Blackberry’s popular messaging application, BBM, is is getting an update on Android. In line with the Android community design guidelines from last year’s Google I/O, Material Design will now be visible on the app to beta testers.
Other than Material Design, Private Chats are also coming to BBM on Android. Private Chat allow users to chat anonymously devoid of any message notifications and the messages self-destruct after some time or after the chat is complete. Another feature hitting the Android application is the ability to edit sent messages.
BBM boasts over 100 million downloads on the Google Play Store and while it has since been overtaken by new age messaging clients like Whatsapp that have over a billion installs and are almost clocking a billion in terms of active users, it still remains the messaging application of choice for a good number of people. Blackberry has embraced competing platforms iOS, Android and Windows Phone and taken extra steps to bond with users like introducing BBM support for Android Wear and custom PINs for iOS users.
