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With the managed Google Play iframe, you can embed managed Google Play
directly in your EMM console to offer customers a unified mobility management
experience.
The iframe contains a title bar and an expandable side menu. From the menu,
users can navigate to different pages:
Search apps: Allows IT admins to search for and browse Google
Play apps, view app details, and select apps.
Private apps: Allows IT admins to publish and manage private
apps for their enterprise.
Web apps: Allows IT admins to publish and distribute website
shortcuts as apps.
Organize apps: Allows IT admins to configure how apps are
organized in the Play Store app on their user's devices.
This section describes the features available in the managed Google Play iframe.
For information on how to embed the iframe and implement these features, see
Add the iframe to your console.
Search apps
The Search apps page (shown in Figure 1.) lets IT admins search for, browse, and
select Google Play apps.
Search box
A search box in the title bar is enabled on the page by default. The search box supports features
such as auto-suggest and returns results from apps listed publicly on Google Play. The search
results are displayed within the iframe.
Private apps
The Private apps page allows IT admins to publish and manage private apps directly from your EMM
console. To streamline private app publishing for IT admins, the page:
Silently creates a Play Console account on behalf of the enterprise and grants admin access to
IT admins.
Waives the $25 USD Play Console registration fee previously required to publish apps.
Requires only an app’s APK and title.
Publishes apps in as little as 10 minutes (compared to 2 hours in the Play Console). Note: apps published from the Private apps page can never be made public.
The first time an IT admin publishes an app in the iframe, the iframe silently creates a Play
Console account on behalf of the enterprise. If they make advanced edits, they're prompted
to sign in with a Google Account—this can be a any Google Account (e.g. Gmail, Cloud Identity).
This Google Account is added as an admin of the enterprise's Play Console account. Afterwards, an
IT admin can use their Google Account to sign into the Play Console directly, where they
can:
After an app is published, an IT admin can edit its title and APK in the app details page. The
app details page also displays a SELECT button (see Figure 2). You need to specify
the action that takes place when the IT admin clicks this button (see
onproductselect in Step 3. Handle iframe
events).
Web apps
The Web apps page lets IT admins publish website shortcuts as private apps to managed Google Play.
Web apps are identifiable by their package name (productId) and typically take 10
minutes to publish. After publishing, they’re automatically approved for their enterprise can be
distributed to users just like any other approved app. Web apps are compatible with other managed
Play iframe features: they’re searchable in the Play Search page and can be added to
collections.
The web app creation form requires a title, HTTPS or HTTP URL, and icon image (512 x 512 JPG or
32-bit PNG). Additionally, IT admins can choose from the three display options:
Full screen: The app opens in full screen mode, hiding the device's status bar and navigation bar.
Standalone (default): The app shows the device's status bar and navigation bar.
Minimal UI: The app shows the device's status bar and navigation bar, the app's URL, and a refresh
option. For HTTP URLs, this is the only available option.
The Web apps page also lets IT admins edit and delete web apps. Deleting a web app removes it
from a user's managed Google Play store, but the user may still have access to it if the app is
already installed on their device. To delete a web app from a user's device, see
delete apps. Instructions for users on how to
create and edit web apps are available in the
managed Google Play Help
Center.
Select button
After a web app is published, its details page includes a SELECT button. You need to specify the
action (for example, distribute the app) that takes place when the IT admin clicks on this button
(see onproductselect in
Step 3. Handle
iframe events).
Organize apps
The Organize apps page lets IT admins organize apps into collections (also called
clusters). For example, an IT admin can create an Essentials collection for
frequently used apps or an Expenses collection for apps related to tracking expenses,
logging travel, etc. Collections are displayed in the Play Store homepage on user's devices.
EMM's must utilize the SELECT mode in the iframe URL's parameters to allow searching and adding of apps
to collections.
On user's devices, the Play Store app only displays apps from a collection that are available for
the user (or device). If a collection doesn't include any apps that are available to the user (or
device), the collection won't appear in the Play Store.
IT admins can also edit, delete, and copy existing collections in the organize apps page. User
instructions for how to perform these tasks are available in the
Managed Google Play Help
Center.
All pages in the iframe are enabled by default. When generating a web token, you
can specify which page(s) to disable. The example below disables Private apps,
Web apps, and Organize apps.
The initial page displayed when the iframe is rendered. Possible values are
PLAY_SEARCH, WEB_APPS, PRIVATE_APPS, and STORE_BUILDER (organize apps). If not specified, the following order
of precedence determines which page is displayed: 1. PLAY_SEARCH, 2. PRIVATE_APPS, 3.
WEB_APPS, 4. STORE_BUILDER.
locale
N/A
No
A well-formed BCP 47 language tag
that is used to localize the content in the iframe. If not specified, the
default value is en_US.
mode
Search apps
No
SELECT: lets IT admins select apps. APPROVE (default): lets IT admins select, approve, and un-approve apps.
showsearchbox
Search apps
No
TRUE (default): displays the search box and
initiates the search query from within the iframe. FALSE:
the search box is not displayed.
search
Search apps
No
Search string. If specified, the iframe directs the IT admin to search results with
the specified string.
Step 3. Handle iframe events
You should also handle the following events as part of your integration.
Event
Description
onproductselect
The user selects or approves an app. This returns an object containing:
{
"packageName": The package name of the app, e.g. "com.google.android.gm",
"productId": The product ID of the app, e.g. "app:com.google.android.gm",
"action": The type of action performed on the document. Possible values are:
"approved", "unapproved" or "selected." If you implement the iframe in SELECT
mode, the only possible value is "selected".
}
The sample below shows how to listen for onproductselect:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2024-08-20 UTC."],[],[]]