Bye Bye Messenger, Blackberry shuts it down on May 31st

Title jokes aside, it is quite a sad and thought provoking day, when a once market leader drops one of the most used messaging services in the world, BBM, formerly known by its full name BlackBerry Messenger, was a proprietary mobile instant messenger and videotelephony application included on BlackBerry devices that allowed messaging and voice calls between BlackBerry, iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users.

Emtek (the company that had taken over running the BBM app since 2016) has announced that it will end support for the messaging app on May 31st, “We are proud of what we have built to date … The technology industry however, is very fluid, and in spite of our substantial efforts, users have moved on to other platforms, while new users proved difficult to sign on,” the company wrote in a blog. “Though we are sad to say goodbye, the time has come to sunset the BBM consumer service, and for us to move on.”

With the modern apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, its hardly a surprise that the BBM couldn’t maintain its market integrity, with dwindling Blackberry handset sales and a convoluted mixture of numbers and letters as a way to add friends. It’s still a shame as I am sure there are at least 2 generations who will morn the passing of the service.