BlackBerry is opening up a new revenue stream with a software development kit for developers which offers secure messaging, voice, and video in mobile communications.
The launch of the BBM Enterprise SDK puts BlackBerry into competition with other companies who offer these services such as Twilio, Nexmo and Bandwidth.
The move marks the Canadian company’s entry into the Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) market.
Available for the Android and iOS platform later this month, the software development kit gives APIs to both enterprise and developer clients in order to improve overall business processes.
The kit allows developers to integrate secure messaging, voice and video capabilities into applications and services.
It will include tools for building chat apps, voice and video calling, secure file sharing 
and collaboration and real-time notifications such as push and messaging.
BBM Enterprise SDK uses the global BlackBerry communications infrastructure, designed to meet the most challenging enterprise needs.
In a blog post announcing the kit, BlackBerry COO Marty Beard said: “The ability to quickly build secure chat, voice, video, and SMS into enterprise applications is extremely valuable for the collaboration culture of the modern business world.”
Beard noted that BBM Enterprise is “a distinct entity” from consumer-level BBM app, built from the ground up with enterprise-grade security.
BlackBerry COO Marty Beard said: “We are constantly innovating and looking for ways to leverage our legacy and expertise in secure mobility to solve real business problems.
“We are opening up a new revenue stream for the company with a fully cloud-based communication service that is designed to help developers, ISVs, and enterprises meet the most demanding security and compliance requirements.”
The Canadian firm said its existing ecosystem of developers, which has created over 4,000 third-party enterprise applications on the BlackBerry Development Platform, can now easily integrate real-time communications.
BlackBerry said it has a pipeline of partners that are ready to use once the BBM Enterprise SDK becomes available.
