BlackBerry 10 Software Update Now Available, BBM Coming to iOS and Android

By Vincent Funaro, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, May 14, 2013

A BlackBerry 10 software update is now available for smartphones running the company's latest software.

The update includes tweaks to the BlackBerry Hub, notifications and a High Dynamic Range mode that allows cameras to combat environments with bad lighting.

BlackBerry software will also be heading to both Android and iOS starting this summer. The company's wildly popular BlackBerry Messenger application will be available on both of those platforms in the very near future.

BBM has over 60 million monthly active users who send around 10 billion messages a day. It was also one of the first proprietary mobile messaging services to be released.

BBM on iOS and Android will bring the immediacy of BBM chats, multi-person chats, voice note sharing, and BlackBerry Groups where BBM users are able to create groups of up to 30 people and share calendar, photos, files and more to those other platforms.

BlackBerry, the company formerly known as Research in Motion, was originally expected to bring BBM to Android back in 2011. However, that never came to fruition. Apple ended up releasing a similar feature for its iPhone with iMessage. There have also been other proprietary messaging systems that have caught steam in recent years including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and GroupMe.

BlackBerry released its BlackBerry 10 software with a new version of BBM earlier this year on the Z10 all touch smartphone. The software will also be available on the BlackBerry Q10 when it launches later on this year in the U.S.

The company appears to be looking to connect other devices with its own in order to adapt to the rapidly changing smartphone market. BBM is also a good way to introduce iPhone and Android device users to BlackBerry software without them having to buy the actual smartphone.