android bloatware in business

android device arrive with alot of preinstalled app like facebook, flipboard, skype and for sure google service (youtube,maps,gmail,etc.) – for private use this is anoying, but for business it is essential to secure the usecase

android enterprise

when enabling Android Enterprise for Kiosk/Company devices, during setup the default apps could be disabled with this switch – PROVISIONING_LEAVE_ALL_SYSTEM_APPS_ENABLED – Samsung offers this with it’s KNOX Mobile Enrollment and google with buildin zero-touch service

be aware that you loose the native camera app if your usecase require one

device management

after your device is enrolled in mobile device managment system (emm, uem or whatever) your able to restrict installed apps by package name, apps differ from device manufaturer and os level, package names also useful to arrange/allow in kiosk setup, for samsung XCover4s these are:

• com.samsung.android.messaging
• com.sec.android.app.samsungapps
• com.samsung.android.calendar
• com.samsung.android.email.provider
• com.sec.android.app.myfiles
• com.sec.android.gallery3d
• com.sec.android.app.clockpackage.clockpackage
• com.sec.android.app.clockpackage.alarm.alarmalert
• com.google.android.gm
• com.google.android.youtube
• com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
• com.sec.android.app.fm
• com.google.android.apps.maps
• com.samsung.android.contacts
• com.samsung.android.dialer
• com.samsung.android.game.gamehome
• com.sec.factory.camera
• com.sec.android.app.camera
• com.sec.android.app.clockpackage
• com.sec.android.app.sbrowser
• com.microsoft.skydrive
• com.facebook.katana

adb tools

remove bloatware from a single device or find from from a reference device locally connected

1. install USB drivers for your device
2. download & install ADB tools
3. enable Developer Options & USB debugging
4. plug in your device into the computer
5. open a terminal and type: adb devices
6. will return the ID of your device
7. in adb shell with: adb shell
8. list all installed packages: pm list packages
9. to remove packages type: pm uninstall -k -user 0 <package name>

take care to not disable system critical apps of android, check here

windows10 enrollment quick & easy

windows 10 enrollment hasn’t to be complicated, Out Of The Box Experience provide easy staging without the need of Azure, modern management provide location independant onboarding, configration and app installation

enterprise features of android p

only a few days ahead of google i/o – google’s annual developer conference – may 8-10 – were they will present android p, gmail, android wear 3.0, vr with daydream, google home and maybe more

Plans are coming along for #io18… https://t.co/48VpqvVqWU—
Google Developers (@googledevs) January 24, 2018

here are the main feature to be provided to the enterprise – rock solid progression of android enterprise – modifications from other os’s found as well – some cool admin gadgets

work profile user interface

• Switch apps across profiles

• Programmatically turn work profiles on or off

lock down any app to a device

• whitelist and control certain system ui features

support multiple users on dedicated devices

• multiple users can share a single device, dedicated for a specific purpose, managed via emm

clear package data and remove accounts

new user restrictions and increased control over settings

• Configure APNs

• Configure time and timezone

• Enforce user restrictions on important settings

• Metered data

migrate dpc

• handover a device between different emm verdor

postpone over-the-air (ota) updates

• also possible at ios device since ios 11.3

restrict sharing into a work profile

hardware-secured keys and machine certificates

• enerated keys never leave the secure hardware and can be used from the android keychain

password blacklist

streamlined qr-code enrollment

• wifi profile supported like with ncf enrollment

@google

android (almost) enterprise

…launched in 2015, renamed in 2017 from android for work and now it’s time for enterprises to adopt android’s modern device management

approach of google to manage devices, regardless of any vendor, to better integrate android in enterprise

device admin api’s started deprecating some features, emm system unable to reset device passcode for android 7.0 devices, google will deprecate further in android “p” release in 2018 and stop working with major release of android in 2019

not yet – tested a lot of android’s feature to get a markable footprint in enterprise, realized use cases to bring value for customers but unfortunately android enterprise can’t replace device admin, that’s why…

enrollment – apple’s devices can centralized ordered, prepared and assigned to an emm system via dep (device enrollment program) – google’s pendant zero touch enrollment is currently just available for android 8.1 and pixel devices – samsung got it’s own knox mobile enrollment (kme) which depends on the installed knox version and is for sure just available for samsung devices – a fully managed samsung device via android device owner needs at least knox version 2.8, otherwise you need to prepare all devices locally via qrcode or nfc

certificate authentication is a basic requirement for a secure enterprise deployment, with am emm you’re able to enroll client certificates and distribute via android enterprise to mobile devices – but with current emm tools it’s further possible to achieve a seamless authentication with kerberos constrained delegation, the continuous synchronisation is provided even a user change his password

vpn started a full device tunnel for windows notebooks, beginning with ios is was possible to configure dynamic vpn based on domain rules, even vpn connection can secure a single app, with android enterprise it is possible to setup the vpn just for work content – was missing? a simple “on demand” could stop draining battery life from “always on” vpn or prohibit mistakes if forgot to “manually” enable it

reliability – inconsistent experience noticed – depending of build version, huawei ignore that device passcode is already set – lenovo yoga missing android enterprise enrollment capability – when sending a (private) picture via (secure) mail, login to work container, attachment lost in mail – honor device completly ignore passcode policy for work container – convert phone number to link in gmail is just working sometimes @theverge 

use cases could realized with android enterprise, e.g. silent app and unattended certificate installation is possible for non-samsung devices could , comparing to device admin, but there’s space for improvement…