The popularity of the BlackBerry Messenger application can be measured from the fact that it has seen over 10 million downloads in a 24 hour time span after release for both the Android and iOS platform, both of which form two of the largest user base in the mobile connected devices segment right now. The messenger will remain out of reach for users of Windows Phone as of now. No other application has had such a large number of downloads in such a short span of time. It is but natural to have it so for the users base is that much larger being usable for two different OS.
The messenger application from BlackBerry has been quite popular amongst BlackBerry users and when unleashed over Android and iOS platform, the grab for it was instantaneous. The application is known for its smooth and fast operations. That new users of the application are also experiencing this feast of speed is evident from the 60,000 five star ratings that the application has received and the 87,000 positive reviews that users have posted on Google Play.
Early users though are ruing the lack of certain features. These include the apps inability to communicate with FaceBook that would have allowed contacts from the phone to be synched. The drawback however has not affected the rating or popularity of the app to any degree. Countries like UK, US, Canada, Indonesia have rated this to be the top app for download at opening. The app has also received similar feedback from users in the Middle East as well.
The application cannot be used just by downloading. The process requires registration of the user with a valid email id. This process had been placed by BBM due some technical reasons with one of them being to be able to control their own server traffic and loads. Too many downloads from their server would result in a crash. These initial teething issues are however now past and users would be able to easily start using the application.