We’ve heard a lot about Blackberry Messenger. In fact, earlier this year, Blackberry told us that BBM would be heading to Android and iOS by the end of the summer. Pretty much doing the same thing that Google has done with their products, releasing them on more platforms. Which I think is a good idea for Blackberry, but it might be a case of too little, too late.
It now appears that someone has broken the embargo set by Blackberry for the latest BBM build for Android. As expected, Blackberry is using beta builds and testers before they release the app in the Play Store. It looks like BBOS has a beta build and they are demoing it on a HTC First of all devices. What’s disappointing, at least to me, as it appears that Blackberry basically just ported BBM to Android. The UI looks almost the same as it did on Blackberry 10. It’s also using the menu button at the bottom and there’s no swiping. You’ll see the arrow on the left and the menu on the right which gives you different options.
As we already mentioned, Blackberry had stated they would release BBM for Android and iOS by the end of the summer, which is quickly approaching. In fact, many us feel that today is the last day of summer since the kids go back to school tomorrow. Anyways, it’s nice to see that the latest beta build is very stable. Perhaps we’ll see it appear on Google Play rather soon. But how many of you would actually use it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uSa9xBduKw
I probably won’t use BBM because it’s basically just another messaging app. I already have plenty of those installed on my phone. But it’ll be nice to have BBM on Android, especially for those leaving Blackberry for iOS or Android. It’s a nice stepping stone to keep in touch with your Blackberry friends.