BlackBerry has announced that BBM for Android will arrive on all Samsung Galaxy smartphones through Samsung Apps and Google Play before any other devices. Unfortunately for a large majority of the BlackBerry using planet, the app is rolling out in Africa only for the time being.
The app will arrive in the Samsung Apps in the coming weeks and will at long last make BlackBerry Messenger a cross-platform service. Although not yet fully confirmed, we then expect it to arrive on other Android devices and then Apple’s iOS products around the world.
On Samsung Galaxy devices, BBM will be integrated into the Messaging Hub which runs as standard on Samsung’s Android phones. This means users will get BBM messages in one unified inbox alongside their emails, texts, WhatsApp messages and other text-based interactions – kind of like the BlackBerry Hub feature in BlackBerry 10, if you like.
According to Samsung’s press release, BBM on Android will offer regular and multi-person chats, as well as BBM Group chats of up to 30 people. As you can on BlackBerry devices, images and other files can be shared amongst contacts, with the added bonus being that you’ll now be able to send between Android and BlackBerry devices now.
“BBM provides one of the best and most robust mobile messaging experiences today. BBM has always set the standard for mobile instant messaging and we are thrilled to bring this experience to Samsung customers across Africa,” said Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President BBM at BlackBerry.
Samsung also confirmed that the app will be free to download, which will also be the case when BBM comes to iPhone. We’re still waiting on a date for a global roll out to Android and iOS.