BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) will stop its services for the consumer version from May 31st, 2019 as announced by the company in a blog today. Emtek (the company that took over running the BBM app since 2016) has announced the decision after multiple efforts over past years to revitalize the app with features like Uber hailing and video calling.
Released in 2005, BBM has been the main feature of BlackBerry smartphones that allows messaging and voice calls between BlackBerry, iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users.
“We are proud of what we have built to date … The technology industry, however, is very fluid, and in spite of our substantial efforts, users have moved on to other platforms, while new users proved difficult to sign on,” the company wrote in a blog. “Though we are sad to say goodbye, the time has come to sunset the BBM consumer service, and for us to move on.”
If you still want to use the BBM service after May 31st, you can use the BBMe version (BBM Enterprise) on Android and iOS for free, but there is a $2.50 subscription fee for every six months. BBMe offers end-to-end encryption and message editing / unsending so it may be worth spending if you love the BBM service.
