BlackBerry, known for its physical QWERTY keyboards, tested the Android waters back in 2015 with the BlackBerry Priv, sporting a 5.4 inch screen with a sliding keyboard, not to mention, running on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Having somewhat succumbed to Android’s app ecosystem with the handset, BlackBerry has announced that Facebook is ending their support for BBOS and BlackBerry 10.
BlackBerry’s Lou Gazzola made the announcement on the company’s blog:
“The app landscape continues to evolve, and in ways that are not always within our control. Recently, Facebook made the decision to discontinue support of their essential APIs for BlackBerry and WhatsApp announced they would end support for BlackBerry 10 and BBOS at the end of 2016.”
This news comes a month after WhatsApp made a similar announcement, that the app will be discontinued on BlackBerry’s operating systems, in addition to Nokia devices by 2017. Gazzola added that the company’s commitment to BlackBerry 10 and to the developers remain unchanged. Three years ago, BlackBerry 10 was launched, boasting 70,000 apps which were more than any first-gen OS.
We have always known that BlackBerry is catered to a more niche market compared to iOS and Android powered devices, but with Facebook and WhatsApp pulling the plug on its OS, it’s hard to say whether BB loyalists will remain within the ecosystem. Any angry BlackBerry users out there?
Source: BlackBerry Blog