The iconic BlackBerry Messenger, which was the first instant messaging service will be shutting down on May 31, 2019. After 14 years of service, the company has officially announced that the service will not be available for the consumers by next month onwards. As a reminder, the BMM was introduced in the year 2005 as an instant messaging that mark a new era in the full-fledged mobile chat service. The BBM gained popularity majorly because of the convenience element and it was less costly than the regular messages, which came with certain limits. The conventional messages also saw some delay in responses, which resulted into a connection between the users and service. WhatsApp, Facebook & Instagram Will Not Work on These Phones From April 30; Is Your Smartphone On The List?

The messaging service from BlackBerry featured everything to dominate the instant messaging space. However, it remained BlackBerry exclusive product for many year which compelled its users to opt for other free to use applications like WhatsApp and WeChat. This resulted in decreased demand for BBM over the period of time as other services gained popularity, particularly WhatsApp.

In the year 2003, the platform was made available on Android and iOS, however, it was too late for the messenger to make a comeback. Later on, the platform was acquired by Emtek - an Indonesian company that has decided to kill the consumer version by May 31. Despite of reviving the service with attractive features and content, the company mentioned that service failed to attract customers that have moved on other options. Huawei Smartphones & Laptops Will Run on Its Newly Developed Operating System To Combat Any Potential Ban on Android & Windows.

The enterprise version of the service will continue to work even after the shutdown of consumer edition. Dubbed as BBMe, this version will offer additional capabilities like unsend feature, editing and much more. However, the users will have to pay $2.5 every six month for using it after a free trial of one year.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 20, 2019 06:51 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).