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Hi All,
We are using SOTI V13 with majority android plus devices. We are struggling to get vendors to provide us with APKs to push to our devices and provide updated APKs when required. I see we can put them in an "app catalogue" but this seems to just provide a link to a play store but the majority of our devices are shared devices in lockdown. I've also see within mobile iron you can pull an APK in from the play store. does anyone have any suggestions / advice?
With Android+ device agents, there is no clean and safe solution.
You can have free/paid apps from Google Play Store deployed to your Android devices when they are enrolled with Android Enterprise in managed-device mode (also called Device-Owner mode).
However, there is no seamless over-the-air migration from Android+ to Android Enterprise. Your existing device (if compatible and supported the AE Managed-Device mode) needs to be factory reset. As there are differences in profile payloads/rule parameters for the two platforms, you also need to migrate existing Android+ profiles/rules for the AE devices.
Hi Raymond,
We are not using Android Enterprise just Android plus. We need to push apps to the devices without the users going via the play store. as the devices will be lockdown.
Hi Thomas,
As you do not have the apk file for the required app to create your pcg, pushing of such apps for Android+ is not possible, not for any MDM software (e.g. MobileIron, Airwatch,, ...) on the market.
One dirty trick is to go to some unofficial web-site to search(using URL or bundle-ID of the app found on Google Play store) and download the apk file, which might have been tampered with malware codes, and is thus not safe.
In Android Enterprise managed device mode, device users are not allowed (even without Kiosk lockdown) to go to the NORMAL Google Play Store to download any app, nor is it possible to add/create any personal Google account on the device.
Instead, there is a corporate managed google account pushed and locked to the device by MDM software. MDM administrator has to pre-configure in Google's portal what apps from the "Managed Google Play Store" will be SILENTLY pushed/upgraded to the target devices without any user interaction. Optionally, MDM administrator can also configure what optional apps from the "Managed Google Play Store" can be seen/selectable by the end-user for download & installation.
Once you have the actual APKs the process for deploying them to the Android Plus devices involves first creating a MobiControl package with the SOTI Package Builder. It is very straightforward to bundle an Android APK into a Package in this manner. You can even bundle in Pre/Post Install/Uninstall scripts for performing other functions as part of the APK process such as Wiping existing App Cache, rebooting the device, uninstalling old manually installed APK versions, etc.
For publicly hosted Apps in Google Play your best bet will be searching for some of the unofficial hosting sites that RC (his new nickname) mentioned. You can also technically extract an APK off of a device with ADB if you were to manually install it via Google Play on a sample device.
For private, vendor specific applications, they should be providing you with the APK for distribution.
If you extract an APK off a device with ADB or some app backup/restore utility apps, please be aware of the following:
1. The generated apk should only be installed on devices of the same hardware and firmware version as the source device. The reason is that when the original apk gets installed, some files not relevant to targeted hardware and/or firmware may be dropped after the installation. So, installation of this incomplete "hacked" version of the apk to a different hardware/firmware version may result in malfunction or instability.
2. it may be illegal to use the extracted apk to deploy to other device(s), especially if the app is a paid app.
These are reasons why my company haven't recommended this approach for a couple of years, unless the customers is desperate with no other alternatives.
Thanks for the information, sounds like the mobile iron functionality suggested is probably using android enterprise. Thanks again for the help!
One way to do it is to download the apk you want from the play store on your I.T device then use an APK extractor to extract the apk file. then you can copy that apk file off your device and package it into soti.
Hi Lloyd,
Apk extractor is the backup/restore utility apps I talked about in my previous post. I repeat the possible drawbacks again as follows:
1. The generated apk should only be installed on devices of the same hardware and firmware version as the source device. The reason is that when the original apk gets installed, some files not relevant to targeted hardware and/or firmware may be dropped after the installation. So, installation of this incomplete "hacked" version of the apk to a different hardware/firmware version may result in malfunction or instability.
2. it may be illegal to use the extracted apk to deploy to other device(s), especially if the app is a paid app.
I usually use Airdroid to extract APKs of applications installed from Google Play. It's quite easy.
So, install the app from GooglePlay in a device with Gmail account. Extract APK and deploy it with Mobicontrol.
This has to be done from time to time to keep the app updated.