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How to Enforce App Installation on iOS Devices
Defining mandatory apps help you ensure the users have installed all the essential apps. Mandatory apps work in combination with policy. You create a policy with the list of mandatory apps and assign it to any entity – user, device, group or domain. The selected apps will be pushed to all the devices that fall under the target entity. Enterprise apps, System apps, VPP apps, and Store apps can be pushed as mandatory apps via Hexnode portal.
Add Mandatory Apps via Policy
- On iOS devices, only the following apps among the pre-installed apps can be added to the mandatory list.
| Activity | Home | Podcasts |
| Apple Books | iTunes Stores | Reminders |
| Calculator | 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,
- Login to your Hexnode MDM portal.
- Navigate to Policies > New Policy. You can also choose to continue with an existing policy.
- Provide a policy name (this field is mandatory) and a description for the policy.
- Go to iOS > App Management > Mandatory Apps.
- Click on +Add to either add an app or a group of apps from the app inventory.
- Choose the required apps from the list of apps and click Done.
- Then associate the policy to target devices. Go to Policy Targets and click on +Add Devices.
- 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.
- Click on Save .
You have now successfully added a list of mandatory apps for the user. All the apps in the list will be installed on the user device.
A device will be marked non-compliant if a mandatory 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’.
- 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 Mandatory 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:
- 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
- When the enterprise app version is greater than the store app version, the enterprise version will be installed on the iOS devices.
- In case, if the store app version is higher than the enterprise app version, the store app version will be pushed to the devices.
