It's now been a little over a week since the BBM for Android and iPhone apps officially made their way into their respective platforms' app stores, and to celebrate, the folks at BlackBerry have provided an update on how things have been going since then. BlackBerry announced today that it's added 20 million new active Android and iPhone users to its messaging service, bringing BBM up to a total of 80 million monthly active users. The company notes that it defines an "active user" as someone that sends or receives any BBM data during a 30-day period.

BlackBerry also confirmed today that it has removed the waiting line for joining BBM on Android and iPhone. When the apps first rolled out last week, BlackBerry utilized a queue system that made new users wait their turn in order to actually begin using the service so that its servers wouldn't get overloaded. Now that line is gone, meaning that anyone can download BBM for Android or iPhone and immediately start sending and receiving messages.

Looking ahead, BlackBerry says that it plans to add several new features to its BBM for Android and iPhone apps. Those goodies include BBM Video calling, BBM Voice calling and BBM Channels. BBM Channels is a recent addition to the BBM service, allowing a person to create a community that can amass an unlimited number of followers. The creator can then share to all of the Channel followers, and users can comment, like and share posts within the community.

After enduring a month-long delay due to issues caused by a leaked version of the BBM for Android app, it seems as though BlackBerry's messaging apps are off to a pretty nice start. Not only are they adding quite a few active users to the BBM service, but BlackBerry has also worked to update both the Android and iPhone apps a couple of times since launch, which ought to help instill some confidence in their users.

What will be interesting is watching how many users join and stick with BBM in the coming months. It's tough to make a prediction about that stat right now, but so long as BlackBerry keeps updating its apps and adding new features like it says that it will, the apps stand a much better chance at success.

Via BlackBerry (1), (2)