Singapore – WhatsApp, the company behind WhatsApp Messenger, and BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY; TSX: BB) today announced that WhatsApp will bring a native version of its popular mobile messaging service to the BlackBerry® 10 platform.

BlackBerry 10 provides an ideal platform for social apps such as WhatsApp Messenger to fully leverage innovative new features like BlackBerry Flow, where apps work together, sharing information with each other to quickly lead the customer intuitively to the information they need and to give them the ability to immediately take action.

“BlackBerry has always been about bringing people together in a way that is fast, reliable and impactful,” said, Martyn Mallick, Vice President of Global Alliances and Business Development at BlackBerry. “WhatsApp is a highly anticipated mobile messaging app that connects users to their contacts on several platforms, and we are pleased to work with WhatsApp to bring their service to our customers.”

In building a native application for the BlackBerry 10 platform, WhatsApp has been able to provide a fantastic user experience that leverages the true multi-tasking capabilities of BlackBerry 10. WhatsApp Messenger for BlackBerry 10 provides a high quality messaging experience that utilizes real-time push notifications to alert you when you receive messages- even when the screen is locked.

Fully integrated into BlackBerry Contacts, when the customer launches the app for the first time, WhatsApp can automatically scan existing phone numbers in the contact directory and extract the ones using WhatsApp, to help customers build out their contacts list and get started right away.

WhatsApp for BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry 4.6 and higher is available in BlackBerry World (www.blackberryworld.com).