This week is all about the simplified experience for managing Managed Google Play apps directly in Microsoft Intune. The Managed Google Play store is used to deploy apps to devices managed via Android Enterprise. Before it was required to separately navigate to the Manage Google Play store to approve apps and after approval it was required to synchronize the approved apps with Microsoft Intune. Now the approval (and deletion) of Managed Google Play apps can be achieved by using Microsoft Intune only. Besides the better user experience, the fact that Google announced the deprecation of the device admin management API, means that it’s really time to look at the Managed Google Play store and apps and Android Enterprise in general.
In this post I will not look at Android Enterprise and the different deployment models. that might be something for another post, but I will look specifically at managing Managed Google Play apps. I’ll do that by quickly showing how to connect Microsoft Intune with Managed Google Play, followed by the steps and experience for adding and deleting Managed Google Play apps in Microsoft Intune.
Connect Microsoft Intune and Managed Google Play
The first configuration that should be in place, before any configuration related to Android Enterprise can be performed, is the connection between Microsoft Intune and Managed Google Play. The following three steps walk through connecting Microsoft Intune and Managed Google Play to enable managing Android Enterprise devices and deploying Managed Google Play apps. As this is not the main subject of this post, the steps describe the main actions.
| 1 | Open the Azure portal and navigate to Microsoft Intune > Device enrollment > Android enrollment to open the Device enrollment – Android enrollment blade; |
| 2 | On the Device enrollment – Android enrollment blade, click Managed Google Play to open the Managed Google Play blade; |
| 3 |
On the Managed Google Play blade, complete the following two steps:
|
Note: Connecting Microsoft Intune and Managed Google Play is required for managing Managed Google Play apps by using Microsoft Intune.
Add a Managed Google Play app
Once the connection between Microsoft Intune and Managed Google Play is configured, Microsoft Intune can be used for managing Managed Google Play apps. Even without the need to authenticate with every action regarding managing Managed Google Play apps. The following three steps walk through the process of adding a Managed Google Play app by using Microsoft Intune. I’m using the NBA app as an example and after adding the app, it can be assigned to a user and/or device group like any other app.
| 1 | Open the Azure portal and navigate to Microsoft Intune > Client apps > Apps to open the Client apps – Apps blade; |
| 2 | On the Client apps – Apps blade, click Add to open the Add app blade; |
| 3a |
|
| 3b | On the Search managed Google Play blade, search for the required app; |
| — |  |
| 3c | On the Search managed Google Play blade, select the required app and click Approve to open a dialog box with app permissions; |
| — |  |
| 3d |
Important: Keep in mind that this will accept these permissions on behalf of the organization. |
| 3e |
Important: Keep in mind that this decision might impact the future app permissions and/or the future user experience. |
| 3f | On the Search managed Google Play blade, click OK; |
| — |  |
Note: These steps will approve the app in the Managed Google Play store and sync the approved app in to Microsoft Intune.
Delete a Managed Google Play app
Similar to adding Managed Google Play apps, these apps can now also be deleted by using Microsoft Intune. The following three steps walk through the process of deleting a Managed Google Play app by using Microsoft Intune. I’m using the NBA app as an example again.
| 1 | Open the Azure portal and navigate to Microsoft Intune > Client apps > Apps to open the Client apps – Apps blade; |
| 2 | On the Client apps – Apps blade, search for the required app, select the three dots and click Delete to open an Are you sure? dialog box; |
| — |  |
| 3 | On the Are you sure? dialog box, click Yes; |
| — |  |
Note: These steps will programmatically un-approve the app in the Managed Google Play store and sync the result to Microsoft Intune.
More information
For more information regarding managing Managed Google Play apps via Microsoft Intune, please refer to this article about Adding Managed Google Play apps to Android enterprise devices with Intune.
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I’d be really interested in finding a guide on how to manage software updates through play store.
We use an app from the store that I need to control the updates and would like to segment the updates on QA devices before going in production.
Have you experienced anything like this ?
Hi Jonathan,
You can find the update behavior here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/intune/apps-add#app-types-in-microsoft-intune
Regards, Peter
Hoi Peter,
Heb jij toevallig ook wat ervaring met Samsung Knox Manage ?
Hi Sanjeev,
What experience are you looking for?
Regards, Peter
Hi Peter,
Thank you for the reply.
We’wanted to know how we can publish an private Google Play app (with the same packagename) to multiple accounts/tenants. Our core apps are developed inhouse and not vissible in thenormal playstore.
Google helped us.
for other visitors:
Target the app to other organisations and search in the other account in (play.google.com/work), and search pname:packagename. And follow the steps in your description.
Regards, Sanjeev
Thank you for letting us know, Sanjeev!
Hello Sanjeev or Peter ,
Could you please help to elaborate this…as we have similar requirement for publishing private managed google play Apps (in-house developed Apps) in multiple tenants ( Test tenant and Production tenant ).
– Can we use the same google account to connect these Test and Production n tenants ?
– Can we publish the same private app to Test tenant and Production tenant ?
Hi Jinesh,
I haven’t tested the use of a Managed Google Play account for multiple tenants. Personally, I would think that it makes sense to separate it from each other.
Regards, Peter
hi Jinesh,
Publish the inhouse apps to 1 “main”account and distribute it several accounts.
Every MGP account has an ID, from the main account you can distribute it to 20 other account.
We have 1 test account / tenant, our customers are using the production accounts
we use Samsung Knox Manage
Hi guys, just a question.
In my case, by error, I delete from intune a private Google play App. If follow doc>
These steps will programmatically un-approve the app in the Managed Google Play store and sync the result to Microsoft Intune.
So now, the app was un-approve and if try to add the app again, the app as still present in the maage Google Play store, but impossible add.
Reason, app un-aprove.
Is possible approve again this app in the managed google play store? because not found this option. Maybe need delete the app from the manage google play play store and restart all process…
Hi Fran,
It’s been a while since writing that post, but I don’t recall any issues. Did you retry the complete process after removing the app?
Regards, Peter
Is there any official information regarding google play managed application updates? I am using Intune in a single app kiosk mode. We updated our application in google play 4 days ago and it does appear in the store. But the MDM devices we have simply do not update the application even though the policy is to ALWAYS update.
Why is that? 🙁
Hi Alon,
Are the app permissions also configured to Keep approved when app requests new permissions? If not, the updated app is waiting for approval.
Regards, Peter
I bought an app from managed playstore. The app only available in certain countries.
If i push the app (which is not available in that country) to the device, it stuck at install pending.
If i publish the app as available, i don’t see it in managed playstore.
Is this the correct behavior?
Thanks
Hi Jeff,
Intune relies in this case for the app deployment on the (Managed) Google Play Store. So, if the app is not available in the country of the user, the app won’t install.
Regards, Peter
Hi Pete,
Deleting a Managed Google Play app from Intune will programmatically un-approve the app in the Managed Google Play store and sync the result to Microsoft Intune. Will it also remove the app from the installed devices?
Hi Edwin,
No, it’s not automatically uninstalled.
Regards, Peter
Hi Peter,
In Intune console, delete option is greyed out. Unable to delete the app, even if install status went to zero.
How do I delete the app?
Is the Google Play integration still active?
Regards, Peter
Hi Peter,
After some research came across your blog post. I would need some advice.
We would like to know how to create a configuration profile in Intune that excludes the Google Maps application from the restriction of adding new Google accounts or personal accounts.
Also, about the option to create an application configuration policy for Google Maps, we would like to know how to be able to specify the Google accounts or credentials allowed for use in the application.
Much appreciated.
Regards
Tim
Hi Tim,
To my knowledge it’s a device restriction that’s not specific to an app. From what I’ve seen, the Maps app doesn’t provide any configuration options at all (beside permissions).
Regards, Peter
Thank for confirming, I have searched entire planet to find the solution. 🙂
The customer was saying it was working, but obviously not telling the truth…
Much appreciated for confirmation.
Love the blog 5* 🙂