Well we’ve heard this story before. However, Blackberry is stating that BBM will be rolling out today for both Android and iOS. Blackberry Messenger was supposed to be released last month, but they ran into all kinds of problems, which really wasn’t a huge surprise given their past. The issue was supposedly due to a bug in the leaked Android version of the app.
It’s not entirely clear how it’ll be rolling out. We’re assuming that the Google Play Store and iTunes App Store will have the app soon. But Blackberry is stating that the easiest way to install the app is to go to BBM.com which you can then sign up and wait in line for BBM to be available. It seems pretty strange, but I’m assuming they are doing this to ease the load on their server. The app is also going to be available from “select Samsung App Stores” and is also free for all users.
We should expect the rollout from Blackberry within the next few hours and the demand is already “amazing”. We’ll have to wait and see how many people actually use the service after it’s been available for a few days. What will also be interesting is to see how it can compete with other messaging services like Whatsapp, Hangouts, Line and many others out there.
When BBM was supposed to launch last month, I actually did download it and try to use it, but there were quite a few things I didn’t like about it. The number one thing was the persistent notification. Hopefully that’s gone now. It’s also not holo, it looks like you’ve got Blackberry 10 on your Android phone. Pretty cool right? No.
So BBM is going to roll out later today, we’ll see if it actually does roll out. How many of you are going to download BBM today?
Update: BBM is now available on the Play Store. Although it looks like some people still have to wait in the virtual line to get into the app, like myself. But it’s finally here. Play Store link is below.