This article was published on March 30, 2016

Facebook has thrown all three die-hard BlackBerry fans a bone


Facebook has thrown all three die-hard BlackBerry fans a bone Image by: Svetlana Dikhtyareva / Shutterstock.com

When Facebook announced it was dropping support for its native app on BlackBerry’s in-house mobile operating system, users of BlackBerry 10 were understandably upset – it’s one of the world’s most popular websites and lots of people use it to keep in touch on a minute-by-minute basis.

With even BlackBerry all but abandoning its own OS – the Priv, easily the best BlackBerry of recent memory, runs Android – it’s hard to expect a third-party to keep on with updates. Facebook has managed a compromise however.

facebook-for-blackberry-10

Rather than keep its native app, Facebook has provided a Web-based version to replace it – it’s live now, and the native one will be removed from March 31.

“The experience will be slightly different, but you’ll still get the same Facebook features you love. And, of course the full Android Facebook app is available on the Priv by BlackBerry.

Our fans are fighting for us (#WeAreBlackBerry), and we love their support (#ILoveBB10Apps). That’s why we have worked hard with Facebook to address some technical challenges and the best solution was to move forward with a Web-based app.”

It’s just another nail in the coffin for a mobile OS that, at best, can be considered the walking dead – but there’s a smattering of BlackBerry users out there who are pleased with today’s news, even if that does seem to be an ever decreasing number.

Of course, that ‘three die-hard fans’ is a tongue-in-cheek joke, but it’s relatively not all that far off the mark. A Nielsen survey of 30,000 people at the end of 2015 found that less than one percent use a phone running BlackBerry’s mobile OSes.

If you are one of those three people, however, you’ll need to update your BlackBerry OS or BlackBerry 10 handset to keep using Facebook from your phone.

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Also tagged with