App will be free and available for devices running Ice Cream Sandwich and higher
BBM for Android (and iOS) is certainly one of the most popular ideas to come out of Waterloo in a while. There have been tons of rumors and speculation, but BlackBerry has finally set a date — September 21 for Android, September 22 for iOS.
The app, which will be free for folks running ICS (Android 4.x) or higher, has plenty of the same features that have made it a favorite among BlackBerry fans. Here are the highlights, in handy bullet-point form:
- BBM Chat – Enjoy real, immediate conversations with friends on Android, iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones. Not only does BBM let you know that your message has been delivered and read, it also shows you that your friend is responding to the message.
- More than chat – With BBM you can share files on your phone such as photos and voice notes, all in an instant.
- Keep your group in the loop – Multi-person chats are a great way to invite contacts to chat together. BBM Groups lets you invite up to 30 friends to chat together, and go a step further than multi-chat by sharing photos and schedules. And, with Broadcast Message, you can send a message out to all your BBM contacts at once.
- Post Updates and stay in the know – BBM lets you post a personal message, profile picture and your current status, and lets your contacts know instantly in Updates.
- Your unique PIN – Every BBM user has a unique PIN that maintains your privacy, so you don’t have to give out your phone number or email address to a new or casual contact.
In addition, BlackBerry says video and voice calling are planned for the Android version in the future.
The app is insanely popular across the globe. In fact, it's enough to have kept people on the BlackBerry platform while others have migrated away in droves to offerings from Google and Apple. Will the app have the same popularity on platforms where it has some serious competition is the question everyone is asking. We don't have that answer, but you can bet some of us here will be giving it the old college try.
Source: BlackBerry
