BlackBerry: No Messenger for Android or iOS this week
A leaked version of BlackBerry Messenger for Android continues to stall the app's official launch.
Android and iOS users waiting for BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) will have to keep waiting.
In a blog posted Monday night, BBM Executive Vice President Andrew Bocking said that the leak of an unreleased version of BBM for Android is creating trouble, forcing the company to delay the launch of the official version.
BlackBerry initially planned to kick off its BBM Android and iOS apps over the weekend. But on Friday, an unreleased and older version of the BBM Android app was posted on several file-sharing sites. This version apparently is beset with a glitch that caused a spike in data traffic and impacted BlackBerry on the back end.
The official app, which was scheduled to launch Saturday, doesn't have this glitch, but BlackBerry didn't want to release it unless it could block the unofficial version. Blocking the unreleased version, however, proved problematic as it quickly snagged more than 1 million users. As a result, the company decided to pause the rollout of both BBM for Android and iOS.
"The team is now focused on adjusting the system to completely block this unreleased version of the Android app when we go live with the official BBM for Android app," Bocking said. "We are also making sure that the system is reinforced to handle this kind of scenario in the future. While this may sound like a simple task, it's not. This will take some time and I do not anticipate launching this week."
Consumers can check on the launch status through BlackBerry's official blog, the BBM Web site, and the BBM Twitter feed.