BlackBerry Messenger shutting down next month

BlackBerry announced on Thursday that it will be closing its once-popular messaging platform next month. The company says the consumer-side of the BBM service will officially shut down on May 31st, but it plans to keep the enterprise version online for the foreseeable future, and it will be opening that up to all users.

Three years ago, we set out to reinvigorate BBM consumer service, one of the most loved instant messaging applications, as a cross-platform service where users can not only chat and share life experiences, but also consume content and use payment services.

We poured our hearts into making this a reality, and 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.

Though we are sad to say goodbye, the time has come to sunset the BBM consumer service, and for us to move on. We are grateful for your support and wish to thank everyone, especially our users, partners, and employees, for being part of the BBM consumer service journey.

We hope you will cherish many fond memories of BBM consumer service that helped shape messenger platforms to become what they are today.

It’s been a wild journey for BlackBerry over the past decade. The Canadian-based company has seen everything from the top of the smartphone mountain to bankruptcy, and has gone through multiple CEOs and strategy shifts. Surprisingly it still makes handsets with physical keyboards, built on Google’s Android platform.

For more information on BBM Enterprise, click here.

Source: BlackBerry