BlackBerry Messenger officially shuts down today

Emtek tried to revive BlackBerry Messenger, but the once-popular messaging service has reached its end. The consumer version of the app officially shuts down today, May 31st. After trying to bring it back to life three years ago, the company has succumbed to its competition. In a blog post announcing the shut down of the app, they said, “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.” For those who still don’t want to fully let go of BBM, there is an enterprise-grade encrypted version of the app.

PING !!!

Today is the last day to use BBM 😢🙏

Thank you for all the support and memories that you have spent together with BBM 😊

As an alternative, you can use BBM Enterprise. Check the following link for more details https://t.co/uKmBGP3CQI pic.twitter.com/BnwaoGYehc

— BBM (@BBM) May 31, 2019

BlackBerry Messenger for consumers will be shutting down in May

Are you still a loyal BlackBerry Messenger user? Well, we’ve got bad news for you. The consumer version of the app is shutting down for good on May 31^st. Indonesia-based media conglomerate took over its development in 2016. They redesigned the app to get modern features in hopes of competing against the more popular chat apps these days. However, efforts didn’t seem to be enough and now the app is shutting down for good. Emtek’s statement about this announcement says, “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.”

The enterprise version is going to be made available for personal use, though. It’s now available for Android devices and it’ll be coming to Apple’s App Store “soon.” The app is free for the first year of use and will cost US$2.49 for a six-month subscription afterwards. But in the age where there are tons of free messaging apps, will BBM be able to attract its users back?

Source: Engadget

BlackBerry launches $1 privacy chat add-on for BBM

Don’t want to fall prey to people snooping through your phones to see what sort of “juicy” conversations you’re having? BlackBerry’s introducing a new privacy subscription option for its BlackBerry Messenger users on BlackBerry platform, iOS, and Android. The $0.99 per month subscription lets you have private chats that don’t show the name and icon of the people conversing and the messages disappear after you’ve been inactive for a while. It also gives you the ability to edit messages and it has the old times and retracted messaging features.

Source: BlackBerry | Via: Engadget

Report claims BlackBerry Messenger on Android has second highest user retention

Loyalty seems to be at the core of BlackBerry fans. According to data published by Silicon Valley mobile analytics provider Quettra, user retention of BBM on Android is second highest among 22 Android social and messaging apps (including Facebook Messenger WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, etc.).  Facebook Messenger ranks highest while BBM is able to hold onto over 93% of its users after 30 days. This is said to be over 43% more than the average user retention after 30 days. Sixty days later user retention is at 89% and then at 82% after 80 days.

BlackBerry said the report doesn’t come as a surprise. They have passed 100 million Android installations on Google Play after the past 18 months of availability. And they maintain an average of 4.3 rating from its 4.4 million user reviews.

Source: BlackBerry + The Information | Download: Google Play Store (Free)