BBM for Android and iPhone arrives this weekend

BlackBerry's chat and instant messaging app is finally ready to debut on its fiercest rivals' platforms.

There's little doubt that BBM is BlackBerry's killer app and the feature that has enabled the ailing company to hold onto its core of users, and with the service coming to other smartphones the BlackBerry user community will now be able to have group chats and share missives with their iPhone-wielding friends form Sunday onwards.

The app will make its official debut on the App Store on Sunday, September 22 and Android users will get it a day earlier. It's due to become available for download from Google Play at 7am EDT on Saturday, September 21.

Many consumers would argue, quite rightly, that the messaging app marketplace is already pretty crowded and that BBM is late to the party yet again. But unlike many of its competitors, BBM is secure and encrypted because it uses BlackBerry's private network.

It's also anonymous in that users are identified via their PIN numbers; there's no need to share a phone number or email address in order to have a conversation, which can be with up to 30 other users at once.

And best of all, messages are not confined to text form. BBM supports file sharing too so pictures and voice files can be pushed out to all BBM contacts at once, as can schedules. It also has a couple of social media elements, such as being able to ‘post' thoughts, feelings and status updates and to set up a profile picture.

Interested? Well BBM will only work on Android version 4 onwards (Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean) and for iPhone users it is optimized for iOS6.