Android Sees BBM on Sept. 21 Followed by iPhone on Sept. 22

In the beginning of August I mentioned that BlackBerry was going to let a few select family members of its employees test a beta version of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) 10 for Android devices. A month later a video was accidentally leaked showing some of the features. About an hour or so later the video disappeared.

The goal was to have BBM for Android beta tested, cleaned up with all bugs fixed and ready by Sept. 21, 2013. It seems that BlackBerry has done just that. On Sept. 21 as of 7 a.m. Android users running ICS and Jelly Bean will be able to download BBM for free.

If that is not enough, the following day will see BBM available for download on the iPhone. Users who are running iOS 6 and iOS 7 will be able to download BBM right after midnight. At 12:01 a.m. Sept. 22, 2013, the download will be made available.

According to BlackBerry, some of the features that carry over cross platform are:

• BBM Chat – Enjoy real, immediate conversations with friends on Android, iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones. Not only does BBM let you know that your message has been delivered and read, it also shows you that your friend is responding to the message
• More than chat – With BBM you can share files on your phone such as photos and voice notes, all in an instant
• Keep your group in the loop – Multi-person chats are a great way to invite contacts to chat together. BBM Groups lets you invite up to 30 friends to chat together, and go a step further than multi-chat by sharing photos and schedules. And, with Broadcast Message, you can send a message out to all your BBM contacts at once
• Post Updates and stay in the know – BBM lets you post a personal message, profile picture and your current status, and lets your contacts know instantly in Updates
• Your unique PIN – Every BBM user has a unique PIN that maintains your privacy, so you don’t have to give out your phone number or e-mail address to a new or casual contact

What makes BBM so popular? More than 60 million customers currently have real conversations on BBM. It is estimated that 90 minutes per day is the average use time of BBM, with more than 10 billion messages sent each day.

Some of the reasons for its popularity are:

• It’s immediate. BBM is always on so you are always connected. And because messages on BBM are typically delivered and read within seconds, it’s the closest thing to a live conversation
• You trust it. BBM always tells you that messages are delivered and read. BBM conversations come alive on a private network you can count on
• You control it. BBM allows you to choose your contacts and how you share your information. BBM uses a PIN so you don’t have to give anyone your phone number or e-mail address

There will be more features that will become available for the cross platform version of BBM. One of the biggest features that will become available soon is BBM Channels. It should be added later this year.