Release Notes Silverback 23.0 Update 2

Android Enterprise

• Android Enterprise Management with Android Management API

iOS, iPadOS, macOS

• Deploy Google Account
• Remotely Enable and Disable Bluetooth

Android Management API

With this release, we are pleased to provide a new way to manage Android Enterprise devices. The new management method is based on the Android Management API and will be available for Silverback cloud customers starting  from this release. The Android Management API (AMAPI) is a policy and cloud-based management where devices communicate directly with the built-in Android client (Android Device Policy), whereas the traditional Android Enterprise method requires an additional client application (Companion). In a nutshell, Silverback will push your configured policies to the Android Management API and the Android Management API will use the Android Device Policy (built-in client on the device) to configure your devices and install or block applications. 

Android Enterprise Management with the Android Management API can either co-exist with your regular Android Enterprise Management or, for example, if you are a new customer, you can start managing your devices directly using the Android Management API. Integrating the Android Management API gives you a new option in the Tag section of the Management Console to create policies that include a device enrollment token and QR code, a subset of device restrictions and the ability to configure and distribute applications. In general, you can already benefit from the following features with the current implementation:

• You can now set up company-owned devices for work use only, or allow both work and personal use.
• Get much more and more detailed device information
• You have more deployment options for applications (e.g. Required for Setup) 
• The Managed Play iFrame also displays private applications that are assigned to your organization and are not publicly available on Google Play.

Please refer to Manage Android Enterprise with Android Management API for additional information.

Deploy Google Accounts

Google accounts provides access to a wide range of online Google services. With the new Silverback release, you can now set up Google accounts on iOS and iPadOS devices. Once an account is created in a Tag and the Tag is assigned to a device, the device will prompt the user to enter the password for authentication. Both corporate and personal Gmail and GSuite accounts are supported, and the user experience is similar to using Exchange Active Sync with OAuth for authentication. If authenticated successfully, a Google account is created on the device, and the user could also use other Google services associated with the account. You can distribute multiple accounts per device, and configuration supports System Variables and static values. For more information, please refer to Deploy Google Accounts to iOS and iPadOS devices.

Enable and Disable Bluetooth 

With this release we have another improvement for iOS, iPadOS and macOS devices. In the new version of Silverback, it is now possible to perform a remote action on your supervised devices to disable or enable Bluetooth. There is one action to activate and one action to deactivate. Unfortunately, there is no way for Apple to query the Bluetooth status for Mobile Device Management vendors, so Enable and Disable are available regardless of the status. A good point is that the remote action works even when the Restriction Allow Bluetooth Modification is disabled.