After last month’s failed attempt to roll out their reasonably popular BlackBerry Messenger app on Android and iOS devices, BlackBerry announced yesterday that they were rolling out the apps all over again. However, to prevent the supposed server problems that crippled September’s launch attempt, BlackBerry is doing a phased roll-out of access to the service.

In order to access BBM on other platforms, you must first log onto the Google Play or App Store and download the BBM app. Straight-forward so far. When you launch the app, you have to enter your email address. This will put you into a queue to unlock the actual messenging service. When your number is up, you can then use BBM proper rather than just have it take up space on your phone’s storage. If you previously signed up for the service in advance on BBM.com, you should be able to start using BBM straight away.

According to BlackBerry, this method will make for a smooth roll out of the service to users across all platforms (except Windows Phone because no one makes apps for it apparently). They say they’re working as fast as they can to get people online without overloading the system.

Now, a friend of mine had BBM on her iPhone after signing up for an iTunes account in New Zealand (I didn’t know you could do that… And she asks me for tech advice.). She referred to BBM for iOS as buggy and that it didn’t work. Now, that could have been server issues but I do recall seeing other scattered reports around the internet that the app was buggy. As an example, I dug up a CrackBerry forum topic on the matter from the first iOS release.

Anyway, I’ve tried signing up for BBM for Android but haven’t had any luck so far. Only been waiting for 18 hours now. They do know that email is the same one I used for BBM on my old BlackBerry, right? Apparently that means I’m still have to wait at the back of the line like everyone else. I’ve been off BlackBerry for less than three weeks. I want to come back into the fold and you treat me like this? See if I upgrade to you guys in two years with treatment like this.

Source: Inside BlackBerry