Distribute Apps

The following sections will provide you useful information about the distribution of apps in the managed Google Play Store.

Install apps

You can install Android apps from the Google Play Store on devices using the policy. To use this feature, you need to know the package name of the app you want to install. To find the app's package name you have two options:

1. The app's package name is in the URL of the Google Play Store page. For example, the URL of the Google Chrome app page is

   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.android.chrome

   and its package name is com.android.chrome.

2. You can embed the managed Google Play iframe in your EMM console to allow your customers to browse the Google Play Store. When your customer selects an app in the iframe your EMM console receives the package name in the event.

You can then add the app in the device's policy:

"applications":[
   {
      "installType":"FORCE_INSTALLED",
      "packageName":"com.android.chrome",
   },
],

When you apply the policy to a device, the app will either be installed on the device or added to the managed Google Play Store on the device.

Distribute apps for closed testing

In the Play Console, app developers can create a closed release (closed track) to test pre-release versions of their app with a set of testers. This is called closed testing. Supporting closed track distribution lets organizations test third-party apps, as well as any private apps they develop in-house.

When setting up a closed test in the Play Console, app developers can target up to 100 organizations (enterprises). You can use the Android Management API to retrieve the closed tracks targeted to an enterprise, and distribute these closed tracks to devices using the policy.

Apps eligible for closed testing

Before setting up a closed test, app developers must ensure that their app meets the following requirements:

• A production version of the app is published on Google Play (or managed Google Play, for private apps)
• In the Google Play Console, Managed Google Play is enabled in the app's Advanced Settings page.
• Any closed versions of the app meet version code requirements.

Add an enterprise to closed tests

When setting up a closed test, app developers can grant an organization access to closed tests by adding their Organization ID. Your customers can locate their Organization ID using these instructions:

1. Sign in to managed Google Play using an administrator account.
2. Click Admin Settings.
3. Copy the Organization ID string from the Organization information box and send it to the developer.

For private apps, the developer also needs to add the Organization ID of each participating enterprise in the Managed Google Play tab of the app's Advanced Settings page. For instructions, see Publish private apps from the Play Console.

Distribute closed tracks to users

To retrieve a list of tracks available to an enterprise for a specified app, call enterprises.applications. The appTrackInfo[] list included in the response contains the following for given apps:

• trackId: The track’s unique identifier, taken from the releaseTrackId in the URL of the page in the Play Console that displays the app's track information.
• trackAlias: The human-readable name for the track, which is modifiable in the Play Console.

To install a closed track on a user's device, specify the accessibleTrackIds in their device's policy:

"applications":[
   {
      "installType":"AVAILABLE",
      "packageName":"com.google.android.gm",
      "accessibleTrackIds":[
          "123456",
          "789101"
       ]
   },
],

If a policy contains multiple tracks from the same app (as in the example above), then the policy installs the track with the highest version code.

The trackIds will be automatically removed from enterprises.applications call in certain scenarios such as the following:

• Track's APK is promoted to another track or to the production.
• The production version is updated with a higher version than the track.
• A developer stops the track.

Managed Google Play iframe

With the managed Google Play iframe, you can embed managed Google Play directly in your EMM console to offer customers a unified mobility management experience.

The iframe contains a title bar and an expandable side menu. From the menu, users can navigate to different pages:

• Search apps: Allows IT admins to search for and browse Google Play apps, view app details, and select apps.
• Private apps: Allows IT admins to publish and manage private apps for their enterprise.
• Web apps: Allows IT admins to publish and distribute website shortcuts as apps.
• Organize apps: Allows IT admins to configure how apps are organized in the Play Store app on their user’s devices.

Features

This section describes the features available in the managed Google Play iframe. For information on how to embed the iframe and implement these features, see Add the iframe to your console.

Private apps

The Private apps page allows IT admins to publish and manage private apps directly from your EMM console. To streamline private app publishing for IT admins, the page:

• Silently creates a Play Console account on behalf of the enterprise and grants admin access to IT admins.
• Waives the $25 USD Play Console registration fee previously required to publish apps.
• Requires only an app’s APK and title.
• Publishes apps in as little as 10 minutes (compared to 2 hours in the Play Console).
  Note: apps published from the Private apps page can never be made public.

The first time an IT admin publishes an app in the iframe, the iframe silently creates a Play Console account on behalf of the enterprise. If they make advanced edits, they're prompted to sign in with a Google Account—this can be a any Google Account (e.g. Gmail, Cloud Identity). This Google Account is added as an admin of the enterprise's Play Console account. Afterwards, an IT admin can use their Google Account to sign into the Play Console directly, where they can:

• Add and manage admin accounts.
• Add advanced app details, including a descriptions, screenshots, and more.
• Unpublish apps.

Instructions for IT admins on how to use the Private apps page is available in the managed Google Play Help Center.

Select button

After an app is published, an IT admin can edit its title and APK in the app details page. The app details page also displays a SELECT button (see Figure 2). You need to specify the action that takes place when the IT admin clicks this button (see onproductselect in Step 3. Handle iframe events).

Web apps

The Web apps page lets IT admins publish website shortcuts as private apps to managed Google Play. Web apps are identifiable by their package name (productId) and typically take 10 minutes to publish. After publishing, they’re automatically approved for their enterprise can be distributed to users just like any other approved app. Web apps are compatible with other managed Play iframe features: they’re searchable in the Play Search page and can be added to collections.

The web app creation form requires a title, HTTPS or HTTP URL, and icon image (512 x 512 JPG or 32-bit PNG). Additionally, IT admins can choose from the three display options:

• Full screen: The app opens in full screen mode, hiding the device's status bar and navigation bar.
• Standalone (default): The app shows the device's status bar and navigation bar.
• Minimal UI: The app shows the device's status bar and navigation bar, the app's URL, and a refresh option. For HTTP URLs, this is the only available option.

The Web apps page also lets IT admins edit and delete web apps. Deleting a web app removes it from a user's managed Google Play store, but the user may still have access to it if the app is already installed on their device. To delete a web app from a user's device, see delete apps. Instructions for users on how to create and edit web apps are available in the managed Google Play Help Center.

Select button

After a web app is published, its details page includes a SELECT button. You need to specify the action (for example, distribute the app) that takes place when the IT admin clicks on this button (see onproductselect in Step 3. Handle iframe events).

Organize apps

The Organize apps page lets IT admins organize apps into collections (also called clusters). For example, an IT admin can create an Essentials collection for frequently used apps or an Expenses collection for apps related to tracking expenses, logging travel, etc. Collections are displayed in the Play Store homepage on user's devices.

EMM's must utilize the SELECT mode in the iframe URL's parameters to allow searching and adding of apps to collections.

On user's devices, the Play Store app only displays apps from a collection that are available for the user (or device). If a collection doesn't include any apps that are available to the user (or device), the collection won't appear in the Play Store.

IT admins can also edit, delete, and copy existing collections in the organize apps page. User instructions for how to perform these tasks are available in the Managed Google Play Help Center.

Add the iframe to your console

Step 1. Generate a web token

Call enterprises.webTokens.create to generate a web token that identifies the enterprise. The response contains the token's value.

• Set parentFrameUrl to the URL of the parent frame hosting the iframe.
• Use iframeFeature to specify which features to enable in the iframe: PLAY_SEARCH, PRIVATE_APPS, WEB_APPS, STORE_BUILDER (organize apps). If iframeFeature is not set, then the iframe enables all features by default.

Step 2. Render the iframe

Here's an example of how to render the managed Google Play iframe:

<script src="https://apis.google.com/js/api.js"></script>
<div id="container"></div>
<script>
  gapi.load('gapi.iframes', function() {
    var options = {
      'url': 'https://play.google.com/work/embedded/search?token=web_token&mode=SELECT',
      'where': document.getElementById('container'),
      'attributes': { style: 'width: 600px; height:1000px', scrolling: 'yes'}
    }

    var iframe = gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild(options);
  });
</script>

This code generates an iframe inside the container div. Attributes to be applied to the iframe tag can be set with the 'attributes' option, as previously mentioned.

URL parameters

The table below lists all the available parameters for the iframe that can be added to the URL as URL parameters, e.g:

'url': 'https://play.google.com/work/embedded/search?token=web_token&mode=SELECT&showsearchbox=TRUE',

Step 3. Handle iframe events

You should also handle the following events as part of your integration.

{
    "packageName": The package name of the app, e.g. "com.google.android.gm",
    "productId": The product ID of the app, e.g. "app:com.google.android.gm",
    "action": The type of action performed on the document. Possible values are:
    "approved", "unapproved" or "selected." If you implement the iframe in SELECT
    mode, the only possible value is "selected".
}
    

iframe.register('onproductselect', function(event) {
  console.log(event);
}, gapi.iframes.CROSS_ORIGIN_IFRAMES_FILTER);

Upload your own app to the Google Play Store

If you or your customer develop an Android app, you can upload it on the Play Store using the Google Play Console.

If you don't want the app to be publicly available on the Play Store, you can restrict your app to a single enterprise using Google Play Console. Another option is to publish a private app programmatically using the Google Play Custom App Publishing API. Private apps are only available to the enterprise they are restricted to. They can still be installed using a policy, but are not be visible to users outside your enterprise.