The BlackBerry® Push Service implements the Push Access Protocol (PAP). The PAP specifies how push applications can send messages to mobile devices. With the BlackBerry Push Data Service (BPDS), content developers can use a PAP interface to push content to BlackBerry devices. The BPDS infrastructure works as a Push Protocol Gateway (PPG). It provides a reliable and highly secure set of services that allows content providers to push data to their client applications on the BlackBerry device.

RIM also provides the BlackBerry® Push Service SDK that helps simplify push application development. It provides a programming model to help developers create client/server side push applications in enterprise and consumer environments. The SDK exposes the push functionality at a higher level of abstraction so that the developer can concentrate on what the developer wants to do and not on how to accomplish simple tasks (such as creating push messages). It also allows the developer to choose the appropriate push environment (enterprise or consumer) without changing the push application.

Under normal conditions, each request to the PPG returns a response that includes a status code that indicates the result of the request.