RIM blames Outage on BlackBerry Messenger Update

It seems like Christmas time is not too good for the BlackBerry smartphone users, especially those who have been trying to communicate using the BlackBerry Messenger versions 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56. A number of incidents had been reported when users failed to send e-mails and receive them using the above mentioned versions of the BlackBerry Messenger.

Some users were not able to receive e-mails on their devices, while a number of problems with the messaging service have also been reported. Messages were blocked, there were no confirmations on whether messages had been delivered etc. During the service interruption on Tuesday, message delivery was either intermittent or was delayed. These problems caused lot of inconvenience to the BlackBerry users in The Americas.

The new BlackBerry Messenger which has been developed by Research In Motion is an instant messenger application which allows people not only to chat and exchange messages, but also allows them to perform more. The messages sent on this application go via the BlackBerry PIN. The application also has chat rooms where multiple Blackberry users can communicate by chatting in a single session. Apart from this, sharing pictures and sending smileys among friends, relatives or any acquaintances is also a feature of this messenger.

The causes of the failures of the e-mail and messaging services of BlackBerry Messenger 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56 are supposed to be due to a flaw in these two versions of the messenger, as reported by Research In Motion on Wednesday morning. Though the root cause is yet to be ascertained, it has been attributed to the flaws in the two messenger versions. They have been assumed to have caused the unexpected database issue within the infrastructure of BlackBerry.

Research In Motion has taken steps to restore the service to normalcy. They have apologized for the inconvenience caused to the users and have released a new version, BlackBerry Messenger 5.0.0.57 to solve the problems. The users, who had upgraded to the flawed versions of BlackBerry Messengers since the 14th of December, have been asked to download BlackBerry Messenger 5.0.0.57. Before proceeding to install the application, users must ensure that they make a back up of their contacts by following the steps Menu>Options>Backup>Locally to SD Card in BlackBerry Messenger.

Research In Motion will continue to monitor its systems to ensure that no such problems occur and during this holiday period BlackBerry users can communicate with their loved ones with ease.