End of an era: BlackBerry Messenger to shut down soon

BBM, once a pioneer of encrypted peer-to-peer communication, Thursday announced that it will shut down its consumer service on May 31, after losing out to competitors like WhatsApp and WeChat.

BBM, in a blog post, said it had set out to "reinvigorate" BBM consumer service three years ago as a cross-platform service where users can not only chat but also consume content and use payment services.However, consumers will have the option of moving to BBMe -- BlackBerry's enterprise messaging offering.

"We poured our hearts into making this a reality, and we are proud of what we have built to date...Though we are sad to say goodbye, the time has come to sunset the BBM consumer service, and for us to move on," it added. In 2016, BlackBerry had licensed BBM Consumer to Emtek as part of its transition process.