Remotely Install Android Apps from Google Play Store

Scalefusion integration with Google's Android Enterprise (Android for Work), gives you and the IT Admins the ability to Search, Approve, and Publish apps from Google Play Store directly to the devices.

If you have setup Android Enterprise and have enrolled the devices using either afw#mobilock or Zero-touch or BYOD, then Scalefusion creates a managed Google Play Store account on these devices. This account is used to automatically install the applications that are approved by you.

Follow the steps below to remotely approve and install applications for your Scalefusion managed devices.

Before you Begin

1. Complete Android Enterprise Setup
2. Enroll a Device using afw#mobilock or Zero-touch or BYOD

Approving Applications

The first step is to approve applications from Google Play Store and add it your enterprise repository of applications.

1. Navigate to Application Management from the left menu or top navigation bar and click on PLAY FOR WORK APPS. Here click on Add from Playstore to view the Google Play Store wizard.

   

2. Enter the name of the application in the Google Play Store wizard and hit enter/return key to search for the application. This example shows how to add YouTube to your app repository, you can add any application available in Play Store.

   

1. Click on the application icon to see the app details. Click Select to add the application in your repository.

   

Installing Play Store Applications

Now that you have added the applications to your app-repository, you can go ahead and enforce the installation of these applications on the devices.

1. Navigate to Application Management from the left menu or top navigation bar and click on PLAY FOR WORK APPS. Here, click on the application and click PUBLISH

   

2. In the Publish window, select the Device Groups or Device Profiles or Devices where you want to install this application and click PUBLISH. Please note that at any point of time, items in only one of the tabs can be selected for Publish. The publishing of apps can be overridden at app level by giving option to admin to configure installation mode.

   Application Install Behavior

   For per-app control at the time of publishing the app, admins can choose to follow the profile setting or override it for this app by silently installing it or adding to PlayStore. Hence, there are three options to choose from:
   The Installation mode can be changed only when you are selecting Device Profiles. When Group/Devices is selected then only Silent Installation will work.
   Mode as per Profile: The app would be either installed silently or added to Play Store as per the settings in Profile. By default this is selected.
   Silent Installation: This would attempt a silent installation of the application and also make it available in Managed Play Store for users to install it.
   Add to Managed Play Store/App Catalog: This would make the application available in Managed Play Store/App Catalog and enabled when user installs it.

   

Application Install Status

After publishing, you can check the installation status of the app(s) from Play for Work Apps section. For this, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Application Management > Play for Work Apps and click on the app you have published
2. On the right side panel, there will be a View Status button. Click on it.

   

3. This opens Installed App info wizard,
   1. Filters: You have the following filters available,
      1. Configuration package: Filter the list by the OEM Config apps that are configured in this profile.
      2. All App Status: Filter the list based on the installation state of the app on the devices. The possible states are,
         1. Published
         2. Installed
         3. Install Pending
         4. Install Failed
         5. Uninstalled
      3. All Config Status: Filter the list by the based on the configuration/settings delivery state. The possible states are,
         1. Pending: Shown when the Scalefusion backend is yet to push the configuration to device.
         2. Unknown: Shown when the Android Enterprise APIs have returned no information
         3. Success: Shown when all the configuration parameters have been successfully applied.
         4. Failed: Shown when at-least one of the configuration parameters could not be applied. Clicking on the status provides you with the details of the failure.
      4. Show Offline Devices only: If selected, this will only display devices which are offline.
   2. Device Information Panel: The table below displays the following information,

      

      1. Device Name: Name of device on which app is published
      2. Current Installed Version: The current version of the installed app
      3. Group/Profile: The device group and profile of the device
      4. H/W IDS: IMEI no. and other device details
      5. Install Status: Installation status of the application on the device
         1. Status Info: The meta-data on the installation status to help you understand the installation status better. Please see the Status Info section below to understand the varios status info.
      6. Published Config: Displays name of the configuration and its current status,

         

         Feedback notifications for App configurations are in a Beta stage and hence the reporting may not be accurate.

      Additional Actions

      You can perform the following additional actions from the status wizard,
      1. Download CSV: Download the installation and configuration status report in a csv format.
      2. Search: Search for devices by device name or IMEI number
      3. Re-Publish: Use this option to republish the application on the devices where the application is still in pending state or has failed.
         1. Re-Publish via Legacy API: Use this option to republish the application using legacy APIs. Helpful on devices where the app is not getting installed even after multiple attempts.
      4. Sync Status: Manually sync the installation status of the application. Scalefusion automatically syncs the status after 15 minutes of app publish and hence this button gets enabled after 15 minutes of publishing the app.
      5. Sync Config Status: Force sync the status of the configuration

Status Info

The Status Info is reflected on the basis of what the current Install Status of the app is.

Install Status	Status Info
Published	Displays the time when the next run will be executed.
Install Pending	Displays the time when the next installation retry will be executed.
Installed	Displays the app version installed on the device.
Publish Failed	Displays the reason as to why the publish of app failed
Uninstalled (When the user has manually uninstalled the app from the device)	NA

Status of apps already installed on device

If you are trying to publish any app which is already installed on device, the status info would be different depending on the app version being installed. Here is how the mapping is:

Manage App Updates

The updates for apps can be controlled by admins where they can configure Auto-Update Policy for the apps downloaded from Play Store, at global level or per app level.

Global Level

To manage app updates for all apps, that is, global level,

1. Navigate to Application Management > Play for Work Apps
2. Click on the three dots on the right side and select App Update Settings

   

3. This opens a new window with the following settings to choose from:

Per-app level

To configure settings at per-app level,

1. Click on the app for which the update settings have to be configured.
2. On the right side panel, click on the link Manage App Update Settings

   

3. This opens a window to configure settings. Two options to choose from:

• Use Global App Update Policy: Select this option to use the global app update policy for this application. If this is selected, it will take the settings configured using App Update Settings (described above).
• Use Custom Rules to update application: Select this option to define custom rules to be applied for updating this particular application. The settings will be enabled once you select this option. One or more settings can be chosen.

If you still face any issues please contact at [email protected] or send your feedback on this article itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: How do we uninstall a previously installed application from selected devices?

Answer: Navigate to Application Management > Play for Work Apps. Click on the application icon and from the side panel, click on UNINSTALL. Select the Device Groups or Device Profiles or Devices and confirm the uninstallation.

Question: How do we completely delete and uninstall a previously installed application from all our devices?

Answer: Navigate to Application Management > Play for Work Apps. Click on the application icon and from the side panel click on the delete icon. From the options select Delete & Uninstall.

Question: Our application requires a lot of runtime permissions like Storage, Camera etc. Can we auto-grant them remotely?

Answer: Yes. Navigate to Application Management > Play for Work Apps. Click on the application icon and from the side panel click on the Permissions button. Please refer to our document here.

Question: We need to remotely configure our applications by providing it setup data. How do we do it?

Answer: Please refer our Application Configuration guide to remotely configure apps.