Intune APP/MAM moving to support Android 9 and higher. What does it mean and how does it affect you?

-
On September 3 2021, Microsoft published MC282986 in the Message center that Intune APP/MAM will be moving to support Android 9 and higher. According to Microsoft,

This change is to align with Office mobile apps for Android support of the last four major versions of Android and it will be coming into effect on October 1, 2021.

So what does it really mean?

If you are using app protection policies on any device that are running Android version 8.x or lower then these devices will no longer be officially supported for APP. 

APP policies will continue to be applied to devices running Android 6.x – Android 8.x however, if you do run into issues with an Office app and APP, Microsoft support will request you to update to a supported Office version for app troubleshooting.

So it appears that while APP will continue to apply on devices running Android versions older than 9.x, Microsoft will not support should you run into issues. This may be an issue for lot of organizations as a lot of devices that are being managed for APP, may still be running older versions of Android and considering the timing of this change, it doesn't give much of a time to organizations to formulate an action plan to prepare and address this.

However, if you are in a position to do something about this right away, then this is how you can take necessary actions in Intune.

1. Configure an APP Conditional launch setting with a Min OS version requirement to warn users.

b. Navigate to Apps->App Protection Policies
c. Select the relevant APP and click edit Conditional Launch in the properties or create a new one.
d. Add\Modify the Min OS Version and Action settings under Device Conditions as shown below and save.



If you want to know on how to create APP based on tier based data protection framework then you can head over to one of previous blogs Implementing App protection policies using Tier based Data Protection Framework for details.

2. Configure a device compliance policy for enrolled devices and set the action for non-compliance to send a message to users before marking them non-compliant.

b. Navigate to Devices->Android->Compliance policies
c. Select the relevant compliance policy and click edit for Compliance settings and Actions for noncompliance in the properties or create a new policy.
d. Add\Modify the Minimum OS version under Device Properties as shown below.


e. Add Send push notification to end user with value 0 under Action in Actions for noncompliance section as shown below.


Conclusion

In my opinion, this change can create challenges for organizations because there may be devices out there, that could be nearing end of life in terms of receiving OTA firmware updates or may not be supported at all to receive Android 9.0 or later. This obviously creates a procurement and supply challenge in trying to replace such devices. The good thing is that all is not lost and APP will still be continued to be applied after October 1, 2021, but there is a good chance that you will not receive any support from Microsoft if you run into any issues. As of now it is not clear as to when will Microsoft will fully pull the plug on supporting Android devices older than 9.0, but organizations will need to act fast in order to ensure that their end user devices are fully supported and protected for their corporate data.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to force escrowing of BitLocker recovery keys using Intune

-
Image
Every now and then it so happens that BitLocker recovery keys do not escrow in AAD. The usual culprits are incorrect BitLocker policies and\or the device hardware configuration failing to meet the minimum requirements. The other scenario and something I recently experienced is when everything is setup right and still the recovery key doesn’t escrow in AAD. As I understand, this can happen if the escrow process got interrupted the first time due to network or local devices related issues and the process could not resume. To circumvent this issue, one can simply push a PowerShell script to the devices to force the escrow of the recovery keys to AAD. Here is a script to do so. try{ $BitlockerVol = Get-BitLockerVolume -MountPoint $env:SystemDrive         $KPID=""         foreach($KP in $BitlockerVol.KeyProtector){             if($KP.KeyProtectorType -eq "RecoveryPassword"){                 $KPID=$KP.KeyProtectorId                 break;             }         }        $o
Read more

Intune: Configure Printers for Non-Administrative Users

-
Image
Configuring printers for end users or giving them the ability to do it themselves is a normal requirement for organizations. Now if your users are Administrators, then the configuration can be straight forward, but in case of Non-Administrators there are additional steps required as Non-Administrators will not be able to add a driver in the driver store despite being able to install a printer. In this blog, I will cover the steps that I took to address this requirement using Intune. The setup involves 2 steps -  1. Setup registries. 2. Install the driver and configure the printer Setting up registries – The registries that need to be configured are actually part of a GPO setting – Allow non-administrators to install drivers for these device setup classes It can be found under: Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Driver Installation I used a Powershell script to set the values and wrapped it in a Win32 application. $Path1
Read more

Intune: UAC Elevation Prompt Behavior for Standard Users

-
Image
Implementing and maintaining a good security posture is an integral part of overall IT security governance for most organizations now. While you want to harden the security of infrastructure and give least number of privileges to your end users, sometimes you may need to cut back on the restrictions to ensure a good user experience and an effective IT support process. Recently, I had a requirement where the customer wanted to ease the restriction on the end user devices to make the helpdesk support process more efficient. This involved easing the UAC level access for the Standard users and if you are managing your devices using Intune, then this blog may just help you. Let us see what all is involved and some of the ways that you can use to implement this easily. Policy CSP – LocalPoliciesSecurityOptions LocalPoliciesSecurityOptions has many CSP settings and if you are managing these settings at an individual level, then the CSP that we need to concern ourselves with here is U
Read more