Android 16 remote view shows black screen in Hexnode Kiosk modeSolved

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to Hexnode Connect!

This behavior is primarily due to new screen sharing protection mechanisms introduced in Android 15 and 16. Apps can now use new Android APIs to mark specific windows as sensitive, preventing them from appearing during screen sharing or remote view sessions.

If your remote session is connecting and accepting input but showing a black screen, you need to verify two settings:

1. Hexnode Policy: In the Hexnode portal, open the policy associated with these devices. Navigate to Android > Advanced Restrictions and ensure that Screen Capture is explicitly allowed. If this is blocked, the video stream will remain black.
2. Device Level: On the physical Android device, ensure any native screen sharing protections are disabled from within Developer Options.

Best regards,
George
Hexnode UEM.

Enabling Screen Capture in the Hexnode policy did the trick, thank you! Regarding that second point about Developer Options—is there a way to actually enable Developer Options remotely through the Hexnode portal? We have a large fleet, and manually tapping the “Build Number” on every device takes a long time. Furthermore, when I try to tap it on a freshly enrolled device, I get a message saying the action is blocked by the admin.

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to Hexnode Connect!

To answer your first question: no MDM solution, including Hexnode, can remotely turn on Developer Options. Android strictly restricts this at the OS level for security reasons, so it must always be activated manually on the physical device by tapping the Build Number.

However, the “blocked by admin” message you are seeing happens because Hexnode blocks user access to Developer Options by default upon enrollment. To fix this, you must grant permission through a policy:

1. Open your Hexnode policy, navigate to Android > Advanced Restrictions, and allow Developer options.
2. To automate this for your fleet, create a Dynamic Device Group with the rule “Platform is Android” and assign this policy to the group.

Newly enrolled devices will automatically receive this policy, lifting the restriction and allowing your technicians to manually tap the Build Number without encountering the blocked error.

Best regards,
George
Hexnode UEM.