Release Notes Silverback 22.0 Update 2

Android Enterprise

• Single App and Multi App Mode
• New restrictions for Wi-Fi specific actions and options
• New settings and improvements for Wi-Fi Profiles 

iOS, iPadOS, macOS

• Mail Drop Configuration for Exchange and Email Profiles
• New Setup Assistant Skip Screens for Device Enrollment Program
• Quick Language Selection for Device Enrollment Program

Unified User Experience

• New enrollment and security information for device previews

Single App and Multi App Mode

One common use-case for managing mobile devices with Android Enterprise is to run them as dedicated devices that serve a specific purpose. These devices were formerly called by Google as corporate-owned single-use, or COSU (Android Enterprise - Key Terms) devices and are used in special employee-facing (Inventory management, filed service management, transport and logistics) and customer-facing (Kiosks, digital signage, hospitality check-in) scenarios. With Silverback, you can assign a Single App Mode profile to device owner devices to achieve the single-use mode for your managed devices, which is also commonly named as kiosk mode. In earlier Android versions, the app that should run in the single-use mode, also technically called as Lock task mode, must already support to start its own activity in lock task mode what often led to confusion. Luckily, on newer Android devices are allowing the DPCs (Companion) to start any app's activity into lock task mode, which provides now a much better usage of the Single App Mode that allows to use any application to run in a Single App Mode. To target this capabilities, we added and improved within this release the Single App Mode Profile and extended it with the option to define additional allowed application identifiers to achieve a Multi Application Mode. In addition, we added several Kiosk Feature to customize the User Interface for your target audience. For additional information, please refer to Single App and Multi App Mode on Android Enterprise. 

Usually, when an app runs in lock task mode, the status bar and the Home and Overview button are hidden, and other apps can't launch new activities. Also, the lock screen (if set) is disabled. Beginning with Android 9, Google offers several options to customize the system user interface for devices running in the Lock task mode and we added them within this Release. The following System UI features can now be enabled or disabled for the Single App Mode Profile:

New Restrictions

With the introduction of Android 13, Google offers new device configurations which are designed for controlling Wi-Fi specific actions and options on Android Enterprise managed devices. With Silverback 22.0 Update 2, we've implemented them, and you will find now 6 new restriction in the Restriction profile and two new options (MAC Address Randomization and Trust on First Use) in the improved Wi-Fi profile configuration (see below). In general, these new restrictions help you to control if users are allowed to add or share Wi-Fi configurations and to switch the Wi-Fi state or to use the Wi-Fi Direct or Wi-Fi Tethering features. On top, you can define the Minimum Wi-Fi Security Level to prohibit devices from connecting to networks that do not meet your defined minimum level of security.

New Settings for Wi-Fi Profiles

Within this release, we extended the configuration of Enterprise networks and improved the configuration wizard for Android and Samsung Knox devices. As a result, several new options like the MAC Address Randomization control, a new EAP Method, new options for Phase Authentication and new Trust settings for newer Android version are available. In addition, we polished and improved the user interface, and you can now also use a static username and password for the EAP authentication settings. Overall, the following updates were made for Wi-Fi Profiles:

• General Settings
  • WPA3 names has been added to Security Types
  • Password fields are now hidden if Enterprise types are selected
  • MAC Address Randomization options (not supported for Samsung Knox) can now be configured with the following options:
    • None, Persistent, Non Persistent, Auto
• Proxy Settings
  • Proxy Exclusion List supports now multiple entries and has been extended with a tooltip
• Protocol Settings
  • EAP Type has been renamed to EAP Method
  • TTLS Identity has been renamed to Phase 2 Authentication and is placed now under Protocol settings
  • PWD option has been added as EAP Method
  • None option for Phase 2 Authentication has been added
  • Phase 2 Authentication is now also available for EAP-PEAP with the following options:
    • MSCHAPv2, GTC, SIM, AKA, AKA PRIME (AKA')
• Authentication Settings
  • Authentication Settings headline has been renamed to Identity and Password
  • Anonymous Identity is added and will be used for merged for Outer Identity
  • You can configure now a static Username and Password for the Authentication
• Trust Settings (not supported for Samsung Knox)
  • Domain Field option is available for Android 11+ devices
  • Trust on First Use option is available for Android 13 devices

Mail Drop Configuration

With Mail Drop, users can send large attachments up to 5 GB to anyone via email using Mail Drop. This feature is built right into the Mail app on Apple devices and most email services have a maximum attachment file size limit. As an example, Gmail will ask users to upload attached files that exceeds 25MB, to upload the file to Google Drive and sent instead of the attachment, a link to the recipient for downloading the file from Gmail. Similarly, when users trying to upload big files like videos, PDFs, Power Point Presentations, ZIP, or other larger files that exceeds Internet Service Provider (ISP) limit, Mail will ask the user to send the attachments using Mail Drop. By default, Exchange ActiveSync and Email profiles that are configured and distributed in the past via Silverback to managed devices, had Mail Drop by default disabled. With Silverback 22.0 Update 2, you can now simply allow the usage of Mail Drop for users within both profiles on iOS, iPadOS and macOS devices by enabling the Allow Mail Drop option. For additional information about Mail Drop, please refer to the following links:

• Send the attachments using Mail Drop
• Mail Drop limits 

New Skip Setup Items

Within this Release, we extended the Device Enrollment Program General Settings and Additional Profiles with three new Skip Setup Items. This includes to skip the App Store, the iMessage, and the recently released Terms of Address pane during the enrollment with the Device Enrollment Program.

Quick Language and Region Selection

In previous Silverback versions, the Language and Region configuration for devices enrolled with the Device Enrollment Program was based of adding a language designator and an ISO 3166-1 standard, two letter, capitalized code. Within this release, we wanted to make the configuration easier and as a result you can now simply select the desired the Language and Region from a drop-down list in the Default Profile and in Additional Profiles section. In addition, we updated the tooltip as both configurations are supported on macOS (beginning with macOS 11) and tvOS. 

New enrollment and security information

We extended in Silverback 22.0 the device information for macOS and Android Enterprise devices with specific enrollment and security information in the Silverback Management Console. The new information will be with Silverback 22.0 Update 2 also transferred via the Service Bus and will be presented in the device preview with new Unified User Experience version, which will be released some time after Silverback.