BlackBerry App Store to remove paid apps from April 1

BlackBerry has announced that it is removing paid apps from BlackBerry World App Store from April 1st, 2018.

According to the message, which was recently published publicly, BB10 users won’t be able to purchase anything from BlackBerry World starting on April 1 when the paid content will be removed. BlackBerry says the marketplace will become a “free-only storefront,” and that “all purchasing mechanisms will be disabled.”

BlackBerry effectively shutting down Blackberry World. Final nail in the BB10 coffin pic.twitter.com/0BbqbCc6Ur

— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) February 27, 2018

Developers who currently have paid content in that app store have the option of switching it over to the “Free” category. That switch from paid to free must happen by March 31; any paid content that hasn’t been converted will simply be removed altogether on the next day. Developers who only have free content on BlackBerry World don’t need to take any action, the company says.

The company further states that developers can continue to offer free content that is monetized via BlackBerry World, but there’s a restriction: the payment aspect of that monetization must exist within the app because BlackBerry is removing all payment mechanisms from its app store starting April 1. Customers who have previously purchased paid apps will continue to have access to them.