Blackberry has announced through a blog post that they will be closing their BBM consumer service on the 31st of May 2019. The IM service, launched in August 2005, has said they are shutting down because its consumers have moved on and it is now difficult to sign on new users. The company said it was sad to say goodbye and subsequently, refunds for stickers will be issued, BBMoji will disappear, the app will stop working and BBM will die.
The company however said BBM Enterprise (BBMe) will be available for a fee. The BBM Enterprise app is available for download in the iOS and Google Play stores. It will be free to new users for the first year, and after that, it will cost $2.50 for a six-month subscription. BBMe offers features like; consumer version of the chat application, voice and video calls, group chat, ability to edit or retract messages. It is also available on Windows and Mac computers.
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BBM used to be available for just BlackBerry device owners. Making it the chief reason to own a BlackBerry device. However, as other messaging platform grew in popularity around 2009 with the iPhone and android smartphones, BBM though reluctant, saw a need to go to go cross-platform. When they finally debuted on iPhone and Android devices in 2013, it was already late as other chatting platforms has gained grounds.
Particularly, BBM was the pace-setter for IM globally as it disrupted SMS services. But its unavailability on other platforms paved way for competitors like; Whatsapp, 2go, Telegram and Facebook Messenger. Whilst BBM stalled feature-wise, other platforms launched new features almost each month.
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