BBM for Android has been spotted running on a Techno F7 aka (Phantom A1) ahead of the IM client’s scheduled ‘summer’ rollout. BGR secured the image, giving us our first look at what BBM will look running on a non-BlackBerry device.
BlackBerry announced its plans to make BBM crossplatform at BlackBerry World Live 2013. It was a big announcement and something that took a lot of people of guard.
We’re now well into the ‘summer’ and BlackBerry has still not confirmed an exact release date for the IM service. Is it coming soon? Perhaps. Will it be here by the end of September? Definitely – at least, that’s what several sources have told us.
Android users will be required to sign-in with a BlackBerry account to use the service. Don't have an existing BlackBerry account? Then you'll presumably have to register for one.
Not all BBM features will be coming across to iOS and Android – BlackBerry is keeping some exclusive to its own handsets. But Android will be a more feature-rich service, according to BlackBerry, on account of the platform's more open nature.
Sunil Lalvani, managing director for BlackBerry India, has reportedly spilled the beans on when we can expect to see BBM released for Android.
Speaking to IBN Live, Lalvani stated that BlackBerry would launch BBM for Android inside the next two months. BlackBerry had previously said it wanted to roll the service out during the summer and now it seems that a late-September release is on the cards.
‘The service is coming to Android this summer. But summer as per North America, where it remains till September,’ said Lalvani.
The exec did not mention whether this date also applied to the iOS version of BBM. BlackBerry confirmed the launch of BBM for Android and iOS at BlackBerry World Live 2013, but it did add that the Android version, owing to the more open nature of Google’s OS, would likely be a more feature-rich version than its iOS counterpart.
BBM – in case, somehow, you don’t know what it is – is an IM client that allows users to send messages using their handsets web-connection. Think WhatsApp and iMessage, just bigger, better, and older. BBM is the IM app that started it all.
The rise of cross-platform services like WhatsApp as well as BlackBerry’s own diminishing presence in the mobile space during the past couple of years has forced the company into making one of its only remaining USPs available on competitor platforms.
Whether it’s a branding exercise or merely a money-spinner remains to be seen. BlackBerry’s official line on the matter is that BBM is the best IM client in the world and everybody – iOS and Android people included – deserve access to it.
BlackBerry has high hopes for the rollout of its BBM service on Android and iOS, so much so that we might even see it pre-installed by some manufacturers.
BlackBerry fielded questions about BBM for Android and iOS at the London launch of the Q5 earlier today. Unfortunately the BlackBerry execs weren't able to tell us anymore about concrete release dates for the service – 'BBM for iOS and Android is coming this summer'.
BBM, one of BlackBerry’s most unerring USPs over the years, is coming to iOS and Android this summer. BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins broke the news at the company’s BB Live 2013 expo in Florida last month.
Android and iOS will both support the application and the messaging service is expected to go live at some point this summer. BlackBerry hasn’t been particularly forthcoming about a specific release date although summer is now very much underway, so the service could appear inside Google Play and Apple's App Store very soon.
Alluding to BBM’s pre-installation on some Android devices, BlackBerry’s COO Kristian Tear told CNET: ‘There is interest from other handset makers.’ And rightly so, too. BBM is used by 51 million users a month for an average of 90 minutes a day, according to reports.
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