BlackBerry has announced that BlackBerry Messenger will be released today for Android and iOS. The company originally planned to release its messaging app late last month, but those plans were abruptly pushed back when an early version of the Android app publicly leaked ahead of schedule. The company says that "about 1 million" Android users were using the unreleased version of BBM for Android, and BlackBerry is also claiming that more than 1 million iOS users managed to "side load" the app onto iPhone. "In the next few hours, people will start seeing BBM in Google Play, the App Store and in select Samsung App Stores," the company says.

But unfortunately it appears that BlackBerry is still very much concerned about an initial surge of users. It's implementing a registration wait list; upon opening the app, you'll have to enter an email address to reserve your spot. Anyone that signed up for information about the mobile apps at BBM.com won't have to wait, but new signups will have to deal with the virtual queue. Despite being despised by users, the wait list has become an increasingly popular tactic among startups. Still, it strikes us as odd to see BlackBerry using the strategy. "We are focused on moving millions of customers through the line as fast as possible," BlackBerry says. The company will be providing updates on "how quickly the line is moving" via its Twitter account. BlackBerry first announced that its BBM client would be going multi-platform in May.

Update: BlackBerry has announced that the BBM app is now available for download from the iTunes App Store and Google Play.