Android managed web app opens in Chrome and ignores Website Kiosk browser settingsSolved

Hello @lucaas ,

Managed web apps deployed via Managed Google Play launch natively inside Google Chrome by design. The browser selection under Website Kiosk Settings applies exclusively to web apps added directly to the kiosk home screen in Hexnode UEM.

For managed web apps, URL restrictions must be configured through Chrome’s App Configuration payload in the Android policy.

To allow only selected websites in Chrome:

1. Go to Policies tab and create a new policy or select an existing policy.
2. Navigate to  Android > App Management > App Configurations and click Configure.
3. Click on Add new configuration and select the Google Chrome app from the Managed Google Play app.
4. Locate the Block access to a list of URLs setting and enter [“*”].
5. Add the approved domains in the Allow access to a list of URLs setting as a valid JSON array. Example: [ “app.example.com”, “login.example.com”, “auth.example.com” ]
6. Ensure Google Chrome is added as a Required App so that it is managed by the policy.

After saving the policy, test the configuration on a test device before applying it to production devices.

Regards,
Simon Scott
Hexnode UEM

I tried the blocklist as [“*”], but it still blocked the sites in my allowlist. My allowlist had a mix of entries like app.example.com, https://login.example.com/, and a few URLs with trailing slashes. Could that be the reason?

Yes, that can cause the allowlist to fail.

When Chrome receives URL policies through managed app configuration, the allowlist entries need to be cleanly formatted. Common issues include trailing slashes, inconsistent URL patterns, and malformed JSON.

Use one consistent format for the entries. For base domains, avoid trailing slashes:

Recommended: [ “app.example.com”, “login.example.com”, “auth.example.com”, “support.example.com” ]

Avoid: [“https://app.example.com/”,”login.example.com/”,”https ://auth.example.com”].

Clean spacing such as [ “domain1.example”, “domain2.example” ] is fine and helps avoid formatting issues when pasting the payload into the app configuration field.