Android Kiosk: Gallery sharing to Messages shows “This app isn’t allowed by the device owner”Solved

Participant
Discussion
1 month ago Jun 04, 2026

Hi, we have Samsung Android tablets in kiosk mode and are trying to let users share an image from the Gallery app through the native Messages app. After adding some blocked packages to the kiosk background apps list, the app opens a bit further, but sending still fails with the message: “This app isn’t allowed by the device owner.”

The same device also showed access denied behavior when opening some default apps from kiosk. We tried disabling kiosk mode temporarily, but the Messages error still appeared. What policy setting controls this?

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Hexnode Expert
1 month ago Jun 04, 2026
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Hi @ronnie,

This behavior is usually caused by a combination of kiosk background app restrictions and Android advanced restrictions. For native messaging workflows in Android kiosk mode, check the following:

  1. Go to the policy applied to the device.
  2. Navigate to Android > Kiosk Lockdown > Android Kiosk Lockdown > Background Apps.
  3. Add the required system packages that appear under the device’s blocked packages list. These packages are often needed for inter-app actions such as sharing media from Gallery to Messages.
  4. In the same policy, navigate to Restrictions > Advanced Restrictions.
  5. Ensure that Send Messages and Receive Messages are allowed.
  6. Save and deploy the policy to the device.

If Send Messages and Receive Messages are restricted, Android blocks the messaging action at the device-owner level, which results in the error: “This app isn’t allowed by the device owner.”

Regards,
Sienna Carter
Hexnode UEM

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Participant
1 month ago Jun 04, 2026
Marked SolutionPending Review

Thanks, that worked.

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