Group messaging appears to be a rather big deal for OEMs and software companies. In order to fight Apple’s iMessage to be available with iOS 5 and BlackBerry’s own BBM, Samsung is preparing its own solution called ChatON.

It will be available starting October and will come pre-installed on smartphones running its own Bada or Google’s Android platform. What Samsung hopes will set ChatON aside from the competition is its ability to handle cross-platform messages, with support for major smartphone platforms including iPhone and BlackBerry. It will later be available as a download for other Android-powered smartphones as well as devices running on completely different operating systems. ChatON will allow users to send text, images, hand-written notes, make group chat sharing of videos.