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I'm almost ready to distrubute an App that will be in Lock Task Mode, aka Corporate Owner Single Use App, using a device owner profile.

I'm considering the possible way to distribute it and automatic update it once a new version will go out. And find following options:

  • Distribute and update by the Play Store, so the device will need a Google Account to access the Play Store, once the app is installed I will need to remove the Account, then lock the app (I'm using dpm tool, but the same is for NFC), the re-add the Google Account and set the "automatic updates in Play Store. This is a little bit boring as I have to do this procedure on more than 100 devices.

  • Distribute on private server and update using PackageManager. With this option I don't need a Play Store account, and all the delivery process is going on my private server, where I will upload the APK of the app to get downloaded by the device. Moreover, once the app is installed and device owner setted, I can made the app download and install automatically new updates from my private server using PackageManager methods.

  • Use Mason. As I seen on other SO thread, another possibility is to use Mason, a sort of web console that allows you to manage many devices. Didn't tried it and I prefer to keep control on my app without third part solutions.

  • Android Enterprise Mobile Manager I didn't understand in what this consist. I tried to contact Google to make me explain what are the benefits of being part of the program but for now still no answer. Does anybody know more about this?

For now I'm going to use the App Store as the updating mechanism, as it seems to work pretty good. Does anyone already faced up to this problem and ended up with a good solution?

Jackie Degl'Innocenti
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1 Answers1

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I made many tries, and concluded that the best way is to manage it privately by using package installer.

The Play Store Solution doesn't seems to work even if I had turned on all the automatic update flags, moreover it is uncomfortable as it need a G account.

The 3rd Part EMM/MDM (G suite, Citrix, SOTI, ecc) usually wants money, instead the in-house solution (PackageManager) it's free.

So the solution seems to be the auto-upgrade, it works good, the only problem I'm experimenting is the following: Android PackageInstaller, re-open the app after it updates itself

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Jackie Degl'Innocenti
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