BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) is finally shutting down today
On April 18th 2019, BlackBerry Messenger, also known as BBM, is shutting down its service today.
The application will stop working on iOS, Android and Windows Phone at midnight tonight. BlackBerry Messenger used to only be available on BlackBerry only devices and was pre-installed on its phones. BBM was then released on iOS and Android smartphones in the summer of 2013.
BBM, was and currently still is, an encrypted messaging service where you're able to chat 1-2-1 and you could start group messages with your friends and family too. Think of it a little like WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook.
A third party company called Emtek, have been in charge of and have been running the BlackBerry Messenger app since 2016 and have announced it is ending support for the consumer version of the app.
In April, a statement was posted on BBM's Twitter account and on their website's blog, which read:
"Today we’re announcing that we will be closing BBM consumer service on 31 May 2019. Thank you for being part of the BBM consumer service experience!"
Don't panic, though. If you still live and breath BBM, there is an enterprise version that will still be available and supported, named 'BBMe' (BlackBerry Messenger Enterprise).
Although the enterprise version of the application is free to download on iOS and Android, there is a fee of $2.50 for every six months you continue to use the platform. It's secure too. Just like rival service, WhatsApp, BBMe offers end-to-end encryption. The original version of BBM did not support this feature.
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