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We are making app for employees of some company. They have 100 000+ employees in several countries (China, Philippines, India, Europe...). Now we are making iOS app which will be used by those employees and we need to distribute it. App Store is not an option for us since it is in-house app. We need some simple process as there is on App Store so the user can just visit some link once, install the app and get OTA updates (as we update the app regularly) without any setup or registration. According to my understanding of very complex and scattered Apple manuals for various app distribution methods, it seems that only viable solution for us is MDM.

Is it possible to use the MDM like described above? User devices are employees personal phones, we don't have and we don't want any control over the device (wiping memory, controlling if our app runs or if the device is online...) all we need is simple Apple Store-like process for users to get the app and OTA upgrades (so the user doesn't have to click a link or do anything to get an update).

Srneczek
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  • https://developer.apple.com/programs/enterprise/ -> "Deploy In-house Apps" – luk2302 Nov 22 '17 at 14:50
  • thank you, but it is not helpful, it is more like presentation for managers then actual explanation, you will get to the point where you find that MDM is what you need and thats about it – Srneczek Nov 22 '17 at 15:11
  • Have you watched this video? **Distributing Enterprise Apps** https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2014/705/ – DonMag Nov 22 '17 at 16:46
  • Thank you foe the video link but it still doesn't answer my question. I am not interested in technical details how to enroll in enterprise development program or generate profiles etc., I am only interested in the actual distribution process of the app from the employee (user) point of view. They mention hosting the app on https server and use MDM to distribute the app. That is the part I am asking for. I want the user to have same experience as on App Store, 1 link to download the app, no registration / aditional setup required and all updates are OTA > no need to check lonk for updates – Srneczek Nov 22 '17 at 17:18

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If you are building iOs app, then Apple Developer Enterprise Program is solution for your problem. We had similar experience, but with smaller company.

  1. As the result you will get one simple link - that can be posted on web-site or send through email. And anyone can download and install it on iPhone/iPad. Please check simplest version here.

  2. To make app self-downloaded (aka OTA), you have to include inside app small checking the plist (or any other file from server). Please check it here, here and here

Amazonian
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  • Thank you, this is what I was looking for, the question is not duplicate, I am asking very specific scenario and the other question doesn't cover that – Srneczek Nov 22 '17 at 21:51
  • @Amazonian so basically if I enrol in enterprise account, then I can get the .ipa file and share it wherever I want without manual review from Apple and without using UDID of the phone when generating .ipa ? in short, it is like generating apk file in Android. am I right ? – Alexa289 Oct 28 '20 at 08:57
  • @Alexa289, short answer is YES. With enterprise account you can distribute your app among known devices. – Amazonian Mar 07 '21 at 03:26