A few updates on the world of messaging:

• A beta tester at BlackBerryOS uploaded a demo showing off the beat version of BBM on Android, which is going to be released later this month. The video has been disabled but GigaOM’s Alex Colon has a version on his post. To the degree that is possible it seems like BlackBerry tried to keep the UX as much like BlackBerry 10 as possible. The rumors are swirling about BBM being spun off as a separate business (see Blackberry proves how success can blind you).
• Silent Circle, the encrypted communications company that recently shut down its encrypted email service because of NSA conflicts, has announced availability of the Silent Text encrypted messaging and file transfer application for Android. The iOS version has been available for some time.

Silent Text for Android’s features include the following (from the press release):

• Burn Notice feature allows you to have any messages you send self-destruct after a time delay
• Send map locations encrypted and controlled
• Peer-to-peer key management — keys are on each device, not on Silent Circle’s servers
• No one but you and the person you are texting can decrypt and read the information
• Send any file up to 100MB

I think the Silent Text Burn Notice is a really compelling feature: