Canadian handset maker BlackBerry today announced availability of its popular instant messaging service BBM for businesses.

The firm announced availability of BBMTM Protected, the first solution in the eBBMTM Suite for secure enterprise class messaging.

“eBBM Suite is a new family of BBM products and services built for business that bring together the convenience and usability of BBM with the additional security and compliance required by enterprise customers,” it said in a statement.

eBBM Suite will include new services designed to enable mobile workers to be more productive on the go, while meeting enterprises’ needs for security, manageability and control.

The first product in the suite, which was announced earlier this year, BBM Protected, is being delivered ahead of schedule today, the Waterloo (Ontario)—based firm added.

The current release of BBM Protected can be used for BlackBerry smartphones running BB0S 6.0 or later or BlackBerry 10 in Regulated mode. Versions of BBM Protected for BlackBerry 10 smartphones using BlackBerry Balance and iOS and Android devices are expected later this year, it said.

As part of the suite, BBM Protected provides an enhanced security model for BBM messages sent between BlackBerry smartphones.

“BBM Protected is the only secure mobile instant messaging app that uses a FIPS 140—2 validated cryptographic library. BBM Protected enables employees to use the same app to securely message colleagues inside the company for work as they do to chat and share with family and friends outside the company,” BlackBerry said.

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