Getting upset about technology is strange.
On one hand, we complain all day long about how things like Twitter and Facebook are ruining our lives, on the other, it really does feel like the end of an era when some program or piece of equipment is put out to pasture. There was the uproar over AOL phasing out AIM, rage when Google anounced the company was getting rid of Reader and now BlackBerry is shutting down the last thing that the company has that anybody cares about, BlackBerry Messenger or BBM.
Yes, just shy of 15 years since the once-popular smartphone that looks like an ancient piece of technology these days (but will probably come back into fashion à la the flip phone) came out, it is shutting down the service on May 31.
Today we’re announcing that we will be closing BBM consumer service on 31 May 2019.
Thank you for being part of the BBM consumer service experience!
For more info: https://t.co/6ofKmXFkZE pic.twitter.com/BA1XIYRhPd
— BBM (@BBM) April 18, 2019
“The technology industry… is very fluid, and in spite of our substantial efforts, users have moved on to other platforms, while new users proved difficult to sign on,” the company said in a blog post. “Though we are sad to say goodbye, the time has come to sunset the BBM consumer service, and for us to move on.”
Though it’s unlikely you are one of the ten million or so people reading this using a BlackBerry (down from around 80 million using it at the phone’s peak in 2012), those who still do were “High-Key Upset” according to one BuzzFeed News headline, with people taking to social media to do something they couldn’t do when BlackBerry first unveiled the service in 2005: post GIFs to express their emotions.
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