Even if you’re a fan of the BlackBerry platform (legacy and/or BB 10), it’s hard to deny that the company’s own platforms don’t exactly have a huge slice of the smartphone market pie. This is why it didn’t really come as a surprise to learn that Facebook and WhatsApp will be officially dropping support for BlackBerry’s platforms and discontinuing their apps.No doubt this is rather disappointing news for those who are still using the legacy BlackBerry OS or BB 10, and the Canadian company has since responded to Facebook’s decision on their blog. According to BlackBerry, “We are extremely disappointed in their decision as we know so many users love these apps. We fought back to work with WhatsApp and Facebook to change their minds, but at this time, their decision stands.”
However to help make up for it, the company has announced that they will keep searching for alternative solutions, and they have also announced a new initiative called “Great Apps on BlackBerry”. The idea here is to highlight 20 apps for two weeks, and these are apps that have been designed specifically for BlackBerry’s platform, and must hold a 3-star rating.
We’re not sure how this is supposed to make up for the loss of the two apps, but we’re guessing BlackBerry wants to highlight that there are still plenty of great BlackBerry-specific apps out there. In the meantime if you do love the brand but not the operating system, you could always consider the Android-powered BlackBerry Priv.
Filed in . Read more about Apps, BlackBerry, Facebook and Whatsapp.