Adding Android Devices with Work Features Enabled

The Android operating system has several built-in features designed to facilitate easier device management within enterprise deployments. The flexibility of Android continues with these 'work' features; whether your mobility strategy is bring your own device or purpose built device or a mix of both, Android has a solution for you.

In SOTI MobiControl, Android devices with work features enabled are managed under the Android Plus banner as Android Enterprise. Enrollment, remote-control, and device configuration are all performed under Android Plus. Unless noted, Android devices with work features enabled can generally accomplish anything a regular Android device can.

Work features are available on devices running Android 4.0 or later. However, in Android 4.0 to 4.4, the functionality is provided using the Android Enterprise client, which must be installed separately on the device. Beginning with Android 5.0, work features are native to the Android operating system.

Device Management Type

There are two types of device management for Android devices with work features enabled: work managed devices and devices with work profiles.

Work managed devices are Android devices where the entire device is managed and under enterprise control. It grants administrators an extensive level of control over devices. Devices must be configured as work managed devices during the initial setup of the device.

Devices with work profiles are devices where only a portion of the device is dedicated to enterprise apps and data. The rest of the device is devoted to personal apps and data and the two sections remain separated. As the device user has ultimate control, there are some limitations to device management in this scenario compared to work managed devices.

Account Type

When enrolling devices in SOTI MobiControl, you can choose between two types of accounts for Android devices with work features enabled: Google managed accounts and managed Google Play accounts. You can also choose to skip the Google account creation entirely. Only choose the Skip option if the devices will not require access to the managed Google Play Store.

Google managed accounts are user-based and are best for situations where the device will be associated with a single user for its lifetime. See Using Google Managed Accounts for more information.

Managed Google Play accounts are device based and are best for situations where the device will be used by multiple users, such as kiosk environments. See Using Managed Google Play Accounts for more information.