BBM for Android, iPhone frenzy

·23 Oct 2013

BlackBerry had reason to be cheerful after it announced that having resumed the roll-out of BBM for Android and iPhone on 21 October 2013, it generated in excess of 10 million downloads of the messaging app in the first 24 hours.

“BBM is looking great on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry, and the team here is very excited about the success of this launch,” said Andrew Bocking, Executive VP, BBM at BlackBerry.

BBM also quickly rose through the rankings on the App Store to be the number one free app in more than 75 countries in the first 24 hours.

“In fact, BBM has earned 60,000 five-star reviews on Google Play from about 87,000 reviews,” said Bocking.

He said that while they are excited to bring BBM to iPhone and Android, this is not the end.

Android and iPhone users will have access to BBM Voice and Video calling, as well as the new community building tool – BBM Channels – in the near future.

Bocking said that his team is committed to bring these features to BBM on Android and iPhone in the near future.

“We have some great new features planned that will build on BBM as the private social network you count on for immediate conversations you can control and trust,” he said.

“We are focused on the future of private social networks and leading the charge for our users to have the best experience as they connect with their most important contacts with unrivalled immediacy using a trusted and reliable service.”

BBM noted that it still has more than 60 million monthly active customers, with more than 51 million people using BBM an average of 90 minutes per day.

BBM customers collectively send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, nearly twice as many messages per user per day as compared to other mobile messaging apps, BlackBerry said.