We have a G Suite account, and I would like to manage some of our company owned tablets as kiosk displays using the Android Management API. However, it seems to require an arbitrary "personal" Gmail account, instead of allowing a G Suite user to use it.
To provision a device, you need to create a policy. A policy needs to be assigned to an enterprise.
Option 1: Trying to link an existing enterprise
You can get your G Suite Organization ID from here, and this ID is apparently also your Enterprise ID. The API needs it in the format enterprises/id, e.g. enterprises/abcdefg
Unfortunately, even after authenticating with a super-admin, any calls to the API are met with
{
"error": {
"code": 403,
"message": "Caller is not authorized to manage enterprise.",
"status": "PERMISSION_DENIED"
}
}
Option 2: Creating an enterprise
A Quickstart Guide is available that makes it easy to create an enterprise, create a policy, and then provision devices. Everything works well when we use a personal Gmail account and I could successfully provision a tablet into kiosk mode. As soon as I try to use a G Suite account, I am met with:
"G Suite is not currently supported by managed Google Play Accounts, please choose a non-G Suite account to continue."
Do we need to create an arbitrary Gmail account (e.g. ourcompany-devices#gmail.com)?
What happens if we then later wanted to provision devices of third parties? Would everyone's devices then be linked to an enterprise of an arbitrary Gmail user?
Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
We did option two. However this means that you cannot put something onto the private play store.
Android Management API is currently not compatible with GSuite.
You need to use a Gmail account to create a Managed Google Play Enterprise in order to use Android Management API.
If you plan on provisioning devices for third parties, it is suggested that you create a separate Enterprise for each in order to link each device to the intended enterprise.
You can read about Managed Google Play Accounts here
I've published apps to our internal 'enterprise' and also to our pseudo-enterprise (option 2).
I don't think there is any other way unfortunately. Just make sure the gmail account credentials are very secure and I think it is reasonably safe.
After doing option 2 you do get an organization ID. One thing that isn't mentioned in the documentation is that things don't happen instantly and much of the process is poorly documented. I spent hours searching up solutions for issues I was having and the solution ended up being I just needed to wait a few hours.
If you are publishing first-party applications on Google Play you can make them available as private apps to both your internal enterprise and the pseudo-enterprise.
Related
I work for a business that provides an Android app to multiple clients.
Each client uses their own EMM (Enterprise Mobility Management) solution.
I am attempting to ascertain what the options are for remotely configuring our app on Android devices using EMMs.
The configuration I need to deliver is an 820 character string containing a license key.
Not every device will require this license key, so will need to be set on a per device level.
The current method we use to deliver configuration to our app is to transfer a file to the device containing the configuration details.
This method works OK except: it’s a bit primitive; and one of our client's EMMs does not provide this functionality.
I understand that Google provides Google Managed Account and Managed Google Play Accounts API’s that can be used to configure devices.
We have ruled out Google Managed Account as an option because it requires the client to sign up to G-Suite which carries quite a heavy financial cost, and would be overkill just for being able to deliver a license key.
Managed Google Play Accounts could possibly be an option. It appears to require a one off cost of applying for a developer license of only £20, which is fine. Once the app is uploaded to the client’s private Google Play Store it looks as though it can be managed via the clients EMM UI, as long as it has the correct information in AndroidManifest.xml ( https://developer.android.com/work/managed-configurations ).
The Managed Google Play Account option could, potentially be the least worst option, but again having to introduce a dependency on Google services for a license key feels a but over the top, just not as over the top as using G-Suite.
Is there any other way, apart from the three methods mentioned above, of delivering app configuration to Android devices?
Based on my understanding managing multiple enterprises could be managed using https://developers.google.com/android/management/managed-configurations-iframe
Admin would have permission to manage multiple configuration files and devices on the console. We can also provision a device from the following strategy mentioned here https://developers.google.com/android/management/provision-device
You may also refer this link: https://developers.google.com/android/management/existing-emms for managing existing EMM's.
I would like to deploy android apps to my employees. We have roughly 900 employees.
I was looking here, and it indicates that I have to setup a private channel by enabling Google apps for my domain. I've also read that it costs $50/employees to have my entire company on google apps.
Are there any other ways to deploy android apps strictly to my employee base? Am I really going to have to pay $50 per head?
Any advice is welcome.
No you don't need to pay that.
Get a developer licenses from developer.android.com ($25)
Then create a google group for your Employees and invite them all using their gmail (or other google, see screen shot below) accounts they have installed on their devices.
Step 1 complete, they are all inside the google group you have specified.
in the developer console:
Upload your apk as an alpha or beta apk (see screen shot below), set up the app as normal with all required fields, but when specifying the testing group you can reference this google group you have just created, which will give you a url that can only be accessed by those google accounts in the group.
Send this link out to all the employees that you previously invited to that google group and get them to accept the link for alpha/beta testing.
Once, accepted the employees will be able to download the apk from the Android device with that google account. (The app can then be found in the PlayStore app under Apps & Games -> My apps & Games - > All)
Now anytime you upload a new Alpha/beta apk all users of this group will see the app update or if auto update apps is enable for them, it will happen automatically.
for more details on beta setup: Alpha/beta help
Good Luck and happy coding!
you can always just install the apk file.
but in that case all your users/employers would have to enable other sources in the settings and get the file on the device somehow and start it(which might require an extra app).
How about just making it a public app and restrict the access to the app somehow (e.g. with a company login)
To be clear, I am an Android Developer - and sold one of my apps (i have 5 in my account) to a business contact of mine. I want to transfer that ONE app from my developer account to his developer account.
It seems Android clearly defines how you transfer apps from an old account, to a new account (but both of those accounts are owned by you - and in this case the old account is closed down)
How do i transfer this one app i sold, with out affecting either account, or without hurting/losing the apps ratings/reviews/rank etc?
There is no official way to do this that I know of. As you mentioned, there is a support page that suggests that Google has this capability. I would recommend that you contact the Android Market support team and ask them directly, clearly explaining your situation. That page says:
Contact us from both the original email address and the new email address requesting to transfer applications. We require emails from both accounts so that we can confirm ownership.
So I think it's not so much about owning both accounts as much as proving that this isn't a fraudulent transaction. If you explain the situation and have both yourself and the contact you sold the app to email them, that would confirm that both parties have consented.
I'm not sure if the Android Market support team will actually do it, but it's worth a shot.
I don't have an answer to your question, but hope you realize that you can't change the apk signing key for signing the app. If you do, users can't update and you have to release the app with a new package name.
Verify you have everything ready in checklist:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/checklist/3294213
Ask to transfer your app to target Google Play account e-mail:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/contact/appt
Always remember to get original signing key for the app from developer. If he's using one singing key for all of his apps, it's his fault.
I'm an Android developer and I already have an Android market publisher account. There are a couple of apps in my account.
I have an idea to create a little Android development brand(company)
and publish those new apps in a new publisher account.
So I want to know that is it legal having two Android Market publisher
accounts for the same person. Will I get into any trouble?
Also will Google suspend me if I use push ad networks like Airpush and leadolt?
Thanks a lot.
I don't see a problem with an individual having multiple Android Market accounts. Each will need to be tied to a different Google ID (email address). They may also have to be tied to different Google Checkout merchant accounts, although I don't know that for sure.
You cannot publish the same app (as determined by the package name declared in the manifest) on two Android Market accounts. You can ask support to transfer an app from one account to another.
I have no idea about using other ad technologies. I suggest that you ask the Android Market people directly. See this page for support info.
I don't think google will block app if you use Third party Ad-Suppliers.
I have been using TapJoy Ad service for an year.
I'm designing an API for an Android app. An iPhone requires a user to get an Apple ID, do Android mobile devices in the same way 'require' users to get a Google ID?
Ideally I want to be able to assume that users downloading our app on Android will have a Google account, so that we authentication via the Users and OAuth APIs is a snap.
You're not required to have a Google account associated with an Android device, though most people probably do. You do need one if you download apps through the Market, but you can also side-load apps, use other markets like the Amazon App Store, etc.
For both the Android phones that I've bought in the US (an HTC G1 and an HTC G2) it has forced me to enter my Google account information (or create a new Google account), before I could do anything on the device (similar to how the iPad forces you to connect it to iTunes before you can use it).
Some people suggest clearing the data associated with all the Google apps on the phone to disconnect the device from the Google account, or you can just remove the account through Settings -> Accounts & Sync.
I suspect it boils down to exactly how the carrier delivers the phone to users. If you want your app to be available globally then you should assume many users will NOT have a Google account.
Generally, users need a Google ID to use Android Market. As far as I know, they do not need one to use other markets (such as Amazon). What are you authenticating?