How Android Lockdown Gives You More Control Over Your Business Devices

Android smartphones and tablets provide everything that your business needs. 

However, the advanced features of Android devices make them vulnerable to abuse as employees get tempted to use them for their personal use. Practically, IT admins find it quite difficult to keep an eye on every enterprise-owned device. An Android lockdown solution, such as SureLock by 42Gears, can help organizations manage and secure corporate data and devices. SureLock allows IT admins to lock down Android devices into kiosk mode and features a highly secure and easy-to-use UI to create the best device lockdown environment. 

Before we discuss more about SureLock, let us understand what challenges IT admins face while managing business devices and how Android lockdown gives you more control over your business devices. 

Challenges of Managing Business Devices and the Solution

Companies provide devices to employees for work. Employees access business emails, servers, networks, and data through these corporate-owned Android devices. Managing and controlling such devices is a big challenge for IT admins especially when employees work from different parts of the globe. Employees often end up using the devices for non-productive purposes such as gaming, entertainment, accessing social media sites, browsing for personal needs, and many more. 

Also, employees can download the third party app, which can be malicious. They can open unsafe links, putting corporate data and devices at risk. 

In such scenarios, Android lockdown solutions prove to be really useful, as they allow IT admins to enforce device usage policies by blocking access to non-work apps. By locking down devices in Android kiosk mode, IT admins can allow users to access only approved applications. Once the Android lockdown capability is enabled on devices through the use of a kiosk lockdown solution, misuse of devices and app settings can be prevented, employee productivity can be improved, and data security can be enhanced. 

Understanding SureLock: The Ultimate Android Lockdown Solution 

42Gears’ SureLock is a robust and powerful Android lockdown solution that helps businesses transform Android devices into dedicated-purpose tools.   

SureLock: Enabling Android Kiosk Mode

SureLock can be used to lock down Android based tablets, wearables, and smartphones into dedicated-purpose devices or kiosks to prevent device misuse. Using SureLock, IT admins can specify which applications and device features can be used by end-users. This is also known as Android Kiosk Mode. For example, you can block access to gaming apps, social media apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, general web browsers, etc. In most cases, you may allow access to just one or two apps, and SureLock will ensure that the user cannot access anything other than those allowed applications.

The trial version of SureLock for Android is available on our website as well as on Google Play.

SureLock: Core Features 

• Lock down your Android smartphones, wearables, and tablets into kiosks. 
• Activate SureLock offline using device details like IMEI, Wi-Fi MAC, and GUID.
• Get access to application usage analytics, set up auto lockdown configuration, and enable driver safety mode on in-vehicle devices to prevent drivers from getting distracted by non-work activities and allow them to remain alert while driving. 
• Restrict users to ‘allowed’ applications only. Android Single app mode can be set up on the devices, which means only one app. remains active on the screen all time and users won’t be allowed to exit from the app.
• Apply password protected SureLock admin settings.
• Hide or disable the Bottom Bar on Android 3.x or higher versions 
• Display selective widgets on the SureLock Home screen.
• Reposition app icons using the drag-and-drop feature. 
• Create app shortcuts on the SureLock Home screen. 
• Block users from accessing the device Home Screen. 
• Prevent users from playing games, browsing, or installing unapproved applications. 
• Block users from changing the system settings. 
• Selectively allow or block individual child windows of allowed applications.
• Exercise password control for every application. 
• Auto launch application(s) at startup. 
• Set up custom titles for allowed applications on the Home screen. 
• Hide the icon of an allowed application on the Home screen. 
• Facilitate peripheral lockdown (WiFi, Bluetooth, Auto-Orientation, Flight-mode, Sound). 
• Set custom wallpaper on the SureLock Home screen. 
• Import/Export settings to xml. 
• Arrange allowed/approved apps in categories on the SureLock Home screen.
• Remotely deploy SureLock configuration (over http download or by using an MDM or Android Device Management platform such as SureMDM)

You can also use kiosk management apps or mobile device management solutions to set up kiosk mode on Android devices and manage Android device fleet. With 42Gears’ SureMDM, a unified endpoint management solution, IT admins can remotely manage, monitor, and secure a wide range of mobile devices, configure device settings, set up a whitelist of allowed apps, and enforce device usage policies.