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March 11, 2025
Question

How to add, update, and remove pinned shortcuts as a Device Owner without user interaction?

  • March 11, 2025
  • 2 replies
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I am developing an MDM (Mobile Device Management) application and need to manage pinned shortcuts programmatically as a Device Owner.

Currently, I can add, update, and remove pinned shortcuts only with user interaction using ShortcutManager. However, I need to perform these operations silently (without user confirmation) since my app runs as a Device Owner.

I checked the Device Policy API and Android Management API, but I couldn’t find any specific policy or method for managing pinned shortcuts as a Device Owner. 

 

I attempted to use ShortcutManager#requestPinShortcut(), but it still requires user confirmation.

 

I reviewed the Android Enterprise Documentation  but found no mention of pinned shortcuts management for Device Owners.

 

Is there any hidden API or specific Device Policy setting that allows a Device Owner to manage pinned shortcuts without user interaction? If not, is there any alternative approach to achieving this functionality programmatically?

 

Thanks

2 replies

Level 1.6: Donut
March 16, 2025

There currently no API to do this silently, however this is something you might be able to achieve with a custom launcher for example.

Or you could "force" the user to do this during device provisioning with an app installed and launched as a "Required for Setup" so user won't have a choice than to go trough your app to finsih the devce setup.

Moombas
Level 4.4: KitKat
March 17, 2025

Or the oem config app from the manufacturer could provide this.
I know Motorola (pretty sure) can do this somehow and i think Samsung (not entirely sure).