In previous blogs I talked about how to configure Android Enterprise – Corporate-owned – dedicated device mode, and as an addition, how to configure Kiosk Single app mode for Android devices. In this blog I want to show you the Multi-app Kiosk mode for Android devices and how the end user experience looks like. There are some steps different than in Single app mode, I will show you this step-by-step in this blog.
In this blog I will cover the following steps;
- Publish the Managed Home Screen app
- Create a Multi-App Kiosk profile
- Test the results
Step 1 : Publish the Managed Home Screen app
For the following steps you need to login to the Microsoft Azure Portal first. In this first step we are going to publish the Managed Home Screen app as mandatory app to the Android devices. This app is required for Android Multi-app Kiosk mode to work.
Navigate to Microsoft Intune > Client apps > Apps and click the +Add button
Select Managed Google Play as App type
Search for the Managed Home Screen app and click Approve
Click Approve
Select Keep approved when app requests new permissions (if you do) and click Save
Click OK
Apps needs to be synced from the Google Managed Play store with Microsoft Intune. To do this, click Sync
After the Sync, the new application should appear in the Apps list. Open the settings of the Managed Home Screen application.
Open the Assignments page and click Add Group. Make sure you publish this application as Required and select the appropriate device group. Click OK twice and click Save.
Step 2 : Create a Multi-App Kiosk profile
In the second step we are going to create the Multi-App Kiosk profile.
Navigate to : Microsoft Intune > Device configuration > Profiles and click the + Create profile button.
Give this new profile a name and description. Select Android enterprise as Platform and Device restrictions as Profile type. Note: Make sure you select Device restrictions right under Device Owner Only
Click Settings / Configure and open the Kiosk page. Select Multi-app kiosk as Kiosk mode and click the Add button to add applications you want to make available in the Kiosk mode.
For this blog I will make available the Firefox browser and the Microsoft Edge application. Note: make sure you publish the applications also as a required app to the device.
Optionally you can enable the Leave kiosk mode and you can configure a custom background. For this blog I skip these options. Click OK twice and click Create
Open the Assignments page and assign this profile to the appropriate group. Click Save
Step 3 : Test the results
Let’s test the end results on an Android device in Android Enterprise – Corporate-owned dedicated devices mode with the just created Multi-App Kiosk profile applied to it.
As you can see, the Managed Home Screen app is running full screen on the device, with the custom wallpaper applied to it. This app has fully replaced the default Android Interface. It’s not possible to close this app by the end user. In this app you see both the Microsoft Edge and the Firefox Browser applications as we have configured in this blog.
Just wondering, what if i want the standard phone app or the standard messages app what can i do then?
Hello,
Thanks for this blog.
I have one question, do you know how to leave the kiosk mode when it’s configured ?
Regards,
There are two ways to do so, 1) Remove the policy assignment; 2) Configure an exit code in the policy itself.
Hi Robin,
Is it also possible to use application configuration items like setting the homepage in a kiosk envoirment for a managed browser?
Will these same steps work if we do not have Android Enterprise?
Always use Android Enterprise, otherwise you get big problems met Android v10.