BlackBerry has been a platform in decline for the last few years, and even revitalizing its software with BlackBerry 10 hasn’t helped much. At the moment, the BlackBerry Priv is perhaps its best proposition, since the Android app ecosystem is still going strong.
As we learned last week, WhatsApp has decided to end support for BlackBerry 10 and BBOS by the end of this year. When a massive company with Facebook’s resources and desire to reach users on every mobile platform abandons you, it’s a major sign of dire straits.
However, BlackBerry’s commitment to its software shows the company isn’t giving up on its platform yet, and the company has said it is actively exploring alternatives to WhatsApp for BB10 and BBOS users when support ends later this year.
BlackBerry has also said its customers will still be able to use BBM to communicate and share images securely around the world, with users of iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile. While BBM apps do exist for those platforms, their lack of popularity suggests that many BlackBerry users don’t have many options for messaging users without BlackBerry devices.
[source]TechRadar[/source]
