The end of an era approaches — the consumer-facing version of the once esteemed BlackBerry Messenger will be shutting down on May 31, 2019. This announcement came from a short blog post from Emtek (who handles BBM), with the title "Time to Say Goodbye." Somber news, indeed.

It wasn't too long ago that BBM saw a rebirth, or perhaps more appropriately, a renaissance. BlackBerry attempted to recapture new interest in the service by making it cross-platform. Despite making an honest effort, the BBM team acknowledges that the world has moved onto other messaging services like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Telegram. In the face of this, they are admitting defeat, which is respectable and understandable.

BBM will close for consumers on May 31. You will no longer be able to access things like stickers, emojis, and other core BBM services. You can, however. get a refund for your in-app purchases via the Play Store process and you will be able to export all of your data for download (except for your contacts and feeds). Your DANA balance will remain (which you can access via the DANA app). Other questions are answered on this FAQ page.

Note that this does not affect the enterprise version of BBM, which for all intents and purposes is a separate app altogether.

UPDATE: 2019/04/18 11:25am PDT BY JORDAN PALMER

Following the above news, BlackBerry is opening BBM Enterprise (BBMe) to all end users with an Android app available now. Service will be free for the first year, then $2.49 for six months.

Source: BlackBerry