BlackBerry announces BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is closing down at the end of May
BlackBerry has announced it will be closing down its once popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service on May 31, 2019, killing the messaging platform which at its peak was used by almost all BlackBerry owners to send free messages between BlackBerry phones.
Shared within an announcement published on Thursday, BlackBerry said it has “poured [their] hearts into making [BBM] a reality”, but that they are struggling to attract new users to the platform with former users moving to other services.
In an effort to breathe life into the BlackBerry platform amid growing iOS adoption from former BlackBerry owners, the company branched out its BBM service to iOS and Android in 2013, however the service never really took off, especially because iMessage had then been launched and no real need for yet another cross platform messaging service, especially with the likes of WhatsApp capturing the attention of users.
We poured our hearts into making this a reality, and we are proud of what we have built to date. The technology industry however, is very fluid, and in spite of our substantial efforts, users have moved on to other platforms, while new users proved difficult to sign on. Though we are sad to say goodbye, the time has come to sunset the BBM consumer service, and for us to move on.
BlackBerry will continue to offer the enterprise version on Android and iOS for free, but there is a $2.50 subscription fee for every six months.
The paid service offers end-to-end encryption and message editing/unsending where the consumer version didn’t. Until the closure, BBM remains available to download for free on the App Store.