Esper has been updated to DevRel 25.
WiFi Access Point Configurations in Device Settings and Group Settings
When we first released the WiFi Access Point Configuration Settings capability we only made that available during Provisioning in the Device Template. Customers asked to be able to delete configured WiFi APs as well as add new APs remotely after provisioning. You are now able to do so for provisioned, deployed devices as well as push new APs out to a group of devices.
Deploying or Deleting a WiFi AP to a Device
To change WiFi AP configuration at the device level, go toDevices > Details and select the device you wish to change.Go toSettings, then select theWifi & Internet dropdown. To add an AP click on the blue+and the configuration dialog will appear. To delete an already configured AP click on the ellipsis (…) for the AP and select Delete.
Note: Device must be online to receive these configuration changes.
Deploying a WiFi AP for Group
To change WiFi AP configures at the group level, go to Groups>Details for the group you wish to change. In Settings, the top section, next to the action buttons for Wipe you will see an action button for Push a WiFi access point.
Click on Push new access point and enter the WiFi SSID, password, security settings and choose if it is a hidden access point.
Note: Unlike devices, for Groups, only one WiFi access point will be pushed at a time to all devices in the group. The devices need to be online to receive this command.
Support for Hidden WiFi Access Points
Esper now supports configuring hidden WiFi Access Points. To configure a hidden AP, when you set up your WiFi credentials in either aDevice Template or for a single device simply select Yes in the Hidden drop down option.
Device Friendly Names, AKA Aliases
Esper uses a unique Device ID to identify each and every device enrolled in Esper. This Device ID will be prominently displayed in the device tile and device lists. However many customers want to apply their own naming conventions for their devices. So we’ve added a new feature called Device rename that enables you to give each device any name of your choosing. It is an alias for customer purposes as we still continue to use the Device ID under the hood.
To give a device a friendly name, go to Devices, and select the ellipsis (…)in the upper right corner of the device’s tile.
Click on Device rename and this dialog pops up enabling you to give it a friendly name, change the current friendly name, or revert back to the Device ID if you wish.
The new device name will appear in all views of Esper including the Device home screen moving forward after you change it.
New Device App States design – Show/Hide/Disable
Previously with Esper, customers could either show the shortcut for an installed app or uninstall the app to remove it which of course does not work for in-ROM apps. So we’ve added additional options for each app through our App State displayed in the list of Apps on a device. You can access this at Devices >Details >Apps.
If SHOW is selected then that app is available on the Home screen for use. If HIDE is selected the shortcut for the app is unavailable to the user. However, if DISABLE is selected the app is not shown and is disabled from use. This is useful for in-ROM apps that you want to make sure your users can’t gain access to, such as YouTube for GMS devices.
Remotely Change Kiosk App
Previously once a device was provisioned with an app for Kiosk mode, it could only use that app unless it was changed on the device itself using the Esper Settings App. Now you can remotely change the Kiosk mode app using the Esper Console. Just go to Devices > Details for the device you wish to change. Then go to Settings > Device mode > Change.
This brings up a dialog box that enables you to choose a different apk for Kiosk mode. Note: This apk could be any Private apk that was previously installed on the device.
Group App Installation – Google Play Store App and Privately Uploaded Apps
Previously the only way to install or uninstall Play for Work Google apps from the Play Store was on individual devices, and we received feedback that this was insufficient for managing Play for Work apps on device fleets. To address this need we are rolling out our initial implementation of a robustApp Unification feature on our Cloud backend which enables Esper to easily handle all types of apps and app-related actions for customers at the Group level.
To deploy a Google app or a private app to a group, go to Groups > Details for the group you wish to deploy the app on. Go to the Apps tab where you will view this screen.
Choose between Install and Uninstall actions in the drop-down select app action. The Select App dropdown then shows a list of all uploaded private apks and approved Google apps. After selecting a version from the “Select Version” dropdown, in the App Details Preview, you can see theApp type indicating whether its a private app (App type – Enterprise) or a Google app (App type – Google) as shown below.
Additionally, you can also view the app icon, app name, version number and package name of the app in this section. Clicking the Install button on the bottom right will deploy the app on the group.
A collapsible sidebar will appear on the right showing the latest status of the install command fired on the devices in the group. Click on Success and Failed to view the device name, model and status of the devices that received the commands successfully and devices that failed to receive the command respectively. It will continue to update the status over a period of 3 minutes after which you can use the refresh function to get the latest installation status from the devices.
History of all app installation and uninstallation for the selected group will also be shown in the history section below showing details such as App name, Action, App type, App version, Package Name, Status, and Results. There is also a refresh button here to get the latest results.
Remote Control – Hardware Keys and Keyboard Events
This feature is an enhancement to our Remote Control feature that allows you to click on the device screen while remotely viewing the device on the dashboard and getting the response from the device as though it was actually clicked on.
Some devices do not have soft keys for home, back and recent instead, they are hard keys physically on the device itself. As a result, the Remote Control view of the device was not allowing users to be able to navigate the device.
We have enabled the hardware keys and keyboard events so that a virtual set of keys are represented on the Remote Control screen even for devices that have only hardware keys for this purpose. Additionally, we have enabled keyboard events so users can use the keyboard on their system to type and are not forced to use the keyboard on the device by clicking on each character using the mouse pointer. This makes the experience of remote control more convenient as we continue to improve.
Note that Remote Control is only enabled on devices where Esper’s locally installed agent has been signed by the device maker’s platform key. As we are a Samsung Knox partner, the remote control is typically available on Samsung models. Contact us if your device is not supported as of now, we can work with the device maker to get the necessary signing done.