Ever since BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) announced that its popular messaging app would be coming to Android and iOS, there have been rumors about exactly when that will happen. Multiple sites have been reporting that BBM for Android would be available this morning, but a warning for fans of the app: the ones that are on the Google Play store (as of 8:05 a.m. Eastern) appear to be fakes.
Scattered reports about BBM availability
Earlier this week, CrackBerry reported that numerous sources indicate that BlackBerry Messenger for Android will be available today, while the iOS version will be available tomorrow. The site reported that the Android version of BBM would be published on Google Play at 7 a.m. Eastern this morning. Well, it’s 8:15 now, and there are numerous fake version of the app on Google Play, with some of them even saying that BlackBerry is the publisher.
Spotting fake BlackBerry apps
There are a few clues on how to spot the fakes. Of course the first obvious one is to make sure that BlackBerry is the publisher. The second is to check the publish date, but unfortunately there are at least four of them with BlackBerry listed as the publisher with a publish date of today. The third is to read the comments. Some of them have a ton of reviews from people who have already downloaded them and say they are fake.
And finally, there’s another clue that’s a little less obvious. If you read the complete description, you’ll notice that at the bottom there are a bunch of popular search terms just shoved into the description. Words like “Angry Birds,” “You Tube,” “Minecraft Free” and others.
These are all popular apps that people may be searching for, and by putting them in the description of these fake BBM apps, they could appear in search results for these terms. I find it difficult to believe that BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) would resort to black hat SEO like this, even though the company is struggling.
Other reports about BBM Timing
The report on CrackBerry also indicates that the BBM.com site will go live, but at this point, it just takes us to a Canadian BlackBerry site with the same ad saying that BlackBerry Messenger is coming to Android soon. It also reports that that BBM for iOS will become available on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s App Store at “12:01am EST in local time zones.” The main source CrackBerry points to is the Malay site Tekno Up, which reports these dates along with a launch ceremony in Jakarta which was supposed to be on Wednesday.
That launch ceremony appears to have been just a rumor because it doesn’t sound like it ever happened. It’s interesting that no one noticed until days later that it was supposedly scheduled. This may be another sign of just how forgettable BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has become.
This morning, CNET’s Asia site reports that BBM will be available for download on the Google Play store tomorrow, Sept. 21, and on the Apple App Store on Sunday, Sept. 22. Other sites also reported this same news earlier this week. We’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to see if these new dates pan out.
