Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry will launch the instant messaging service Blackberry Messenger (BBM) for Android on 21 September and iPhone on 22 September.
Why is BBM coming to Android and iPhone?
The instant messaging feature was the reason why most people ended up buying Blackberry handsets.
Apple and Samsung have emerged as the market leaders in smartphone markets due to its constant innovation and effective marketing strategies. Offering BBM across other platforms broadens the charm of BBM.
“With more than a billion Android, iOS, and BlackBerry smartphones in the market, and no dominant mobile messaging platform, this is absolutely the right time to bring BBM to Android and iPhone customers,” said Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President for BBM at Blackberry.
Troubled Times
Once considered unbeatable and the pioneer in smartphone technology, Blackberry is struggling to stay afloat in the smartphone market.
Blackberry is expected to lay off 4,500 employees, which is around 40% of its workforce.
Blackberry is going to step back from the mainstream consumer market and focus on enterprise devices.
Why BBM is better than Whatsapp?
BBM provides message indicators such as D and R that mean Delivered and Read. Whatsapp provides check marks. On Whatsapp, a single check mark means the message has been delivered to the server and a double check mark means that the message has been delivered to the phone. There is no indication to prove that the message has indeed been read.
BBM provides a unique pin which you can give people so that they can add you on BBM. Whatsapp uses phone numbers. Whatsapp users can add phone numbers to groups and through this, user phone numbers are visible to the public and can even be stored. This could lead to potential harassment. If a user changes his phone number, the new user of the phone number can access all the Whatsapp contacts that were used by the previous user.
A BBM user can receive a message only if the receiver has approved them. If the user has been deleted, he needs to send another request until he can continue messaging the receiver.
BBM has the ‘ping’ feature to draw the attention of the receiver.
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