It has been clear for a while now that Samsung actually entered into an exclusive agreement with Blackberry, formerly Research In Motion (RIM), to offer its popular chat app, Blackberry Messenger (BBM). We have been seeing commercials telling us that BBM is coming to Samsung Galaxy devices soon. It seems soon is 20th September which happens to be this coming Friday.
Samsung Mobile Nigeria just confirmed via its Twitter account that BBM will be available from Friday. There aren’t many details coming out about it but you can be sure it will be available exclusively to Samsung Galaxy devices for sometime before it is available officially for all the other Android users. Earlier on the apk for BBM for Android leaked though there wasn’t much people could do with it since it requires one to be on a whitelist of approved beta testers.
This should calm down the nerves of the thousands who had flocked the Play Store only to download malware infested apps posing as BBM for Android. The most interesting thing about BBM for Android is the reception it is expected to get when it is finally unveiled on Android now that Android users have a wide range of chat and instant messaging apps to choose from with apps like WhatsApp, Viber, Kik and Samsung’s own ChatON having made all the phandroids who once salivated at BBM users forget all about it. For Blackberry device users who have since switched to Android this could be another chance at a tearful reunion with something they all loved. With around 30 million messages sent per day on WhatsApp and only 10 million of such messages sent using BBM, let us sit back and see what becomes of Blackberry’s most popular app. We have to note that this is the first time that the app is going multi-platform by extending from the familar Blackberry turf to the outside world where Android reigns supreme.
Here’s the tweet from @SamsungMobileNG that broke the news:
YES WE DID!!!! Available frm Friday RT @supersanusi: If Samsung really did get the 3 month exclusive like I heard, that would be something
— Samsung Mobile NG (@samsungmobileng) September 16, 2013
UPDATE
Blackberry just confirmed to Android Central that BBM won’t be exclusive to any carrier or devices by a specific manufacturer as may have been implied by Samsung Mobile Nigeria’s tweet. Blackberry says that BBM for Android will be available to all without any exclusivity to carriers or device manufacturers. That’s good news for those who have Android devices made by other companies like LG, HTC, Sony, Huawei and the rest. There is even mention of the app being available for iOS devices too so y’all iSheep, you’re also invited to the party and no iMessage ain’t invited too.
Blackberry does not give an exact date of when BBM will be available so we’ll have to work with what Samsung Mobile Nigeria talked of for now.
