Smartphone users who are still running Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread will finally be able to get their hands on BBM next month. BlackBerry has confirmed that it will launch a “special” version of its popular messaging app to support the 3-year-old operating system, opening it up to millions more users on Android.

“The team at BBM has been busy in the kitchen over the last few months cooking up this special release of BBM for Android smartphones running Gingerbread and are now moving into an external beta ahead of the launch in February,” BlackBerry said on its blog.

“Supporting Gingerbread will allow millions more Android users to download the popular BBM instant messaging app.”

According to Google’s most recent Android adoption figures, more than 21 percent of users are still running Gingerbread on their devices. In comparison, just 1.4 percent are running KitKat, while 16.9 percent are running Ice Cream Sandwich.

Furthermore, a large portion of those Gingerbread-powered devices will be operating in emerging markets, and countries where cheaper, entry-level Android devices are far more popular than their more expensive counterparts. BlackBerry is still very popular in some of these countries, and so giving them access to BBM makes a lot of sense.

BlackBerry hasn’t provided a release date for its special version of BBM, but it does promise availability next month.

• SourceBlackBerry