BlackBerry has been through some tough times in recent years but the Canadian company is still pulling hard in the right direction and reaching out to old and new users alike, this time with Android Wear.
We’ve seen support for Amazon-tweaked Android apps included in the most recent iteration of the BlackBerry OS, version 10, and now, at this year’s CES the company has announced support for BBM, its popular messaging app, on Google’s wearable OS, Android Wear.
“BlackBerry is committed to listening to our customers and integrating new features and partners to improve the BBM Chat experience. The integration of BBM to support wearable technology is just one way we’re expanding the capabilities of our portfolio and delivering exciting options for customers to easily access BlackBerry’s cross-platform technologies,” said Herman Li, BlackBerry’s Senior Vice President, BBM Engineering and Product Management.
The app will permit users to receive alerts on their watch and then discretely preview the messages or choose to read them in their entirety. Users will be able to respond to their messages using voice input or alternatively they will be able to choose from a list of pre-written responses, and the app will also support hands-free Google Now implementation in some form too.
We also wouldn’t be surprised if, down the line, the company pulls the same trick with the Apple Watch too.
The decision to begin supporting Google’s up and coming wearable OS seems to be a sensible one, given the platform’s upsurge in popularity. The higher ups at BlackBerry must also be expecting wearable technology to make the jump into the enterprise world in the coming months too, and their prediction is one which will likely come good given the near limitless potential for time and labour saving technology within the workplace.
The app will be released ‘in early 2015’ according to BlackBerry, so keep your eyes peeled because, if you’re one of the many people who still rely on BBM, your smartwatch is going to become a heck of a lot more useful.
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