Facebook drops BlackBerry BB10 platform support

BlackBerry Passport mobile technology

The Canadian handset manufacturer is watching some of the largest mobile apps step away from it.

Regardless of the efforts that BlackBerry has made to try to convince Facebook and WhatsApp to change their minds about discontinuing their native apps that would support the company’s own operating system, BB10, the applications wouldn’t budge.

The company has since responded to the decision and has expressed its disappointment in this development.

In a recent blog post on the official BlackBerry site, they stated that “We are extremely disappointed in [Facebook’s] 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.” That said, the company has said that they continue to push forward in making sure that their customers will enjoy the best possible experience regardless of the decisions that have been made by the popular social network and messaging apps. They have also said that they “are continuing to search for alternate solutions.”

BlackBerry has also underscored the fact that they are committed to BB10 and the developers for that OS.

BlackBerry Passport mobile technologyOn the blog, they shared that they know the community of developers that creates mobile apps for their devices and that this group “continues to be one of the strongest proponents of BlackBerry 10 and they are creating thousands of apps every month.”

The company has also announced a new initiative that it has designed in order to counterbalance the loss of those two large mobile apps. It is called Great Apps on BlackBerry and it will place the spotlight on 20 exceptional native apps every two weeks. This will help to make certain that the most compelling BB10 applications will be able to stand out and get spotted by device users.

The company has also expressed that it intends to make a range of new strategic investments in order to make certain that other popular applications will keep their offerings supporting the OS. In a last ditch effort, the company has also called for its device users to tweet about how unhappy they are with Facebook and WhatsApp for abandoning them, using the hashtag #ILoveBB10Apps.

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