According to a tweet from T-Mobile UK, BlackBerry Messenger is setting up to go cross-platform possibly as early as the end of this month.
AppleInsider reports the popular BBM messaging system will be available for iOS and Android on June 27. It will likely be a free download for devices that are running iOS 6 and Android 4.0 or higher.
Another report from Business Insider Australia cites a source who claims to be familiar with BlackBerry's plans to take the BlackBerry Messenger cross-platform. According to their source, the T-Mobile UK release date of June 27 is "bogus." This might be the reason why T-Mobile removed the tweet from their page.
However, one thing is for sure according to both reports and BBM is planning to go cross-platform very soon. By allowing the BlackBerry messaging service on iOS, BlackBerry will find itself in direct competition with Apple's iMessage.
The news comes off of BlackBerry's announcement of a new flagship phone, The BlackBerry A10. It would appear the brand is trying to fix itself and get its foot in the door of the emerging competitive smartphone market.
BlackBerry Messenger has been praised as an easy-to-use messaging service. It was a point of pride for the brand back at the height of its popularity. However, it has since been dethroned as the top messaging service thanks to various other platform-specific and cross-platform messengers. Most notably is iMessage for iPhone devices. It is unclear if BlackBerry Messenger still has the clout to compete with the smartphone titan Apple.
AppleInsider reports rumors for a cross-platform BBM first sprung up in May when BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins described the move as a sign of confidence.
"Taking the service cross-platform could allow BlackBerry to potentially attract customers from the two competing platforms," AppleInsider wrote. "More likely, it will allow the company to connect its existing customers to their contacts that do not have BlackBerry devices, potentially giving them a reason to stay with BlackBerry."
