Introduction
Appaloosa offers two ways to deploy on Android.
Unmanaged: your apps are sideloaded by users on their phones. It is a great way to test apps rapidly or deploy to personal devices. However, this has some limitations in user experience, app updates and security.
Managed: your apps are deployed to a secure container with additional configuration and deployment controls.
This chart describes the typical use cases for Unmanaged and Managed modes:
Unmanaged | Managed |
Continuous Integration App Beta Testing BYOD with no required management over apps | Secure BYOD Fully managed devices Remote wipe/delete managed apps Remote app configuration |
This chart describes the main feature differences between Unmanaged and Managed on Appaloosa.
Feature | Unmanaged | Managed |
Deployment | Sideloading | Android Enterprise: Work Profile & Full Device (coming soon) |
User authentication | Email, SMS, SSO | Email, SMS, SSO |
User/device deactivation | Manual by user & admin | Automated, remotely by admin |
App deployment | User manual install (via app sideloading) | User manual install (no sideloading) Admin automated install (mandatory app) |
App updates | User manual install | Automated on publish |
Remote device wipe | Unavailable | Available |
Remote app configuration | Unavailable | Available |
Benefits
Deploying with Appaloosa and Android managed mode offers a few benefits:
User onboarding is simpler
User onboarding is more secure as sideloading is not required
Admins can deploy apps as mandatory with automated installs for new and updated apps.
Admins can configure applications remotely
Admins can remotely decommission a user or a specific device
Consequences to your store & known limitations
There are a few consequences of transitioning from unmanaged to managed mode with Appaloosa:
All new users on the Android platform will be enrolled with a managed profile and won’t be able to sideload apps any longer if not enabled by policy.
Your current users will be able to continue using the store in unmanaged mode if their device has already been set up as such but you can entice them to transition with Appaloosa
Only the latest app version will be available to a group of users. As a consequence, it is not recommended to use the production store for your beta testing but rather set up a secondary, unmanaged store, to deploy your alpha or beta apps.
Managed mode only works with Android 6+ devices. If your device pool contains a high number of earlier Android versions, we would not recommend considering transitioning to Managed mode.
Apps published on Appaloosa must have a unique package name across Google Play. As Appaloosa will make use via API of the Google Play platform, Google requires managed applications to have a unique package name. If for any reason one of the package names you have already uploaded on Google Play (private, beta or public) is already in use, you will need to rename the packages with a different, unique name.
Your devices must support Google Mobile Services (GMS). Refer to Android Enterprise Recommended for a list of supported devices.
Prerequisites
The two main prerequisites for transitioning to a managed mode with Appaloosa are related to your Appaloosa price plan and configuration with Google.
Your plan with Appaloosa should be at least “Enterprise”. If you have questions about the plan you are currently using, please contact sales@appaloosa-store.com for any assistance.
The required configuration with Google is detailed below. If you need any assistance with the technical configuration of your store, please contact support@appaloosa-store.com and we will be happy to assist you with the process.
Before proceeding with the setup, make sure that
you already have generated a native Android store on Appaloosa
you own a paid Google Developer account (https://play.google.com/apps/publish). Write down the email address of that account for later reference.
use your browser as incognito/private for the setup
Setup & Test
To start the setup process, log in as administrator on https://www.appaloosa-store.com/users/sign_in.
Once logged in, go to Settings and “Android advanced mode” to start the setup process.
The process should take about 10 minutes to complete.
In order to complete the setup, you should check on your device if any new user can successfully be onboarded with managed Android. Using your credentials and a test Android device, log-in on https://www.appaloosa-store.com/users/sign_in and re-enroll your device.
Unlike the unmanaged mode on Appaloosa where you are directly directed to the native store download, the Managed mode will launch a native store setup on your device.
Once the setup is complete, apps deployed with Appaloosa will appear with a work “badge” on your device.
User migration
If you have completed the setup process, any new user you will invite or reconnecting from our website will be enrolled using the Managed mode.
While current users can still continue to use the store as it is, we recommend that they upgrade as soon as they can to benefit from the extra app and security features.
The process is quite simple:
inform users that you require them to re-enroll on Appaloosa
let users complete the setup
ask users to remove their previous store and apps.
Note: once the Managed mode is activated on a user’s device, they can still use the store and installed apps, however Managed mode prevents the installation of newer apps on the phone as sideloading apps becomes forbidden by policy.
If you need to extract your whole Appaloosa user base in order to inform them by email, you can download a csv file from your Admin dashboard > Users > Export users.
Management options
A few new options are available to you as admin from the dashboard:
Mandatory apps.
Android App management.
Device Wipe.
More resources & Help
Contact our support team if you have any questions before, during or after the setup process.
When using Android Enterprise, you might be interested in training by Google on the Android Enterprise platform: https://googlepartnertraining.fathomed.com/login