FollowBlackBerry Messenger which was once only exclusively available for BlackBerry devices is now going to arrive on Android and iPhone. BBM will be available on Android and iPhone in September. BBM surely does have a huge fan following but it has got a rival that is planning to give it very tough competition. And the rival app is WhatsApp which is gaining huge popularity day by day.
According to the recent stats, WhatsApp has managed to attract three hundred million users which indicate that its popularity is five times more than BlackBerry Messenger. The reason why BBM has such a low popularity is mainly because until now the app has not come to mobile operating system giants like Android and iOS. On the other hand, WhatsApp is available for all the leading mobile operating systems. It was even available for Symbian users.
BlackBerry has a strategy going on. BlackBerry manufacturers know it pretty well that owing to the fall in popularity for BlackBerry devices, many users have switched to other brands. So, BlackBerry is aiming to attract these former BlackBerry phone owners.
These days’ people do not rely on SMSs for exchanging texts. There are far better services like WhatsAppa, WeChat and BBM. Still, WhatsApp is the most preferred app when it comes to instant messaging. Since BBM will be available for Android and iPhone in the coming month, WhatsApp is stepping up by offering new voice messaging feature.
WeChat and Facebook Messenger are already providing voice messaging feature. However, WhatsApp users were only restricted to exchanging texts for communication. The new voice messaging feature will increase WhatsApp’s popularity even more in those countries where it is difficult to type languages.
The developers at WhatsApp had been working on the voice messaging feature since the past six months. The new feature will not have any limitation on the length of the voice messages. In order to create a voice message, users are required to simply long press on the screen while you record your audio message. The delivered message can be heard through the earpiece of the handsets. Users can also listen to the received audio message through the speakerphone.
According to the stats, in a day around 11 million text messages are sent. WhatsApp servers get around 20 billion messages a day. Even though WhatsApp is not a free to use service, still the app has gained a lot of popularity. Users are required to spend 0.99USD fee after the using app for no money in the first year. Will millions of users using it, WhatsApp is surely making huge money per month.
Still, WhatsApp is not offering full-fledged calling service like Skype. The new voice messaging feature can overshadow the launching of BBM app on Android and iPhone. Right now, BlackBerry Messenger is only holding a small percentage of users as compared to other apps that offer instant messaging service.
Will the BlackBerry Messenger be able to gain popularity on Android and iOS platforms? We need to wait until next month to see how many people show interest in downloading and installing the BBM app.
