DevRel 26 brings a lot of new features and user experience enhancements.
Visual Refresh for Remote Viewer / Remote Control
We have improved our Remote viewer including a new frame improving both look and usability. With a bigger frame the device’s rendered display is now much bigger, so it’s useful even without going to fullscreen. We have also enabled clicks and gestures on devices with Remote control capability (Samsung Knox devices and device makers who have signed Esper) without having to go to fullscreen.
We’ve also added the device frame in fullscreen mode. Other improvements includes:
- Device name is now available in full screen view, which helps in easily identifying the device in the Remote view or Remote control session.
- Ability to capture screenshots while in fullscreen is now available.
- Provided a widget to enable navigation options when the device has hard keys when using Remote control. Additionally in case the control widget happens to overlap with the frame, you can grab and move it to a clean space on the Console screen.
Touch Interactions using Remote Control
We’ve also improved the ability to interact with a device under Remote control. Mouse interactions are now enabled, which means you interact with the remote device using your mouse from the Console, as though a person was touching the screen locally. In addition, we’ve improved the touch accuracy for gestures and the reliability of the Remote control feature.
Bluetooth Information in Device Info
Bluetooth information is now available right from the device’s information view. You may also view it from Devices > Settings > Bluetooth & Devices.
Improvements in the Apps View for a Device
We have improved how apps are deployed to a device and the activities that you can do with apps installed on a device. Changes are as follows:
- Ability to view all the apps by category – Google Play, In-ROM as well as Enterprise(e.g. uploaded to Esper Cloud) apps, and filter by app type as well as state (Show/Hide/Disable).
- Improved UX for installing, suspending an app, setting app permission, and clearing app data (selected by clicking the ellipsis action button (…) for a particular app (Show/Hide/Disable). Disable prevents an app from running at all, very useful to keep apps (primarily in-ROM) completely inaccessible to users.
- Ability to uninstall any app from the device via the ellipsis action button (…) on the app list.
- Preventing the app being used for Kiosk mode from being uninstalled or disabled.
Additional Enhancements in the Devices View
Improved UX– We have added icons for the Navigation Sidebar in various sections for better visual identification and also made many improvements in the Devices page.
Improvements in Devices List view– To view more information about the devices shown in List view, you now have new features:
- Improved pagination control in Device List view with the ability to select number of items in the list.
- Ability to add configurable columns to easily view the required device information by clicking on the + (plus) icon.
Ability to Duplicate Compliance Policies – Oftentimes customers wanted to define a new Compliance Policy based off of an existing Policy. Rather than having to manually define the new Compliance Policy, users can now create a copy of an existing Compliance Policy and then make appropriate modifications. Simply click on the copy icon in the Compliance policy list view and a duplicate will be made that can then be renamed and modified as needed.
Improvements to Provisioning Flow – To reduce the time and effort required to manually provision devices we’ve added a few improvements to the flow. While some of the work is under the hood to increase the stability of the on-device provisioning process, with Android 9 and 10-based devices you no longer have to grant Esper permission to modify system settings as an additional step. Additionally if you are setting your app in Kiosk mode for an Android 9 or 10-based device, Esper will automatically obtain the permission required to enable your Kiosk mode app to draw over other applications.
Naming Convention Changes – One thing to note is we made a few name changes in the console to make it easier for users to understand the main menu:
- Provisioning renamed to Provisioning Methods to be very descriptive and avoid any confusion that this actually executes provisioning
- Device Templates to Provisioning Templates as some users initially assumed they continued to use the Device Template to push configuration changes after provisioning
- All devices group renamed to Default group as this group does not include all devices, just those not assigned to any group created by tenant users
In closing, we neglected to highlight a key capability delivered in our last release – by using the new Scheduled install capability in Groups for Apps, offline devices (e.g. Inactive) will receive the app install or update if they come online any time during the install window. No more scrambling to make sure all devices in the Group receiving an app install or update are online, you control the time window where they need to be available. You still get reporting of the results so you can identify which devices successfully received the update or were inactive during the period. Note that if a device already has the app or update installed, it will be shown as unsuccessful since the install could not be performed. By clicking on the View results you will be able to see which devices already had the app or update installed on them.
For any clarifications, suggestions or feedback, submit a ticket.