Blackberry Messenger Will Be Discontinued From Today

CellularSolutionsNE/YouTube/Wikimedia

I used to feel like such a businesswoman-about-town back when I had a Blackberry, feeling very serious indeed as I gave away my BB pin.

Granted, at the height of Blackberry’s reign, I was a part-time checkout worker and lie-in prone English Lit student.

My BBM messages mostly revolved around getting last-minute tickets to uni socials and putting together awkward seminar presentations. All between playing endless rounds of Word Mole, of course.

Blackberry KeyOne

However, with a Blackberry in my palm, I felt like Miranda from Sex & The City, or Claire Underwood from House of Cards.

Strolling about with a Blackberry, I felt icy yet dynamic, on the ball and glacially poised for any Randian weight the corporate world might thrust upon my shoulders. It didn’t matter that I was rarely out of my jams or that I definitely couldn’t afford the contract.

Of course, the Blackberry – once such a covetable item – has long since sunk beneath the ever-shifting technological tides.

The iPhone and Samsung Galaxy have risen triumphant, with those fiddly little buttons – hell for those of us with fat thumbs – a mere nostalgic memory.

Blackberry KeyOne

Now BBM Messenger has finally bitten the dust, with Emtek – a company which has ran BBM since 2016 – having withdrawn their support for the app as of May 31.

In a – surprisingly sad – blog post, Emtek explained the reasons behind them pulling the plug:

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.

The post continued:

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.

Goodbye to a truly iconic messenger app. It may be gone, but its influence continues to resonate.

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Julia Banim

Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.