Mandatory and optional in-house and secure apps
iOS and macOS in-house apps are made available through the App Catalog and can be designated as a mandatory app, which means that the app is always installed on the devices matching the app’s labels. An app that is not marked as mandatory is optional, and enables the users to decide whether or not to install the app on their devices. The in-house app can be either an AppConnect app (secure app) or a regular, non-AppConnect app.
Designating the Secure Apps Manager as optional and all secure apps as optional means that the device user sets up the secure apps container on-demand. See On-demand secure apps container setup.
To set the prerequisite app for a dependent app, see App management action workflows.
Install and uninstall of mandatory apps
You can specify that mandatory in-house apps and secure apps are installed and uninstalled on iOS and macOS devices.
Although a mandatory app is always installed on the device, whether the device user sees a notification to install the app depends on whether the device is a supervised device.
Whether device users are notified to install a mandatory app
When a iOS or macOS app is set as Mandatory (the Mandatory field is set for the label that is applied to the app), device users will not immediately get the prompt for app installation if they have do not have that app installed on the device.
Every hour, Ivanti EPMM reviews the all the devices that had last checked-in for any unmanaged apps and, if applicable, sends the unmanaged to managed app conversion request to that device. If there is an unmanaged app installed on these devices, device users will not immediately get the prompt for change management.
Device user experience with uninstalling a mandatory app
The device user experience when attempting to uninstall a mandatory app depends on the type of device, as specified by the following table:
Table 8. Device user experience with uninstalling a mandatory app
| iOS devices that support install/uninstall | macOS devices that support install/uninstall |
|---|---|---|
Can device user uninstall a mandatory app when the install/uninstall feature is enabled? | Yes, but the app will be reinstalled. | Yes, but the app will be reinstalled. |
Can device user uninstall a mandatory app when the install/uninstall feature is not enabled? | Yes, but the device user will be notified to re-install the app. | Yes, but the device user will be notified to re-install the app. |
Designating an in-house app as optional or mandatory
After you have added the app to the App Catalog, you can designate whether it is an optional or mandatory app.
The below procedure applies to both iOS and macOS in-house and public apps.
Procedure
- In the Ivanti EPMM Admin Portal, go to Apps > App Catalog.
- Select an app and then select Actions > Apply to Labels.
- In the Apply to Labels dialog box, select the check box next to the app's name.
- Click in the Mandatory field, a drop-down displays. Selecting Yes makes the selected app mandatory; leaving it to the default No makes the app optional.
- Click Apply.