Device Management MDM
| Docs

applivery.com

Login

Managing Apps and Licenses

Home
/
/
/
/
/
/
Managing Apps and Licenses

This article describes all the possibilities you have for the management of apps for Apple devices in Applivery.

Before starting let’s describe all type of apps that you can find in the Apple ecosystem:

Apple App Store Apps #

Applivery administrators can remotely push apps from the Apple App Store to managed Apple devices. It requires that the app is available in the App Store and the user must sign-in  with his/her Apple ID account to accept the installation.

For supervised devices, apps can be silently installed in background without the acceptance of the user.

There are 3 main types of Apple App Store Apps that can be deployed to Apple devices:

  • Free Apps: Apps that are publicly available in the Apple Store and are free for purchase.
  • Licensed Apps: Apps that are publicly available in the Apple Store but they are not free.
  • Custom Apps: Company apps created for corporate purposes and private distribution. They must be uploaded to the Apple Store as “Custom Apps” and managed through Apple Business Manager. (Read more about Apple custom apps and Apple Business Manager)

Apps purchased vía Apple Volume Purchase Program (VPP) #

Additionally, Apple provides the Apple Volume Purchase Program to purchase of apps and books licenses and install company-private apps to managed Apple devices running iOS and macOS. You can read more about the Apple VPP here.

In-house distribution (.ipa files) #

  • Enterprise Apps: Apps that are signed with an Apple Enterprise Developer certificate created for internal usage and in-house distribution. Normally these Apps are distributed through alternative methods (such Applivery App Distribution) or deployed to devices through an MDM (like Applivery Device Management for Apple devices). Note that this distribution method is being retired by Apple in favor of Custom Apps and requires an application process.

  • AdHoc Apps: less common type of apps, normally created for testing purposes and internal distribution only. They are limited to a set of devices through the incision of their UDIDs into the provisioning profile.

How to install In-house Apps #

There are two options that allow IT admins to deploy .ipa files to Apple devices.

  • Device level: the app will only be installed in the target device individually.
    1. Assign an App build that has been previously deployed to Applivery. Just click  + Assign App . You can read more about builds management here.
    2. Install a .ipa file after uploading it to your Workspace assets section. Just click Install from file and select an .ipa file from your disk.
  • Policy level: the app or apps will be installed in all devices associated with that Policy. In this case, there’s just one option that is assigning an App build that has been previously deployed to Applivery. Go to Policies > (Select a policy) > Apps > + Add App > Applivery.
    You can read more about builds management here.

Apps management #

Now that we have a more clear view of the different types of apps, let’s take a look to the main App management capabilities you will find in Applivery and some requirements that you must have into consideration depending on whether the target devices are supervised or not (read more about supervised mode in apple devices):

Feature Supervised mode ON Supervised mode OFF
Deploy Apps ✅ ✅
Deploy paid Apps ✅ ✅
Deploy Apps silently ✅ ❌ It requires Apple ID login
Configure Apps remotely ✅ ✅
Update Apps remotely ✅ ✅
Uninstall Apps remotely ✅ ✅
Content