BlackBerry releases Priv Emulator for developers

With the physical keyboard kind of having gone the way of the Tamagotchi and the summer jams mixtape, the BlackBerry Priv is setting itself apart by featuring a full qwerty keyboard. Now developers can take this hardware into full consideration, because BlackBerry has just released a Priv emulator.

The emulator runs best with the most recent version of Android Studio and with SDK tools matching the version of Android currently running on the Priv. In addition to simulating the physical keyboard, the emulator also gives developers access to the power and volume buttons. This is done by adding a Blackberry Priv skin to the Android Virtual Device Manager in Android Studio.

You can download the Priv skin files from BlackBerry. Once they’re downloaded, place the skin in the SDK and run Android Studio. Once you’ve imported the new hardware profile, you’ll be ready to test out the BlackBerry Priv and take full advantage of its physical keyboard.

The BlackBerry Priv is the first BlackBerry device to use the Android operating system. The company adopted the OS after a decrease in the number of available apps for BlackBerry devices led to a significant number of their customers leaving for other brands. BlackBerry hopes to recapture their previous user base with the Priv’s physical keyboard. This emulator should be a solid step in the right direction to encourage developers to engage the Priv’s hardware in a serious way.