Great news for folks with BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)-obsessed friends: Research In Motion might be bringing its popular BlackBerry Messenger app over to Apple iOS and Android devices. According to a report by BGR, RIM is looking at the success garnered by copycat services such as WhatsApp and clearly feels that it should have a piece of the cross-platform instant messaging pie. According to our sources, RIM has not yet finalized details surrounding timing or pricing, but we have heard that the company might make the software free to all users. We’re also told strategy is still being developed, however, and RIM may end up charging users a one-time fee or even a recurring fee for access to its BBM service on third-party platforms. For those unfamiliar with the reasons for BBM’s cult-like following, it boils down to this: It’s a solid Instant Messenger app which allows for the sending and receiving of messages of unlimited length, real-time confirmations that messages have been received and read, the ability to share media with multiple contacts at the same time, barcodes which can be scanned to add contact information, and more. Sources state that the service may require a one-time or recurring fee and will be a stripped down version of what BlackBerry users know and love. Other platform devices may not be able to send files, images or location information, etc. With plenty of other cross-platform messengers floating around, BBM is the obvious choice for a universal messenger. We could be waiting a while to find out, with an Android version of BBM expected ‘this year’. With no more specific timing information available that could mean as far away as 9 months, with an iOS port even further away. We can only imagine how many more folks who’d join the BBM cult if the currently BlackBerry only app made its way to iOS and Android devices, but we’ll see what happens. As always, stay tuned for more news and info on this topic by following us on Twitter and/or by subscribing to our RSS Feed. Authors:

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