G Suite-Managed Devices Gaining Ability To Install Any App

Google’s G Suite corporate management software for Android devices has only allowed managed devices to download apps specifically whitelisted by their fleet’s administrator up until now, but an update going out for gradual rollout will allow admins to grant devices permission to download any app in the Play Store. The permission will work on a per-device level, which could mean, for example, that a new hire’s work phone could only download whitelisted apps, but a higher-up’s device can download any app from the Play Store. Devices that are allowed to run free will see only whitelisted apps on the front page of the Play Store, but can find any app in the Play Store using the built-in search function.

Google implemented this change because of the simple fact that restrictions on what an employee can do with their device are not critical to all corporate fleet use cases. In some cases, administrators were complaining that they spent a large chunk of their time whitelisting apps that employees requested on an individual basis. With this change, administrators are free of the daunting task of whitelisting hundreds of different apps, and employees are free to get the job done however they want by running any app in the Play Store on their work-issued devices, whether that means playing Pokemon GO with a client or collaborating over Facebook Messenger, just to name a couple of possible examples.

G Suite has become increasingly more flexible, powerful, and easy to use since its inception. Recent changes have even included a number of enhancements to the G Suite versions of certain Google productivity apps that the consumer versions of those same apps did not see released simultaneously, and may never get in some cases. One example is the Google Sheets app, which recently got a G Suite-exclusive update that added in the ability to create, share and execute macros. As G Suite grows to accommodate wider swaths of the corporate world, it’s a safe bet that Google will continue to make thoughtful enhancements based on both user and administrator feedback that will make the platform more appealing, easier to use, more extensible, and more powerful.