There is absolutely no way that the recent launch(es) of BlackBerry’s famous BBM app for Android and the iPhone could have embodied BlackBerry’s dramatic history any more perfectly. First and foremost, the company’s cross-platform offerings are launching years later than most industry watchers believe they should have. Then, when BlackBerry finally did manage to debut its BBM for Android and BBM for iPhone apps, it had to halt their rollout due to some major technical issues.
The company relaunched the apps this past Monday with a queue system that would help manage the rush of activations, and BBM for iPhone quickly shot to No.1 on Apple’s top free apps chart in the U.S. After that, it conquered the world. Apple issued its iOS 7.0.3 update the very next day, however, and it managed to break BBM for iPhone in the process.
According to an email to BGR from a BlackBerry spokesperson, the crashing issue that plagued BBM for iPhone in iOS 7.0.3 was caused by the removal of support for a font that was being used by BlackBerry’s app.
Sheesh.
Well we have some good news for you, BBM fans: BlackBerry pushed out an update for its iOS app on Wednesday night and the font issue that was causing all those painful crashes for iPhone users on iOS 7.0.3 has been resolved. So are BBM for iPhone users finally in the clear? Yes… at least until the next major debacle.
BlackBerry’s new BBM for iPhone 1.0.2 update also adds contact categories, list sorting and filtering options in BBM Groups, and various other bug fixes.
And a quick note for those users who have installed the BBM for iPhone or BBM for Android apps and are still waiting in line to use it: This workaround may be of use.
