Smartphones have evolved significantly with advanced operating systems like iOS & Android, into essential tools for businesses. Android lollipop’s screen pinning feature helps turn mobile device into a kiosk by fixing a particular app on the top of the display, but the feature fails to meet some vital enterprise device management needs.
Businesses need a robust and secure solution to restrict their employees at work to access the required set of apps only, completely controlled by IT managers. This means that the end-user (field worker) using the device shouldn’t be able to access any other apps or device settings. Android’s screen pinning feature offers a limited level of device & data security, and can’t be used for enterprise mobility management. However, a lockdown solution adds complete security to the data on corporate devices used in fields.
Some of the reasons why Android’s native lockdown feature fails are discussed below:
Message guiding on how to disable pinning: When an application is pinned to the screen, a message gets displayed proactively to the user on tapping the Home or Back/Recent key, telling the user on how to exit from the pinned app. So, if your motive to lock down the screen is to prevent the user from switching to any other app on the device, this way out way out proactively given to users is definitely not preferred by IT managers.
Device locked after reboot: When screen pinning is activated, the user needs to go through the lock screen every time the device restarts. This means that the user needs to enter the passcode on every reboot to access the pinned application as well. In many cases of implementation of an enterprise device management scenario, only the admin knows the password and will need to reach the device to unlock it on every restart. This isn’t possible for IT admins who are managing self-help kiosks installed at remote locations from a single point.
Access to other apps through the pinned app: Though screen pinning means that the user is not allowed to move to another app unless unpinned, but there is a workaround for this in Android. The pinned application can be used to access any other app. For instance, the Gallery app allows access to the Camera app with a single tap, or the user can open any media sharing app, like ShareIt, WhatsApp, and others as well. Thus, Android’s native lockdown solution fails to deliver its basic function, restricting user to a particular app only.
Notification panel can be accessed: In screen pinning, the user can easily move out of the pinned app as stated in the first point. This takes the user to the device lock screen, and even if the user doesn’t know the password, he can easily access the notification panel, and can modify device settings from the available icons. This is another flaw that makes the kiosk mode unusable for the user.
How a Device Lockdown Solution is better?
The lock down feature available with a professional enterprise mobility management solution provides a solution to all these security flaws of the Android’s screen pinning.
Only admin can exit the locked screen: On implementing an MDM solution, there is no workaround available to get out of the pinned app, unlike the proactive message displayed on screen pinning.
Locked app always accessible: Even when the device reboots with a lockdown solution implemented, it opens up the locked app on the front without the need to go through the lock screen. The MDM solution allows the admin to enable/disable the lock screen on the mobile devices used at workplace. With this, lock screen can be enabled on the device used by employees to prevent unauthorized access, and disabled on mobile kiosks installed in stores for a seamless user experience.
Disabled access to other apps: A device lockdown solution allows access to only the apps allowed by the admin, preventing access to other apps by any method.
Restricted device setting access: Admin can restrict access to device settings, preventing users from making any change, unlike the screen pinning feature where the notification panel can be accessed easily.
In short, the screen pinning feature of Android lollipop can’t be used at professional level due to various shortfalls as discussed above, but an enterprise device management solution can help enterprises ensure security of data on device and employee productivity with a true lockdown feature.
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Bikramjit Joined: August 29th, 2016 Articles Posted: 1
