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First objective. Then Yahoo Messenger. Now BBM.
The messaging service that was once a popular feature of BlackBerry phones is disappearing, becoming the latest in a line of popular online chat apps to have the ax.
Emtek, the company that runs the old BlackBerry Messenger service, will stop it on May 31, the company said in an article published Thursday on its blog. Despite investing in new features, Emtek has not been able to revive the use of the service, he added.
"Three years ago, we set out to revitalize BBM's consumer service," the company said in a message.
"We have put all our efforts into making this a reality and we are proud of what we have built so far," he continued. "However, the technology sector is very fluid and, despite our considerable efforts, users have moved to other platforms, while new users have proven difficult to sign."
Once the service is stopped by Emtek, BBM users will no longer be able to open the application to view old messages, photos or other files, the company said on a page offering answers to frequently asked questions. Users will be able to download photos, videos and files by May 31st. But they will not be able to keep the stickers they've purchased nor the personalized emoticons they've been able to create with the company's BBMoji service, the site said.
Over the last decade, while BlackBerry devices were among the most popular smartphones, BBM played a similar role to iMessage on iPhones. This was the default messaging service for BlackBerry devices, and since it was only available on Blackberry handsets, it was one of the main reasons why customers were stuck with them.
However, the use of BBM began to be overtaken by iMessage and other services after the iPhone and Android devices took control of the smartphone market. Smartphone messaging leaders now include not only iMessage, but also WhatsApp and Messenger, and Facebook, and WeChat.
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To woo users of other devices, BlackBerry then opened BBM to owners of iPhone and Android phones. Not later than in 2015, 140 million registered users on these devices other than BlackBerry have been announced. Emtek acquired the rights to BBM from BlackBerry in 2016.
BlackBerry has retained the company version of BBM offered to businesses. The BBM business is still alive.
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