BBM for Android and iOS has been downloaded by 20 million users within its first week of release, never mind the initial issues BlackBerry stumbled upon in late September. For those who don’t remember, the company was forced to pull the app from Google Play Store when an unfinished version of it went live by mistake. Within a space of 8 hours, the leaked messenger tool had 1.1 million active users.
But the bumpy launch of BBM has apparently done little to discourage people from getting it. BlackBerry has taken to its official company blog to boast about 20 million downloads within a week of its release. The figures include iOS as well as Android device owners. This brings the total number of active BBM users to 80 million a month.
It’s the first time that the messenger app has gone cross platform and it was greeted by an enthusiastic 10 million downloads within 24 hours of launch. To think of the millions of fans the company had been ignoring all these years by restricting the application to BlackBerry phones only! It is free for the present, but who knows if it’ll go the WhatsApp way and charge users a minimal fee in the future?
BlackBerry has taken care to ensure we notice a ‘hidden gem’ in the software – a sharing option which eases the process of adding contacts to BBM. There’s also this dedicated portal which allows iOS and Android users to share their PINs with others without breaking a sweat. But more than any of that, it’s the security the company offers that counts, right?