INQUISITR.COM / Science & Tech

Facebook And WhatsApp Will No Longer Support Messenger Services On Blackberry

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 06:55 PST, Mar 22, 2016

Facebook pulled support for the Blackberry mobile phone one month after WhatsApp messenger pulled its support for the cellphone. The support for the cellphone will completely end at the end of 2016.

CNET reported that once the phone of choice for people like Hillary Clinton, it has seen a major decline in recent years. Now, 58 percent of smartphone sales are Android, while 39 percent are Apple products. Blackberry now falls in the other category, a category that only has a 0.1 percent market share. Blackberry has relied on its base of faithful customers to maintain its market share. Neither Facebook nor WhatsApp have explained why the change was made.

BlackBerry Senior Marketing Manager Lou Gazzola said that Blackberry had no control over what apps are available, as well as the messenger services available, like Facebook and WhatsApp.

“The app landscape continues to evolve, and in ways that are not always within our control. We are extremely disappointed in their decision as we know so many users love these apps. We fought back to work with WhatsApp and Facebook to change their minds, but at this time, their decision stands (but let them know how you feel on social media, using the hashtag #ILoveBB10Apps).”

Many Blackberry fans took to Twitter to voice their support while some users considered this to be the last straw. One user, named Relevant, complained of a lack of developer support.

“You are so committed to developers that you have published no roadmap for your developer tools for how many months now? Developers are not foolish enough to spend time on a platform that BlackBerry themselves are not spending much time on, are they?”

Both Facebook and WhatsApp messengers are part of the top 10 most popular apps for the phone’s users. With Facebook and WhatsApp discontinuing their APIs for Blackberry, users won’t be able to get by with third party apps based on the APIs in order to fill the gap.

As previously reported in Inquisitr, the Facebook Messenger App for Android got a design makeover. Messenger will also allow content marketers to automatically distribute their content, which emphasizes the need to develop a content marketing plan to meet the needs of potential customers. Facebook is also working on a developers’ kit that would allow developers to create chatbots. Developers are currently testing the software, and publishers are involved in the testing.

The Deccan Chronicle reported that both Facebook and WhatsApp have lifted all support and development for Blackberry. The support for the apps would affect all Blackberry handsets, including the Blackberry 10 handsets and the other smartphones that run the BBOS platforms. Blackberry said on their blog that they would be working to meet the needs for Blackberry users.

“We are extremely disappointed in their decision as we know so many users love these apps. We fought back to work with WhatsApp and Facebook to change their minds, but at this time, their decision stands. Despite this, we have worked hard to ensure our end users have the best experience in light of this decision, and are continuing to search for alternate solutions.”

Blackberry users will be required to download a mandatory Facebook update by the end of March. The app will then cease to work on both Blackberry 7.1 and 10 handsets. Users will no longer receive notifications, nor will they be able to integrate their Facebook contacts with their Blackberry contacts.

[Photo by Pixabay]

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