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How to enforce app installation on iOS devices

Defining required apps helps you ensure users have all the essential apps installed that are needed for their work. The Required Apps policy simplifies app management by enforcing automatic app and app update deployment to the device. You can create a policy with the list of required apps and assign it to any entity – user, device, group, or domain. If the required app(s) is missing, the device will be marked as non-compliant. Ultimately, the Hexnode UEM portal will identify missing apps and reinitiate installation. With Hexnode’s Required Apps policy, IT admins can easily install enterprise, system, VPP, and store apps on iOS devices.

Add required apps via policy

Notes:

On iOS devices, only the following apps among the pre-installed apps can be added to the required apps list.

Activity Home Podcasts
Apple Books iTunes Stores Reminders
Calculator Mail Stocks
Calendar Maps Tips
Compass Measure TV
Contacts Music Videos
FaceTime News Voice Memos
Files Notes Watch app
Find My Friends Photo Booth Weather


To add apps in bulk on your iOS device,

  1. Login to your Hexnode UEM portal.
  2. Navigate to Policies > New Policy. You can also choose to continue with an existing policy.
  3. Provide a policy name (this field is mandatory) and a description of the policy.
  4. Go to iOS > App Management > Required Apps.
  5. Click on +Add to either add an app or a group of apps from the app inventory.
  6. Choose the required apps from the list of apps and click Done.
  7. Then associate the policy to target devices. Go to Policy Targets and click on +Add Devices.
  8. Select the device you want to associate the policy to and click OK to confirm. You can also associate this policy with a device, group or even a domain.
  9. Click on Save.

You have now successfully added a list of required apps for the user. All the apps in the list will be installed on the user’s device.

Note:

A device will be marked non-compliant if a required app is missing from the device.

Remove apps from device on policy removal

You can also remove the app from the device in case the policy is deleted or disassociated from the device or when the app is removed from the policy by enabling the option ‘Remove apps from the device on policy removal’.

Shows the option to enable/disable the option for removing apps from the device on policy removal

Notes:

  • Silent app installation is possible only on supervised iOS devices. Other devices prompt the user to install an app.
  • When the App Store is disabled via any restriction, only the enterprise apps and VPP apps can be pushed silently to the device.

Installation criteria for app types with multiple versions

Hexnode UEM allows adding multiple versions of an app, whether store or enterprise, to the app inventory. If multiple versions of an app are added to the Required Apps policy, only one version of the app will be pushed for installation on the devices. The priority of installation for different app versions depends on various cases that are explained below:

  1. If the enterprise app version is the same as that of its store app version, the priority of installation will be based on the following order:
    • Non-Ad-Hoc Enterprise version
    • Store version
    • Ad-Hoc Enterprise version
  2. When the enterprise app version is greater than the store app version, the enterprise version will be installed on iOS devices.
  3. In case, if the store app version is higher than the enterprise app version, the store app version will be pushed to the devices.
Notes:


Once the Required Apps policy is associated, you can keep track of the installation status from the Action History tab of the device. It shows either of the statuses:

  • Initiated – The installation action has been initiated from the Hexnode server.
  • Pending – The Hexnode server is awaiting a response from the device to the app installation request. You can still cancel the app install action during this stage.
  • In progress – The app installation is in progress on the device.
  • Bypassed – When the required app installation fails more than three times due to unsupported versions at the device end.
  • Failed – The app installation failed on the target device.
  • Success – The app installation was successfully performed on the device.

  • Deploying and Managing Apps