It's now been nearly four months since BlackBerry first announced that its BlackBerry Messenger service would be coming to Android and iPhone, and since then the company has remained fairly silent about when the apps would be released. That changed today, though, as BlackBerry Senior Strategic Account Manager Alex Kinsella revealed on Twitter that his company submitted BBM for iPhone to the App Store two weeks ago. Interestingly, 9to5Mac notes that Apple has been reviewing 99 percent of iOS apps within 5 days of their submission.

We've yet to see the BBM for iPhone app in action, but sources speaking to 9to5Mac claim that it looks fairly similar to version of BBM that's available on the Z10. That lines up with recent leaks that have shown off beta versions BBM for Android, an app with a design that's extremely similar to the look of BlackBerry 10 itself.

When it made BBM for Android and iPhone official, BlackBerry said that the apps would launch this summer. That timeframe is closing quickly, but we've seen some evidence in the past couple of weeks that suggested that the apps were getting close to release, and today's announcement from Kinsella backs that up. It's not clear what's taking so long for BBM for iPhone to gain approval from Apple, but at least now we know that the app is one step closer to the App Store's virtual shelves.

Via 9to5Mac, @alexkinsella