This is not a joke. Blackberry has confirmed that it will be opening its venerable messaging platform (BBM) to IOS and Android users. The ETA is sometime "this summer" conditional on approval from Google and Apple.

It will launch as a FREE app on each of the appstores. They will bring straight one-on-one and group messaging at first but plan to introduce more advanced functionality is subsequent releases (voice, screen sharing, etc).

Thorsten Heins, Blackberry CEO, said he is "committed to making the BBM experience on other platforms as fully featured” as possible.