BlackBerry has finally rolled out a new Windows Phone version of its popular instant messaging mobile app, BBM, to give its service a boost with the new platform.
BlackBerry, the Canadian tech firm announced Thursday that its popular instant messaging system, BBM or BlackBerry Messenger, is now available on the third largest mobile computing platform Windows Phone. The move was expected as the company originally confirmed the arrival of BBM on Windows Phone in February and later again in June.
BlackBerry said in June that the BBM for Windows Phone will arrive in July and it has stood by its word. In terms of features, users who have already used the app on other platforms will witness vast similarities. New features such as secure messaging, BBM Groups, BBM Voice, BBM Channels, Find Friends and BBM Feeds are available in the new WP version of the messaging app.
BlackBerry started its Windows Phone adventure for BBM earlier in July when it launched a private beta for the app. Now the app is ready for all Windows Phone users (though in a beta form) who have been anticipating the launch of the one of the most popular mobile messaging services.
BBM competes with WhatsApp and Line among others and serves more than 85 million active users. Compare that with WhatsApp, which has 500 million monthly active users. The main reason behind this is BBM's exclusivity to BlackBerry phones for a long time.
Only when the company's smartphone business dwindled, BBM slipped out as a standalone app for Google's Android OS and Apple's iOS last year. With Windows Phone support, BlackBerry Messenger supports all major mobile platforms that take up the majority share of the smartphone market.
For beginners, BlackBerry has a complete guide explaining every step in detail, starting with setting up the account to changing profile image, status and resetting passwords for the account. To get started, head over to the Windows Phone store and download the app for free.
With all major mobile platforms covered, BBM is still a long way off from coming to desktop.
"I can't tell you whether we are going to do BBM on desktop. That is a collaboration we have to have between us and Microsoft and I wouldn't be able to comment on that, because we certainly have the desire, but between that and getting it done there is still a gap," BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen, said in an interview with Reuters earlier this week.
