Looking back at the last 10 years of BBM

This week marks an important milestone. Saturday is the 10th anniversary of the birth of BBM, and it has left many of us reflecting on how far we’ve come. What started as a simple PIN-to-PIN, text-only, BlackBerry smartphone instant messaging solution has become a thriving, cross-platform global social network with text, visual and animated messages, money transfer options, secure video meetings, and an incredibly engaged community.

As part of the week-long celebration, we’ve asked the team about their favorite milestones and moments. Here are some of the most impactful events in BBM history:

August 1, 2005: Birth of BlackBerry Messenger
August 2009:
- GPS location integrated with BBM
- BBM adds PIN barcode scanning
- Introduced Streamlined voice notes and Animated Display Picture first on mobile device
July 28, 2011: BBM 6 Launches with Connected Apps
November 2, 2011: BBM Music Beta Launches
September 13, 2012: BBM Enters the Collins English Dictionary
December 10, 2012: BBM Voice Launches with BBM7 Update
October 22, 2013: BBM Goes Cross Platform
November 26, 2013: BBM Channels Launches
April 1, 2014: BBM Stickers Launches
November 20, 2014: BBM Meetings Launches
January 7, 2015: BBM Supports Android Wearables
February, 2015: BBM Shop Hits 1 Billion Views
March 4, 2015: BBM Hits 100M Google Play Installs
June 26, 2015: Private Chat Introduced
July 3, 2015: BBM Gets Android Material Design Makeover
August 1, 2015: BBM Celebrates its 10th Birthday

About Matthew Talbot

I am the Senior Vice President - Emerging Solutions at BlackBerry. I have extensive International Management, Sales and Marketing background in Mobility and Cloud technologies, Financial Services, Telecommunications, and Content in both a “Start-Up” and Public company environment. This includes stints as a senior executive at SAP, Sybase, Mobile 365 and others.