Companion app verison 1.16.2 release

We have today released a new version of the mambo EMM companion app, 1.16.2

With release 1.16.2, live on the store and rolling out now, there is no longer an accessibility screen displayed for fully managed devices, and for all other deployment scenarios the prompt for accessibility has been moved to a pop-up when explicitly tapping the link that takes end users into Settings.

Why isn't accessibility shown for fully managed devices?

There is a known issue with older versions of Android on a subset of devices where access to settings can be given through direct-linking (or intent) to the Settings application, even when in Kiosk mode. Accessibility resides within Settings, and for affected devices then grants the end-user the ability to access device settings in full. In later versions of Android this was patched, however because we currently have a duty to support down to 9.0 for advanced features, and earlier for basic device management, we have to ensure all devices are considered secure, and not erroneously granted paths into areas end-users should not be able to access.

Therefore, for now, we only direct end-users to the Settings application to enable the accessibility permission rather than providing a link, button, or other means of going directly there.

In practice this means end-users with the appropriate device-level access must go into Settings > Accessibility and directly enable the accessibility permission for the EMM Device Agent application, should customers wish to use Remote Control. I understand this is not a seamless experience, but it is a trade-off we're making for the time being.

If you have strong opinions on how this is implemented and wish to share feedback, you may do so with an email to [email protected], or - preferred - use the feedback button within your mambo EMM dashboard, as all feedback goes directly to myself and the engineering team.

Further information

Respective patches may be viewed on our changelog.

For questions or support, please reach out to the mambo EMM team.