BlackBerry CMO says BBM for Android and BBM for iOS is just days away

Here is some great news for Android and iOS owners who have been waiting for a few weeks for another shot at installing BlackBerry Messenger. BlackBerry CMO Frank Boulben said on Monday that he expects BBM for iOS and BBM for Android to both be available "within days". The social messaging application, which previously had been made available to BlackBerry users only, allows for group chats with as many as 30 people at one time. Video chat and screen sharing will not be on the original app, but will be added via a future update.

BBM for iOS and BBM for Android were both expected to be added to their respective app stores late in September. The Apple App Store received the app on a regional basis, but after 1.1 million people downloaded an unofficial version of the Android flavored version of BBM, BlackBerry said that the bogus version was making it impossible for them to offer the real thing to Android users. So it was back to the drawing board for both versions of the BBM application. Until now, BlackBerry hadn't hinted as to when it would try again to offer BBM to two of its rival platforms.

Six million people have pre-registered with BlackBerry so that they can be notified when the Canadian OEM is going to try to make BBM for iOS and BBM for Android available again. Recently, BlackBerry said not to rule out a version of the social networking app for Windows Phone.

source: Reuters