BlackBerry has announced changes that affect the ability to switch between Consumer BBM and BBM Enterprise, ahead of an upcoming split of BBM into three separate services: BBM Enterprise for all devices; BBM Consumer for BBOS and BB10; and BBM Consumer for Android, iOS and Microsoft devices.
Alex Thurber, Senior Vice-President and General Manager of Mobility Solutions Division at BlackBerry stated,
“On August 29, 2017, BlackBerry began the migration process that will allow our strategic partner, Emtek, to license and operate the BBM Consumer service for Android, iOS and Microsoft devices while BlackBerry will own and continue operating the BBM Enterprise service for all platforms along with the BBM Consumer service for all BB10 and BBOS devices. The distinction between devices is important from a legal standpoint because BlackBerry cannot transfer the BBM user data associated with any BBM enterprise account, nor any BBM Consumer account for BB10 and BBOS devices to Emtek.”
Ironically, Thurber added,
“….. It should also be noted that these changes impact a small number of BBM users.”
BBM Enterprise is a highly secure business class version of BlackBerry’s flagship messaging product, BBM. To establish secure communications between users, BBM Enterprise uses public encryption standards to digitally sign and encrypt messages. It allows users to message their co-workers with default BBM encryption and message their sensitive contacts with enhanced encryption.
BBM Enterprise uses FIPS 140-2 certified cryptographic libraries to ensure that BBM Enterprise satisfies the security requirements for protecting unclassified information as defined by the Federal Information Processing Standards.
BBM Enterprise meets or exceeds NIST Suite B Cryptography for signing, encrypting and hashing.
A new feature coming soon for BBM Enterprise is Multiple Points of Presence (MPoP) which will allow users to have BBM Enterprise securely running on all your devices simultaneously using the same BBID.
What users can no longer do
- BBM users are no longer able to switch their BBM account from an Android, iOS, and Microsoft device to a BlackBerry 10 or BlackBerry OS device.
- Users are no longer able to switch their BBM Enterprise account to a BBM account on an Android, iOS, or Microsoft device.
What users can still do
- Users can still switch their BBM account from a BlackBerry 10 or BlackBerry OS device to an Android, iOS, or Microsoft device.
When switching from BBM to BBM Enterprise, the following changes are expected:
- All previous chats and group chats are deleted;Â users can engage in multi-person chats by adding additional users to an existing chat.
- Enhanced group features, such as calendar and lists, are no longer available.
- Users are no longer members of existing groups and cannot rejoin any groups.
- The BBM Shop and virtual goods are no longer available.
