Facebook is the most popular mobile app worldwide and has over 1.44 billion mobile monthly active users as of December 2015. Now, Facebook has decided to end stop support for the BlackBerry and BBOS platforms by the year end.
This is another massive blow to Blackberry as last month WhatsApp also announced to stop supporting BlackBerry devices by the end of 2016. When Facebook-owned messaging app revealed its decision to end support for BlackBerry devices, it said that Android, iOS and Windows Phone platforms make up 99.5% (approx.) of smartphone sales worldwide.
Whatsapp decided to leave the BB platform because it wanted to focus on developing the app for the most-selling platforms. Facebook also has the same reasons for its departure. This news is shocking for Blackberry lovers, but they’ve to deal with it.
Lou Gazzola, BlackBerry’s App Ecosystem lead said in a blog post:
“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.”
Actually, the social media giant doesn’t develop its own BlackBerry apps, except for Facebook Messenger. Instead, the company provides API’s to Blackberry developers to develop an official Facebook app. Facebook’s decision to end support for BlackBerry is a much bigger hit for the company’s OS -BlackBerry 10.
Facebook to end support for BlackBerry devices – Does it mean BB users will not be able to use Facebook at all?
BlackBerry users can breathe a sigh of relief as they won’t be entirely Facebook-less. According to a recent support note on the BlackBerry’s website, users are encouraged to move to the web-based version of Facebook, saying it’ll provide “the most feature rich alternative.”
There is no doubt is saying that the BlackBerry’s mobile OS is in dire straits. After Whatsapp and Facebook’s decision to end support for Blackberry devices, we can see more big apps backing out of the platform soon.