Get ready, BBM addicts, because BlackBerry has confirmed that it will release BlackBerry Messenger for Android and iPhone later this week. The BBM for Android app is expected to be available starting at 7:00 a.m. Eastern on Sept. 21, while BBM for iPhone will hit the App Store at 12:01 a.m. local time on Sept. 22. BlackBerry notes that BBM for Android will require version 4.0 or higher. BBM for iPhone will be available to users on iOS 6 and iOS 7.

BBM for Android and iPhone will feature many of the same features as the native BlackBerry app at launch, including basic chat, BBM Groups multi-person chats, delivery and read receipts, photo sharing and a unique PIN that'll be assigned to each user. BlackBerry promises that it's planning to add features like BBM Voice and BBM Video calling as well as BBM Channel communities in the future. 

BlackBerry Messenger has long been one of the tentpole features of the BlackBerry platform, giving users a quick, free and pretty reliable way to keep in touch with their friends without having to use text messaging. While there are a number of messaging services available today, it's still kind of crazy to see that BBM will soon be available on non-BlackBerry smartphones. What will be interesting is seeing not only how many Android and iPhone users download their respective BBM apps, but also what number of them actually continue to use it over other services.

Via Inside BlackBerry