Today at the BlackBerry Live conference in Orlando, BlackBerry announced their plans on bringing their mobile social network, BlackBerry Messenger or BBM to the iOS and Android platform. With the widespread popularity of multi-platform mobile messaging apps such as Viber, Whatsapp, Line, etc., BlackBerry will soon be opening the doors of their exclusive BBM community to iOS and Android users.
Upon release, iOS and Android users would be able to experience the immediacy of BBM chats, including multi-person chats, as well as the ability to share photos and voice notes,and engage in BBM Groups, which allows BBM customers to create groups of up to 30 people.
According to Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President, Software Product Management and Ecosystem, at BlackBerry, the time is right for BBM to become a multi-platform mobile service. “œBBM has always been one of the most engaging services for BlackBerry customers,enabling them to easily connect while maintaining a valued level of personal privacy,” he further added.
BBM claims to have more than 60 million monthly active customers, with more than 51 million people using BBM an average of 90 minutes per day. BBM customers collectively send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, nearly twice as many messages per user per day as compared to other mobile messaging apps.
BlackBerry also announced BBM Channels, a new social engagement platform within BBM targeting businesses, brands, celebrities, and groups to easily connect to their followers. This new BBM feature will initially be made available to BlackBerry users only.
BlackBerry’s BBM will be available in the coming months pending approval from the Apple App Store and Google Play.