Manage applications on your Apple iOS devices and iPad devices by creating an App Management policy in SuperOps. This feature allows you to deploy software from the App Store, schedule installations, and configure settings for both supervised and unsupervised devices, ensuring they have the necessary tools while maintaining security and control.
Deploying apps to your Apple devices
SuperOps supports two ways to deploy apps to your Apple devices. The right option depends on how you want to source and assign the app, either directly from the App Store as a public app, or through Apple Business Manager using Apps and Books (VPP) for centrally managed app assignments.
Public Apps
Public apps are apps available on the App Store that you can deploy without purchasing licenses through Apple Business Manager. For example, you can deploy Google Keep as a public app for shared notes without buying or assigning licenses in ABM.
Note: Public apps can be deployed only to devices that are signed into the App Store using an unmanaged Apple ID, as required by Apple.
What is an unmanaged Apple ID?
An unmanaged Apple ID is a personal Apple ID that is not created or owned through Apple Business Manager and does not appear under the Users section in ABM.
Apps and Books (VPP)
Apps and Books, also known as VPP, lets organizations acquire apps through Apple Business Manager and deploy them to Apple devices. This can include both free and paid apps, especially when you want the app assignment to be managed centrally.
Once the app is available in ABM, you can assign it to devices and push it from SuperOps without requiring the end user to manually install it.
Note: Since VPP app assignments are device based, these apps can be pushed to devices regardless of whether the user is signed in with a managed Apple ID or an unmanaged Apple ID.
How to check if an Apple ID is managed or unmanaged
To confirm whether an Apple ID is managed, open the Apple Business Manager portal and navigate to Users. If the user appears in this list, the Apple ID is considered a managed Apple ID. If the user does not appear under Users, it is an unmanaged Apple ID.
Prerequisite:
If you plan to install apps from Apps and Books, please ensure this is configured first.
How to configure App Management
Navigate to Settings > Apple iOS Device policies/ Apple IPadOS device policies. Select the policy you wish to configure. From the menu on the left, click on App Management. Enable the main toggle to activate the configuration settings.
Note : If you have chosen the Advanced Hierarchical policy, you can also choose the "Device category" as a part of the enrolment process
The policy will be applied to all devices it targets. You can filter the policy settings view by selecting All, Supervised, or Unsupervised to see which settings apply to different device types. This helps you confirm that your App Management rules are correctly configured for your entire fleet of iOS devices.
Click the Add from App Store button to open the software selection panel. The Software panel will appear, showing available applications under the tab. This lists the Licensed Apps from Apps and Books
Select the checkboxes next to the applications you want to add to the policy. The chosen apps will be listed under Selected item for review.
Click Add to confirm your selection. The applications will be added to the software list. To add an app from the public store, click Add from App Store again and switch to the public app store tab.
Select a country from the dropdown menu, then use the search bar to find a specific application. In this example, we search for 'Slack' after selecting 'United States'.
Select the desired application from the search results and click Add. Next, configure the Schedule software installation. You can set the deployment frequency, week, and day. For example, you can schedule the installation for the 1st week on a Monday.
Under the Apps and Books section, enable the toggles for both options: Install public apps if license is not found on a site's VPP token and Install public apps even if Apps and Books is not configured for a site. This ensures that public apps are installed regardless of VPP token status.
Finally, click Save in the top-right corner to apply the new App Management configuration to your policy. The selected applications will now be deployed to the assigned iOS devices according to your schedule.