Option for MDM to place app shortcuts on home screen

That is correct, for icon placement you would have to look for a replacement launcher (home app) that supports it, or lean on the vendor-developed kiosk application.

Thanks a lot for the quick reply, @jasonbayton.
But why is this? As I see it, Google should be able to provide this option, and I can only imagine, it will be very useful to a lot of customers.

Hopefully, someone from the Android Enterprise Team can elaborate a bit.

Hi @Stinus, I’ve now passed this on to the team as a feature request. It may take some time before there’s an update but we will keep you posted.

Thanks @Moombas and @jasonbayton for your input here.

Would be great to have more options to customize the default kiosk launcher (wallpaper, choose which apps are displayed, and app placement)

Hey team, 

@Stinus @jeremy @jasonbayton @Moombas 

Thanks for starting this conversation @Stinus. (I hope you are doing well). 

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts/use cases on this and I think it is a very reasonable ask. Is there a particular reason why you would like to pre-set/have shortcuts to apps on a device rather than say let users use the app draw? 

Looking forward to hearing more. 

Lizzie

Hi @Lizzie.

I'm doing fine thanks, and hope the same goes for you.

Thanks for getting involved.

The request actually comes from our Retail organization, who would like store colleagues to have easy and obvious access to the most important operational apps, such as Outlook and Teams - and most importantly our Retail System app (Enactor Mobile POS), which is installed as an Enterprise App.

I hope this explains better the use case - otherwise I will be happy to try to elaborate further.

Best, Stinus

Thanks @Stinus for the additional context here. 

I imagine that the internal recommendations for this specifically would be to use kiosk mode - which I know you would prefer to users to use normal interface. Is there any specific reasons why you'd prefer not to use kiosk mode? 

If others also have thoughts on this please do share. I'd be happy to add these use cases to the FR. It all helps to provide extra context. 

Thanks so much,

Lizzie

To be honest, I think the question is wrong; why don't you want to provide this special way of using a smartphone to your users?

Rather, I think the question should be; what is stopping Google Android from providing the option to present the homescreen in a customized way to end users?

But, to answer your question: early on, we have made a decision to let our store colleagues use the devices as regular smartphones with the functionality they would expect from their own device as opposed to using it as a purpose specific device, which can do only, what has been defined from IT. With our approach, we believe end users are free to find new and better ways to use the devices, and we encourage creativity in the use of mobiel devices.

Today, this means end users have to manually drag and drop shortcuts to whatever apps they prefer to the home screen, and we would love to be able to automatically present them with the most relevant apps up front.

I hope this clarifies our position.

Best, Stinus

ha, very true @Stinus 😀 

To the rephrased question, to be honest, I don't know the internal thinking of what is stopping us providing this option. To stagger a guess it probably is a mixture of the option to use kiosk mode or other requests coming ahead of it in the prioritisation - but I'm keen to explore this further to see if there are any other reasons for this. 

Thanks for the additional details here. 

I think this is an interesting topic and I'd like to get more thoughts on this or potential work arounds people have found. I know not ideally what you are looking for, but as this isn't possible today, let's continue to chat more on this. 

(@MobileDude, @badams1, @SF4, @cat_herder, @kvko wondering if you might be interested in this topic - or anyone else?) 

Thank you all and have a great weekend. 

Lizzie

A lot of things here are already mentioned by others, like the excellent respoonse from @Moombas , but one thing is missing: Companies want to offer a unified experience when people recieve a new phone. Wether its in kiosk or outside, they want to make sure users know what to expect. Its easier for writing manuals on how to use a phone (yes, a lot of customers provide manuals for usage). 

And it also helps in providing a nice an smooth onboarding for new employees while also giving them the option to create their own layout if they want. Something that a kiosk does not offer. 

@Lizzie , we do need that FR section as Moombas mentioned 😆