BlackBerry says Android Wear support for BBM coming in early 2015

BlackBerry, today at CES 2015, has announced that its BBM service is coming to Android Wear in early 2015. BlackBerry hopes that its Android Wear client will bring nearly the full capabilities of the messaging service to smartwatches. With BBM, users will be able to receive push notifications for new messages, read full messages, respond to messages with Google Now, and accept BBM invites.

If users prefer to not dictate new messages to their watch, they will also have the ability to choose from a list of pre-defined messages to quickly send a response. They will also have the ability to dismiss unwanted BBM notifications from the Android Wear client.

BlackBerry claims that BBM users spend more than nine hours a week within the app. With the Android Wear client, the company hopes to eliminate the need for users to constantly be looking at their smartphone.

The full breakdown of BBM for Android Wear features is below:

• Receive alerts on the watch when new BBM messages come in, see the sender and discreetly preview messages.
• Read BBM messages in their entirety, navigate among messages and dismiss notifications with a simple swipe.
• Respond to messages hands-free with Google Now or choose from pre-defined messages to quickly send a response.
• Accept BBM invites from the watch without the need to access their smartphone.

BlackBerry says that BBM for Android Wear will be supported on a “wide variety” of Android Wear watches, and notes that if you have the BBM app installed on your phone, Android Wear support will automatically be available when the update is released. The company hopes to release BBM for Android Wear support in early 2015.