BlackBerry Messenger for iPhone Download Available in Beta Zone
The BlackBerry Messenger for iPhone download is now available in the form of a new beta.
BlackBerryOS.com stated that the software is now available in the Beta Zone, which is basically their version of Apple's Developer Center. They started sending invites to select registered users today and more are expected to receive them in the coming weeks.
The site also leaked screenshots of the Android version of the app, however, no iOS screenshots have been made available yet.
The beta version requires users to be running iOS 6 or later, according to Vivek Bhardwaj, the head of BlackBerry Software Portfolio.
The official BlackBerry Messenger app will hit the market sometime in September. It was originally announced for a summer launch back in May. It will be available in both the Google Play store and the Apple App store.
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.