I've noticed a lot of confusion lately regarding app deployment to mobile devices with Microsoft Intune. There have been several threads on TechNet forum and the My IT Forum mailing list about this. People are confused by the different behaviours of apps on the Android and iOS platforms. I decided to publish some posts describing the expected end user behaviour for the various scenarios.
This is the second of a pair of blog posts about app deployment to mobile devices. I hope you find them useful.
You can find the first post here.
Deploying apps to iOS devices with Intune - what you need to know
The table above shows the user experience for all app deployments to Android devices. You can find this information in the TechNet library:
End user app experience
There are some major differences between this experience and that of app deployment to iOS devices.
- The end user experience for managed and unmanaged apps is the same
- There is no “Company Apps” tile on the home page of the Intune Company Portal for Android
- For Android, users must add the Intune Company portal widget to the home screen
What is a widget?
Android widgets are mini apps that run on your Android Home screen. Your Android device comes with several by default, including a Home screen tips widget and a clock. The Intune Company Portal adds the Intune Company Portal widget when it is installed, but you must move it to the Home Screen - more about that later.
I've deployed the following to a test device:
#1 Managed/Deep-Linked - Required (Excel for Android) - Expected behaviour: user will receive notification that the app is required. The notification will stay until the user installs the app. The app will not be installed automatically.
#2 Managed/Deep Linked - Available (Word for Android) - Expected behaviour: app available in Apps tab of Company Portal
#3 Unmanaged/Deep linked - Required (OneNote for
Android) - Expected behaviour: user will receive notification that the app is required. The notification will stay until the user installs the app. The app will not be installed automatically.
#4 Unmanaged/Deep linked - Available (Lync for Android) - Expected behaviour: app available in Apps tab of Company Portal
#5 Web Link - Required (Intune
Team Blog) - Expected behaviour: user receives notification that the required web link has been installed. This link will be available in the Intune Company Portal widget on the Home Screen. The user must add the widget.
#6 Web link - Available (ConfigMgr Team Blog) - Expected behaviour: link available in Apps tab of Company Portal. When the user installs the link it will be available in the Intune Company Portal widget on the Home Screen. The user must add the widget.
(I don't have an LOB app for testing).
So let's have a look at the behaviour on the device.
Android notifications show that there are two required applications to be installed (Excel - managed, OneNote - unmanaged). They will not be installed automatically and require user intervention.
Also, see the notification that the required web link has been installed. Expected behaviour #1, #3 & #5
Now open the Intune Company Portal. Word is available in the Apps tab. Expected behaviour #2.
Word actually appears as a "Featured App" as we selected that option while publishing the app to Intune.
Now select All Apps. We see Word again. We also see Lync (Unmanaged/Available) and the ConfigMgr Team Blog (Web link/Available). Expected behaviour #2, #4 & #6
So, now let's have a look at the Intune Company Portal widget (this is specific to Android).
Select Apps on the Home Screen.
Select the Widgets tab.
Locate the Company Portal widget. Press and hold the widget and move it to the Home Screen.
This is the Intune Company Portal widget on the Home Screen. It already contains the Intune Team Blog web link (Required). Expected behaviour #5.
When we install the available web link it will be seen here in the widget. Expected behaviour #6.
I hope these blog posts have been helpful to get a clear understanding of the end user experience of app deployment to iOS and Android devices via Intune.
Intune Support told me it is not supported to deploy unmanaged Apps as required. I also had another issue: If I deploy an app as required, the user then installed the app. A week later the administrator decides to delete the app, two days later the user deletes the app. The user will then be notified to install the application until the user collection it was deployed to is deleted (cloud only tenant).
ReplyDeleteThat's not the case. Have a look at this TechNet doc
Deletehttps://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn948527.aspx?WT.mc_id=Blog_Intune_General_PCIT
With Android devices, you must deploy application to user collections (SCCM) and not devices collections, agree ?
ReplyDeleteThanks
No, that's not the case. You can deploy applications to device collections of Android devices. See here
ReplyDeletehttps://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn469410.aspx#bkmk_deploy
Hello, your blog is very instructive.
ReplyDeleteI have an SCCM infrastructure with Intune, in hybrid mode. I have uploaded an Android application : Firefox V38 and deployed it to a Samsung Galaxy S6 (applicatio intune ok, not cracked) device and wait a few minutes. And what a suprise when i see the application installed sucessfully without any intervention !!
I don't understand why because when wee see the technet, it's clear :
User is prompted and must consent before app is installed
do you have an explanation ?
Thanks you,
I don't. I've never seen that - always a prompt for installation with Android.
DeleteHi Gerry,
ReplyDeleteI have a requirement to deploy the same web apps Word,Excel etc from intune to windows 8.1 + mobile\ clients from the company portal so it can be managed by my polices I have added web apps to our private Windows business store do you have a blog showing the process and i can see it on an enrolled device as own but want to have the option to setup required install etc with intune portal.
The integration of Intune and Windows Store for Business is currently being rolled out.
DeleteYou can read how to implement it here
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-ie/library/mt676514.aspx
Hi Gerry,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply I managed to setup the Core Microsoft office Web apps as a required application on the company portal using the same principles used to setup the Andriod and iOS devices.
I believe the key take away was assigning the application to the Nominated group and making it available in the private store from the Windows Store for Business portal.
In terms of the MAM polices I then also added the URL for each core app in intune and deployed the windows policy as required. I'm still testing the user experience and security polices but it appears to be consistent across all platform.
Hi Gerry,
ReplyDeleteAny way to sort web links in the Web App Widget?
Seems like they are all applied randomly, but in the same random order on each device owned by the same user.
I assume there is no way to help the end user, by forcing the widget on the home screen instead of a manual how-to guide for the end user to follow.
By the way, great blog you have!
Thanks Kim. No, I don't think there is anything you can do about that.
DeleteHow to remove weblink from Web App Widget? I've published a webapp and then removed it from config manager. Web app (URL) is not going from widget.
ReplyDeleteYou won't be able to remove the web app this way. You have to unenrol the device to get rid of it.
DeleteThere is no more Intune Widget, correct? It does not show up on my Lenovo Tab 8 running Android 8.1
ReplyDelete