In my previous post, I spoke about how apps are deployed for Android Device Manager and Android Enterprise. In this post I am going to show how to deploy a private app. For this we will use the manage google play console in Intune. In my example I will use an app that I created with Android Studio. Before you get started you need to have a managed google account linked to Intune.
Upload and deploy a private app
1. Open the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center and browse to Apps -> Android
2. Press “+Add” and select app type “Managed Google Play app”. Press “Select” to continue.
3. In the Managed Google Play interfase select “Private Apps” on the left and press the “+” sign.
4. Enter a name for your private app and select the apk file. The package name of the android app must be unique, for example, you cannot upload an apk of an app that is already in the Play Store. Press “Create” to continue
5. Enter an email for updates about your app and account and press “OK” to continue
6. The app will now be checked and uploaded to the Managed Play store. My experience is that you often receive an error message the first time, because something is not right in the apk package. These error messages are standard messages from Google and can be found on the internet. If the upload was successful, the screen below will appear. At the bottom of the screen you will see a message (1) that it can take up to 10 minutes before the app is available. Press “Sync” to continue.
7. After you press sync you return to the app overview. The app does not appear right away on the screen, just press the “refresh” button to refresh the app overview. Once the app is added you can assign it in the same way as other Managed Google Play apps. Click on the app in the overview to continue.
8. Select “Properties” (1) to assign the app. Now select “edit” (2) (this is located behind assignments) to open the assignments screen.
9. Assign the application to a group and press “Review + save” to continue.
10. Review the assignment settings and press “save” to assign the app to the configured group. I will assign the application as required to a group containing my fully managed Android Enterprise device.
11. In the play store you can track the installation. On the left picture you see the situation before the assignment and on the right picture the situation after the application is assigned.
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- pre deployment
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- post deployment
In this blog we looked at how to deploy an Android application through the managed google play store to Android Enterprise devices. In the next blog we will look at how to apply release management through the Google Play Console.
Next Part 3 of Deploying private apps on Android Enterprise: Test and release updated versions for your private app (Soon available)