioned the Blackberry Enterprise Server. They’re history…
Google Hangouts Messenger for the win!
Well that worked well….not
lol
Worked as well as all of Blackberry does
Four years too late to matter.
Who knows? Maybe we’ll get Wordperfect 5.1 for Android!
you are simply superb ! this page has been online for months ,did you ever opened bbm website before writing this article
All things BB need to die already.
For anyone that doesn’t want the government spying on their messages then they will get BBM
Wasn’t there a big deal years ago about Canada, India, and some other countries having access to BlackBerry’s data?
The thing I don’t understand is, well, why is this even a thing? Choice is always great, and having extra options for which messaging app you’re using is good, bit what makes BBM so special that websites are reporting on it like its the mysterious second coming? I never used it on a blackberry, but from what I’ve read, it seems like an extremely simple text messaging app with some mediocre features that aren’t too different from iMessage.
If BBM is in fact so great, I’m also wondering, why would Blackberry go and give it away to one of their biggest competitors? Unless they’re going to be charging for the app, which seems unlikely, they’re giving away what apparently is their best feature for free.
Again, I haven’t actually used it myself, but it is a bit strange.
BB are struggling as a company. Its not so much about giving it to the competitors, BB have made some bad moves and errors that have cost the company, nobody is interested in the product, however the service still has a grand amount of followers. There is even word that BBM would become a separate company. Offering the service to the two biggest mobile platform is more an advantage than a disadvantage, especially if the company is to focus on software rather than hardware.
That’s interesting, I hadn’t known that they might become a seperate company. If that’s the case, more power to them. If they make a good service in BBM for android I’ll probably use and support it. Would that mean the app would be paid, subscription based, or have ads though? They have to make money somehow. Tbh I hope they pull it off, I’ve yet to use a messaging app that’s really hit the spot for me.
How they will deal with the app, i’m not to sure. I have a feeling some sort of subscription service will be implicated, since the BBM service isn’t free. I used to own a Blackberry, and BBM was a really popular service and i’d prefer it to the already available messaging services
nice
BBM IS THE BEST CHAT APPLICATION HANDSDOWN PEOPLE WHO COMPLAINING ARE PROBABLY CAMPAIGNERS FOR THE OTHER APPLICATIONS … GET A LIFE ONCE BBM DO COME OUT FOR ANDROID AND IOS ITS ALL OVER FOR WHATS APP AND EVERYTHING ELSE
Can’t wait…. Still have plenty relatives using BBM. But dumped my BB few days ago.
That might be the case in other countries, but in South Africa where CellPhone contracts are ridiculously expensive.. BBM made communication really easy and cheap. So in the end everyone remains with BlackBerry’s but those who seek a better phone are excited to be able to talk to those who have tunnel vision and only use BBM :P