Available permissions

Connect to BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). You can use this permission to access contact lists and user profiles, invite BBM contacts to download your app, initiate BBM chats and share content from within your app, and stream data between apps.

Access the calendar on the device. This access includes viewing, adding, and deleting calendar appointments.

Access data that's received from the cameras on the device. With this permission, your app can take pictures, record videos, and use the flash.

Take a screen shot or video of any information visible on the screen of the device. This permission also allows the app to share the user's screen.

Access the contacts that are stored on the device. This access includes viewing, creating, and deleting contacts.

Access unique device identifiers, such as the PIN or the serial number. This permission also allows you to access SIM card information on the device.

Access the email and PIN messages that are stored on the device. This access includes viewing, creating, sending, and deleting messages.

Access gamepad functionality. This permission also indicates that the app has official gamepad support in the BlackBerry World storefront.

Read the current GPS location of the device.

This permission is deprecated. Use the Location (access_location_services) permission instead.

This permission is not available as a check box on the Application tab of the bar-descriptor.xml file.

Create a custom account that’s accessible in the BlackBerry Hub. BlackBerry must allow your developer account to sign your app to use this restricted permission. To use this permission, complete the App Permissions Request form.

This permission is not available as a check box on the Application tab of the bar-descriptor.xml file.

Integrate with the BlackBerry Hub. With this permission, your app can create and manage data in the BlackBerry Hub. BlackBerry must allow your developer account to sign your app to use this restricted permission. To use this permission, complete the App Permissions Request form.

This permission is not available as a check box on the Application tab of the bar-descriptor.xml file.

For more information, see Headless applications and Push Service.

For the best user experience, you should integrate with the BlackBerry Hub in a headless app, preferably integrated with the Push Service. This approach ensures that incoming data is updated in the BlackBerry Hub, even when your app is not running, with minimal impact on battery life.

Use the Internet connection from a Wi-Fi, wired, or other type of connection to access locations that are not local on the device.

Access the current location of the device, as well as locations that the user has saved.

Access the audio stream from the microphone on the device.

Access user information on the device, such as the first name, last name, and BlackBerry ID username of the user currently associated with this device.

Reduce the width of the region along the bottom bezel of the device that accepts swipe-up gestures. When you use this permission, swipe-up gestures are recognized in a more narrow area along the bottom bezel.

This behavior allows apps that run in landscape orientation, such as games, to use corner regions for menus and virtual gamepads and prevents the game from being sent to the background inadvertently.

This permission is not available as a check box on the Application tab of the bar-descriptor.xml file.

Access the content that's stored in notebooks on the device. This access includes adding entries to, and deleting entries from, the notebooks.

Change global notification settings. Apps have permission to read their own notification settings.

Allows this app to use the personal network.

This permission is not available as a check box on the Application tab of the bar-descriptor.xml file.

Due to the potential for misuse of the functionality associated with this permission, apps that use this permission are rigorously reviewed for acceptance to the BlackBerry World storefront.

Determine when a user is on a phone call. This access also allows an app to access the phone number assigned to the device and send DTMF (Dual Tone Multi-Frequency) tones.

Add audio to a phone call.

View the status of phone calls that are in progress and the phone number of the remote party.

View the logs of previous incoming or outgoing phone calls.

Start an outgoing phone call without asking the user to confirm the phone call.

BlackBerry must allow your developer account to sign your app to use this restricted permission. To use this permission, complete the App Permissions Request form.

This permission is not available as a check box on the Application tab of the bar-descriptor.xml file.

Control the current phone call. This access includes ending a phone call and sending DTMF tones to the phone.

Record phone calls. This access includes recording an ongoing phone call and saving the audio to a file.

This permission is not available as a check box on the Application tab of the bar-descriptor.xml file.

Post notifications to the notification area of the device screen. This permission does not require the user to grant your app access.

Access the Push Service to receive and request push messages.

To use the Push Service, you must register with BlackBerry. When you register, you receive a confirmation email message that contains information that your app needs to receive and request push messages. For more information about registering, visit the Push Service documentation.

If you're using the Push Service with BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 or BlackBerry Device Service, you don't need to register with BlackBerry and you must not specify the Push permission for your app.

Perform background processing. Without this permission, your app stops all processing when the user changes focus to another app.

You should use this permission sparingly and only when your app must perform specific processing in the background. Apps that use this permission are rigorously reviewed for acceptance to the BlackBerry World storefront for their use of device battery power.

This permission is useful for apps that play music or manage downloads.

Perform certain tasks in the background, without opening the app, for a short period of time.

Due to the potential for misuse of the functionality associated with this permission, apps that use this permission are rigorously reviewed for acceptance to the BlackBerry World storefront.

Run in the background as a long-running headless app.

Read and write files that are shared between all apps on the device. With this permission, your app can access pictures, music, documents, and other files that are stored on the user's device, at a remote storage provider, or on a media card.

Encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify data using a smart card.

This permission is restricted. To use this permission, send an email to SCRinquiries@blackberry.com.

This permission is not available as a check box on the Application tab of the bar-descriptor.xml file.

Allow third-party smart card drivers and smart card reader drivers to integrate with the Smart Card service. This permission is restricted. To use this permission, send an email to SCRinquiries@blackberry.com.

This permission is not available as a check box on the Application tab of the bar-descriptor.xml file.

Use APDU (Application Protocol Data Unit) for custom commands. This permission is restricted. To use this permission, send an email to SCRinquiries@blackberry.com.

This permission is not available as a check box on the Application tab of the bar-descriptor.xml file.

Access the text messages that are stored on the device. This access includes viewing, creating, sending, and deleting text messages.

Receive Wi-Fi event notifications such as Wi-Fi scan results or changes in the Wi-Fi connection state.

This permission also allows limited Wi-Fi control for hotspot aggregator applications that manage network selection and authentication to a hotspot.

This permission doesn't allow the app to force a connection to a specific network profile when there are other available networks that have a higher priority configured on the device. If you want to retrieve or query information about existing Wi-Fi connections, it's not necessary to configure this permission.