The Google Play EMM API gives you the ability to integrate Android app management into your EMM console. This page describes how managed Google Play, the content marketplace for Android Enterprise, and your EMM console can work together to support the app management lifecycle for your enterprise customers.
Managed Google Play
Managed Google Play is a version of Google Play that’s optimized for enterprises. It combines the familiar user experience and app store features of Google Play with a set of management capabilities that are designed specifically for enterprises.
For IT admins
IT admins can use managed Play to browse Android apps for their enterprise.
For end users
To end users, managed Google Play is their enterprise app store. The user experience is similar to Google Play—users can browse apps, view their details, and install them. The most notable difference is that the user's IT admin controls the apps that a user can access and install from managed Google Play.
EMM console
With the Google Play EMM API, managed Google Play iframe, and managed configurations iframe, you can integrate the full app management lifecycle into your EMM console.
EMM notifications
You can subscribe to EMM notifications to receive alerts in response to events in managed Google Play that affect your enterprise customers. For example, you can receive alerts when an IT admin uses managed Play to approve an app or when an app update makes a request for new permissions.
As an EMM developer, you can use these notifications to display messages, prompt an IT admin to take certain actions, or automate processes in your console.
The app management lifecycle
Find public apps
IT admins can use the search feature in the managed Google Play iframe or managed Google Play directly to browse public apps for their enterprise. For more information, see Find public apps.
Support private apps
You can integrate private app publishing capabilities into your EMM console by adding the managed Google Play iframe or using the Google Play Custom App Publishing API. Enterprises can also publish apps and mark them as private from the Play Console. Private apps are automatically approved for the enterprise when they're published.
For more information, see Support private apps.
Support web apps
A web app turns a web page into an Android app, making it easier to find and simpler to use on mobile devices. You can add support for publishing, editing, and deleting web apps in your EMM console by adding the managed Google Play iframe or using the Play EMM API.
For more information, see Support web apps.
Distribute apps
After an IT admin approves an app, there are two ways to get the app onto a user’s device: push install the app or add the app to the managed Play store where the user can install it manually.
The managed Play Store displays apps in a basic layout by default, but you can use the Google Play EMM API to let IT admins customize the layout of the store. For example, you can group apps by categories such as "communications" or "finances".
For more information, see Distribute apps and Custom store layouts.
Configure apps
Some apps designed for enterprises include built-in managed configurations, which are settings that an IT admin can remotely specify and apply to devices. To support managed configurations in your EMM console, you can either embed the managed configurations iframe or develop your own custom UI.
For more information, see Configure apps.
Update apps
When a public app releases an update, the update sometimes includes requests for new permissions. Using the Play EMM API, you can set update preferences for apps in a device's policy.
For more information, see Update apps.
Delete apps
You can use the Google Play EMM API to develop features that let IT admins remove apps from users' devices, reclaim app licenses, and remove apps from the managed Google Play Store.
For more information, see Delete apps.