Prevent users from disabling Android kiosk alarm notificationsSolved

Hi @thomas_m ,

Welcome to the Hexnode Community.

In Android kiosk mode, this depends on how the alarm is being displayed.

If the alarm app uses standard Android system notifications, Android exposes notification channel controls when the notification UI is available. Users may be able to long-press the notification and modify notification settings, even if the main Settings app is not added as a kiosk app or background app.

You can block access to the notification shade by configuring the kiosk policy:

1. Go to Policies and edit the Android kiosk policy.
2. Navigate to Kiosk Lockdown > Android Kiosk Lockdown > Peripheral Settings.
3. Disable Enable Status Bar.
4. If Lock Task Mode is enabled, go to Advanced Lock > Lock Task Mode and disable Notifications there as well.

This prevents users from pulling down the notification bar or accessing notification controls. However, it also prevents standard notification alerts from appearing on screen. Android does not provide a standard kiosk setting that allows visible notifications while selectively blocking the notification channel controls.

Regards,
Isabel Lora
Hexnode UEM

I tried disabling the status bar, but the bar was still visible until I also disabled Notifications under Lock Task Mode. After doing that, users could no longer pull down the bar, but the alarm notifications stopped appearing too. So it seems to block the thing we actually need.

That is expected behavior for Android kiosk/Lock Task Mode. For standard system notifications, it is effectively an all-or-nothing trade-off:

• Notifications enabled: alarm alerts can appear, but users may access notification controls from the notification UI.
• Notifications disabled/status bar restricted: users cannot access notification controls, but standard notification pop-ups are also suppressed.

If these are Samsung Knox devices, there may be additional controls through Samsung Knox policies, such as restricting app notification setting modifications. However, the relevant controls are typically part of Knox Platform for Enterprise Premium capabilities and require the appropriate Samsung licensing.

For an in-house alarm APK, the recommended approach is to change how the app presents critical alarms. Instead of relying only on standard Android notifications, have the app launch a full-screen activity or full-screen alarm screen when a new alarm arrives. This works more like the native phone alarm/timer screen: the alert UI appears directly over the kiosk app without depending on the notification shade.

That way, users can see and act on the alarm while the kiosk policy can still keep the status bar and notification controls restricted.

Regards,
Isabel Lora
Hexnode UEM

So if the app is ours, the better fix is to update the APK and make alarms appear inside the app or as a full-screen alarm screen, not as regular Android notifications?

Correct @thomas_m . For a safety-critical in-house app, a full-screen alarm activity is the most reliable workaround.

Recommended implementation path:

1. Keep the Android kiosk policy locked down by disabling status bar access and Lock Task Mode notifications if needed.
2. Update the alarm app so incoming alarms trigger a full-screen activity/full-screen intent rather than only posting a standard notification.
3. Test the updated APK on a small device group before rolling it out broadly.

This avoids exposing Android’s notification controls while still making alarms visible to users in kiosk mode.

Regards,
Isabel Lora
Hexnode UEM