Android

Quick tip: App inventory for corporate-owned Android Enterprise devices

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This week another short post. Not just because I missed blogging during my vacation, but mainly to create awareness for a very interesting and often requested feature. That feature is the app inventory for corporate-owned Android Enterprise devices. Until recently the app inventory was not available for corporate-owned Android Enterprise devices, but that has changed. With the recent Microsoft Intune service release (2307), Microsoft has now made some changes to app management and app inventory. Those changes are actually triggered by Google, as Google has started deprecating features and methods of the Google Play EMM API. And even though there are alternatives within that API available, the general advise is to move to the modern Android Management API. That’s exactly what Microsoft is doing and …

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Quick tip: Adding custom support information to corporate-owned Android Enterprise devices

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This first post after my vacation is a quick tip about adding custom support information to corporate-owned Android Enterprise devices. Custom support information enables IT administrators, to customize the short message that is shown when users try to change a setting that is managed by the organziation, to customize the long message that is shown when looking at more information about the short message, and to show information on the device lock screen. Especially the latter customization can be useful for showing some specific information to the user about the device. Think about easily providing the user access the (management) name of the device, or the serial number of the device. This post will walk through the configuration options, followed with the user experience. Configuring …

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Getting started with Microsoft Tunnel for Mobile Application Management for Android

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This week is a follow-up on the post of last week. While last week the focus was on iOS/iPadOS devices, this week the focus is on Android devices. Some parts might overlap with that post of last week, but those parts are definitely needed for the completeness of the story and the configuration. So, in general, the focus is still on Microsoft Tunnel for Mobile Application Management (Tunnel for MAM). As mentioned last week, Tunnel for MAM is one of the features that was released at the beginning of March as part of the Intune Suite add-ons. Tunnel for MAM itself, is available as part of the new Microsoft Intune Plan 2 license. The great thing about Tunnel for MAM is that it makes it …

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Informing users of newly enrolled devices

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This week is all about a nice small new feature that became general available with the latest service release of Microsoft Intune (2301). That feature is enrollment notification. Enrollment notifications provide organizations with an easy method to notify users when a new device is enrolled. That provides organizations with more grip on the devices that are enrolled within the environment, as users will be informed when a new device was enrolled using their credentials. Besides that, it also provides organizations with an alternative method to welcome employees. In other words, a great way to trigger users. Enrollment notifications can be used for Windows, Android, iOS/iPadOS, and MacOS devices that are enrolled by using the user-driven enrollment methods. The notifications can be email notifications and push …

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Managing privacy controls for Office products

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This week is all about managing privacy controls for Office products. That includes Office on Android devices, Office on iOS devices, Office for Mac devices, Office for the web, and Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise on Windows devices. Most organizations often already have a good look at the required configurations options for the privacy controls on Windows devices. Office for other platforms, however, are often forgotten. Just like Office for the web. Good thing, though, is that there are nowadays multiple privacy controls available that can be configured for Office on all platforms. For some platforms there are even multiple configurations options. Best part of those configuration options is that there is also an option to configure the privacy controls cross platforms. This post will …

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Organizing Managed Google Play apps with collections

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This week is all about a smaller newly introduced feature regarding Android Enterprise. A feature that helps with organizing the Managed Google Play apps within the Managed Google Play store. When structure and details are important, this is that sweet little detail that makes it perfect. Starting with the latest service release of Microsoft Intune (service release 2211), there is now support for organizing apps within the Managed Google Play store by using collections. Collections are shown on the front page of the Managed Google Play store and provide users with easy access to the required apps. Collections can be used to organize apps in different categories. Custom categories. It’s completely up to the IT administrator to create collections, to name collections, to add apps …

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Using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Android for protecting the personal profile

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This week another post about Microsoft Defender functionality, but on a completely different platform. This week is all about using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, on Android devices, for protecting the personal profile. And for now, specifically focused on personally owned devices. That protection functionality is focused on providing users with the same level of protection in their personal profile, as provided in their work profile. It provides users – within their personal profile – with malware scanning on user-installed apps, protection from malicious URLs, network protection, and privacy controls. That provides users with better protection and organizations with more control on which devices are allowed to have access to company data. This post will mainly focus on the configuration of that additional protection of the …

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Common Criteria Mode for corporate-owned Android Enterprise devices

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This week something completely different compared to the last few weeks. While the last last few weeks were all about the great simplicity of Windows 365 Enterprise, this week is all about Android Enterprise. Different platform, theoretically possibly the same device. With the introduction of Android 11 (API level 30), some nice new features were introduced for enterprises. That includes the addition of the Common Criteria (CC) Mode. CC Mode already exists for a few years for Samsung Knox devices and – in combination with Microsoft Intune – already could be configured by using OEMConfig (with the KSP app), but is now available by default within Android Enterprise. Even better, with one of the latest service releases (2207) of Microsoft Intune that can now be …

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Welcome to the still growing Android device management jungle: A summary

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The second short post of this week is another extension of one of my sessions at the Workplace Ninja Summit 2022. At the summit I did my second session about Welcome to the still growing Android device management jungle. During that session I shared information around the still growing device management options for Android devices, pointers that can help with making the right decisions and information around the different configuration options. This post will provide a quick summary of that session by going through the different management options, providing important differences and summarizing the main configuration capabilities. The slides (PDF) of that session are available for download here. Android (device) management options When looking at the Android (device) management options, there are many options. And the number …

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Creating the path for mobile devices to on-premises resources: A summary

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This week a few shorter posts, as my posts this week are extensions of my sessions at the Workplace Ninja Summit 2022. At the summit I did my first session about Creating the path for mobile devices to on-premises resources. During that session I shared information around the architecture and flow of Microsoft Tunnel, I zoomed in on getting up-and-running with Microsoft Tunnel and showed getting insight of Microsoft Tunnel. This post will provide a quick summary of that session by quickly showing the architecture and flow of Microsoft Tunnel and by showing the summary and reminders. The slides (PDF) of that session are available for download here. Architecting Microsoft Tunnel An important part of creating the Microsoft Tunnel infrastructure is a solid architecture. In most cases that …

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