BlackBerry Messenger for iOS and Android: Delayed

• By David Murphy
• September 22, 2013 01:50pm EST
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If you circled this weekend on your calendar and have been waiting with a Santa Claus-like interest for BlackBerry to release its BlackBerry Messenger app for Android and iOS, we have good and bad news for you.

First, the good news: Leaked versions of the Android and iOS apps have already made their way online, so a little sleuthing should allow you to grab and install the apps on your particular devices.

And now, the bad news: That leak prompted BlackBerry to officially disabled the Android version of the app for the time being, and has delayed the official release of both apps — in case you'd rather have them straight from the source — for an unspecified amount of time.

"The interest and enthusiasm we have seen already – more than 1.1 million active users in the first 8 hours without even launching the official Android app – is incredible. Consequently, this unreleased version caused issues, which we have attempted to address throughout the day," reads a blog post on BlackBerry's website.

BlackBerry goes on to suggest that interested Android users should sign up at bbm.com if they want to receive updates about the Android version of BlackBerry Messenger. As to when that might actually be, BlackBerry is a bit mum. The company indicates that it will ultimately launch the iOS and Android apps via a staggered, worldwide rollout, but it hasn't given any possible timeline, save for saying that it hopes to get to apps out "as soon as we are able."

Of course, it didn't help the situation at all that Google Play has seen a bombardment of fake "BBM" apps as of late. Clearly, spammers — or worse — have been attempting to use the app launch as a means for convincing people to download fake apps. In a number of cases, they aren't even bothering to write convincing text within the app's description. As Android Central reported yesterday, here's one example of what spammers might write about their fake apps:

"minion rush plants vs zombies Grand Theft Auto Vice City Marvel Avengers Alliance Minecraft Free and Full Papa Pear Saga Angry Birds Seasons Angry Birds Rio Fruit Ninja Free Angry Birds YouTube Adobe Flash Player 11 Gmail Street"

In other words, it's a blatant attempt to keyword stuff one's way to popularity. Google appears to have cleaned up its app store and kicked out most of the spammy apps, but a quick search for "BBM" highlights a few that remain. Spoiler: It's unlikely that the company "BBM for Android FREE" will be the one officially launching BlackBerry Messenger versus, say, BlackBerry itself.