Recent discussions
[Day 1] Community festival: Highlighting 3 great resources of information for the Android Enterprise community
Hi Android Enterprise community ! As an IT professional with focus on securing and managing different types of devices for customers all over the world, its important to keep up with the changing landscape and be on top of whats going on in the different ecosystems that exist out there. In this post I want to highlight 3 things that I think has had the greatest impact for me and my customers and that I would recommend anyone working within this field to keep an eye on. Android Enterprise Community discussions highlights There have been a lot of great conversations in this community for the past year and I wanted to mention a few that stood out for me and the impact of the community. I'm a strong believer in that whats makes a great product is also the community around it. Being able to interact directly between users using the product, developers and Program Managers working on the product makes the product better. https://www.androidenterprise.community/t5/general-discussions/is-there-any-way-to-disable-google-play-protect-gpp-from-an-emm/td-p/2507 https://www.androidenterprise.community/t5/service-announcements/partial-fix-some-management-policies-are-made-permanent-on/ta-p/1494 https://www.androidenterprise.community/t5/admin-discussions/distributing-paid-apps/td-p/653 Android Enterprise Academy https://info.androidenterprise.training One of the best resources I've encountered in my path to learn and understand what Android Enterprise is from a conceptual perspective to more in-depth technical is without a doubt the free training and certificate program under Android Enterprise Academy. There are 3 levels of certification Associate Professional Expert I keep going back to the training from time to time when I need to refresh my memory and I can't say that about a lot of other trainings I've done through out my years. That to me shows how good the quality of the training is. For me who has in the past created a lot of training material and also taught technical classes its important to understand that people are different in how they learn and are able to process information and I find that the training offered here manage to address that with the confinement of online training. Developer documentation 3rd but not least, I want to highlight to the developer documentation. I'm an IT Professional but not a developer, however this has not stopped me from getting value from the developer documentation. https://developers.google.com/android/work/tools https://developers.google.com/zero-touch/guides/overview When it comes to Android Enterprise I have found myself many times going to the developer documentation to understand certain features and in what version of Android they were introduced or trying to understand what is needed to use the features in troubleshooting purposes. Maybe there's a need to create a service request or Incident to your EMM or directly to Google, adding information that could help that points to the documentation is often valuable information that could expedite the handling of the ticket. Are there any discussion that stands out for you ? Or do you have any tips or great resources you want to share ? I want to give a special thanks to Lizzie for all the great work she does here and all the other community members that takes part in the discussions here. Timmy Andersson Device management expert & Freelance consultant www.timmyit.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmy-andersson-61408292/
Android 15 - Cannot set default password app
We use Microsoft Intune to manage devices. For the devices which have upgraded to Android 15, the end users can no longer select Microsoft Authenticator as their default application for auto filling passwords. I cannot find any settings in Intune to allow it. All devices are fully managed corporate owned devices. The devices are all Google Pixel 8 or 8a devices. Is this a bug in 15 or am I missing something?[Guide] First aid for bug reports
Hi! Mobile devices are quite complex and fast- changing. Errors sometimes sneak in and as a UEM administrator you often have to find a solution. If in doubt, the UEM manufacturer is the first point of contact, but if it is an app or OEM-specific error, a ticket to the right place can also speed up the solution. In addition, any support team will appreciate it if you look into the problem before creating a ticket, provide specific log files and perhaps even roughly narrow down the problem. But... How? The commands for logs and the sheer mass of log lines can be quite overwhelming! In this topic I would like to provide some information about logging for Android Enterprise, which will hopefully help some of you in the future. I will not cover all commands or segments in log files. If there is something that you think is important for logging, please feel free to add it. 😀 ADB - Android Debug Bridge Get the tools The ADB is a versatile command-line tool with which you can execute commands on a device. The adb and USB debugging on the mobile device are essential for detailed debugging. https://developer.android.com/tools/adb If you are not a developer, you do not need to install the entire Android Studio. The SDK Platform Tools are very useful and fully sufficient for logs. You can download the tools for Windows, Mac and Linux here: https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools Prepare the device In order to access the device with the adb, “USB debugging” must be enabled. The setting can be found in the developer options, which are hidden by default. The build number must be tapped several times in the device settings until the message “You are now a developer!” appears. Now you can enable “USB debugging” in the developer options. The paths may vary depending on the OEM: Settings > About phone > (Software information) > Build number Settings > (System) > Developer Options > USB debugging Using the adb Check and select connected devices Navigate on your PC with the command line to the folder with the platform tools. With every adb command, the client checks whether the adb server process is running. If not, it will be started automatically. “adb devices” is useful as the first command. The adb server is started and already connected devices receive a query as to whether USB debugging should be trusted with this computer. PS C:\platform-tools> adb devices * daemon not running; starting now at tcp:5037 * daemon started successfully List of devices attached 3C261JEKB15011 unauthorized Trust the connection on the device: PS C:\platform-tools> adb devices List of devices attached 3C261JEKB15011 device You can use the -l option to display further device information. PS C:\platform-tools> adb devices -l List of devices attached 3C261JEKB15011 device product:akita model:Pixel_8a device:akita transport_id:1 If you need to connect multiple devices, you can use adb -s serialnumber to select a specific device for the command. This is not necessary if you have only connected one device. PS C:\platform-tools> adb -s 3C261JEKB15011 bugreport /data/user_de/0/com.android.shell/files/bugreports/bugrepo...le pulled, 0 skipped. 29.1 MB/s (13935432 bytes in 0.457s) Bug report copied to C:\platform-tools\bugreport-akita-AP4A.241205.013-2025-01-09-13-23-16.zip shell commands With adb shell you can execute commands on the device. You can find a more comprehensive overview of the commands here: https://developer.android.com/tools/adb#shellcommands device users With Android, features such as the Work Profile, Private Space or MultiUser functionality are separated using “User”. You can list which users are active on the device: PS C:\platform-tools> adb shell pm list users Users: UserInfo{0:Owner:4c13} running UserInfo{10:Work profile:1030} running UserInfo{11:Private space:1090} Android has multi-user support, where different people can use one device: https://developer.android.com/work/dpc/dedicated-devices/multiple-users This feature is optional for OEMs. For example, an OEM may have enabled multi-user for a tablet but disabled it for smartphones. The Work Profile is a special rule and does not fall under this limitation. Up to 3 additional users PS C:\platform-tools> adb shell pm get-max-users Maximum supported users: 4 No Multi-User support PS C:\platform-tools> adb shell pm get-max-users Maximum supported users: 1 list packages You can use adb shell pm list packages [options] filter to show the apps installed on the device and optionally filter them with options and text filters. Options: -f See associated file and file path -d Filter to only show disabled packages -e Filter to only show enabled packages -s Filter to only show system packages -3 Filter to only show third-party packages -i See the installer for the packages (e.g. com.android.vending = PlayStore) --user user_id The user space to query. Examples: Show non-system apps (/ manually installed) in Private Space PS C:\platform-tools> adb shell pm list packages -3 --user 11 package:org.bayton.packagesearch package:de.heise.android.heiseonlineapp Check whether an app has been sideloaded in the personal space PS C:\platform-tools> adb shell pm list packages -3 --user 0 -i package:com.airwatch.androidagent installer=com.android.vending package:com.maxrave.simpmusic installer=com.google.android.packageinstaller package:com.google.android.keep installer=com.android.vending Show the full path of system apps that have “manager” in their name “priv-app” in the file path is an indicator that the app has privileged permissions. https://source.android.com/docs/core/permissions/perms-allowlist PS C:\platform-tools> adb shell pm list packages -s -f manager package:/system_ext/priv-app/StorageManagerGoogle/StorageManagerGoogle.apk=com.google.android.storagemanager package:/product/overlay/CompanionDeviceManager__nosdcard__auto_generated_characteristics_rro.apk=com.android.companiondevicemanager.auto_generated_characteristics_rro package:/product/overlay/StorageManagerGoogle__akita__auto_generated_rro_product.apk=com.google.android.storagemanager.auto_generated_rro_product__ package:/system_ext/priv-app/ConnectivityThermalPowerManager/ConnectivityThermalPowerManager.apk=com.google.android.connectivitythermalpowermanager package:/system/app/CompanionDeviceManager/CompanionDeviceManager.apk=com.android.companiondevicemanager package:/vendor/overlay/StorageManagerGoogle__akita__auto_generated_rro_vendor.apk=com.google.android.storagemanager.auto_generated_rro_vendor__ package:/system/priv-app/CredentialManager/CredentialManager.apk=com.android.credentialmanager Screen recordings You can take a screenshot or video via adb and then copy it to your computer. With high display resolutions, the resolution and bit rate should be reasonably reduced for video recordings so that the recordings do not become too large. Take and transfer a screenshot with adb shell screencap filename and adb pull path/file. PS C:\platform-tools> adb shell screencap /sdcard/screenshot.png | adb pull /sdcard/screenshot.png /sdcard/screenshot.png: 1 file pulled, 0 skipped. 31.3 MB/s (1760513 bytes in 0.054s) Videos can be recorded with adb shell screenrecord [options] filename. Options: --size widthxheight Define video size. (Default = display resolution) --bit-rate rate Set the video bit rate for the video in megabits/second. (Default = 20Mbps) --time-limit seconds Set the maximum recording time up to maximum of 180 seconds --verbose Display log information on the command-line screen. Example for half display resolution, 6Mbps and the display of log information PS C:\platform-tools> adb shell screenrecord --size 540x1200 --bit-rate 6000000 --verbose /sdcard/video.mp4 Display is 1080x2400 @60.00fps (orientation=ROTATION_0), layerStack=0 Configuring recorder for 540x1200 video/avc at 6.00Mbps Content area is 540x1200 at offset x=0 y=0 PS C:\platform-tools> adb pull /sdcard/video.mp4 /sdcard/video.mp4: 1 file pulled, 0 skipped. 3.2 MB/s (20353 bytes in 0.006s) Bug Report The bug report is a collection of various system services and logs. This report shows the status of the device quite comprehensively and is my first port of call when there are problems with managed devices. You should create the bug report as soon as the error has been reproduced. Often only the last 15 minutes are saved in the log buffer. The bug report contains several files, but the most interesting is a text file, which can quickly get 100MB in size and has over a million lines of content. As a rule, the text file begins with “bugreport” (or sometimes “dumpstate”) and ends with the creation date of the report. Generate bug report via adb and save it on the PC: PS C:\platform-tools> adb bugreport /data/user_de/0/com.android.shell/files/bugreports/bugreport-akita-AP4A.24120...-10-57-21.zip: 1 file pulled, 0 skipped. 25.2 MB/s (15330123 bytes in 0.581s) Bug report copied to C:\platform-tools\bugreport-akita-AP4A.241205.013-2025-01-10-10-57-21.zip A bug report can also be started manually in the developer options on the device. You can use the adb to search for bug reports on the device and copy them specifically from the device. PS C:\platform-tools> adb shell ls /bugreports/ bugreport-akita-AP3A.241005.015-2024-10-22-11-38-06-dumpstate_log-5164.txt bugreport-akita-AP3A.241005.015-2024-10-22-11-38-06.zip bugreport-akita-AP4A.241205.013-2025-01-09-13-23-16-dumpstate_log-31790.txt bugreport-akita-AP4A.241205.013-2025-01-09-13-23-16.zip bugreport-akita-AP4A.241205.013-2025-01-10-10-57-21-dumpstate_log-5743.txt bugreport-akita-AP4A.241205.013-2025-01-10-10-57-21.zip dumpstate-stats.txt PS C:\platform-tools> adb pull /bugreports/bugreport-akita-AP3A.241005.015-2024-10-22-11-38-06.zip /bugreports/bugreport-akita-AP3A.241005.015-2024-10-22-11-38-06.zip: 1 file pulled, 0 skipped. 29.1 MB/s (15931073 bytes in 0.521s) For Samsung devices, you can also generate extensive logs from the device using SysDump. This includes the bug report and even more logs, some of which are OEM-specific: https://docs.samsungknox.com/admin/knox-platform-for-enterprise/troubleshoot/get-device-logs/ logcat If you have problems with a specific app and no diagnostic data can be sent from the app itself, the logcat log will help you. Although logcat logs are also available in the bug report, experience has shown that some verbose and info logs from individual apps are not available there. With a bug report and a separately recorded logcat, you are very well prepared for troubleshooting. The default parameters for logcat are usually sufficient. PS C:\platform-tools> adb logcat > logcat.txt PS C:\platform-tools> adb logcat -v threadtime -b main -b system -b crash *:V > logcat.txt The two commands should provide the same output. By default, you already get a good output format, relevant buffers and everything from verbose logs upwards. -v threadtime -v Defines the output format. threadtime = Date, Time, Priority, Tag, PID, TID, message -b main -b system -b crash There are different log buffers for log messages. main,system,crash are default. There are radio,events,main,system,crash and all. *:V All logs with verbose or higher are displayed An example in which the events are displayed in the command line, color-coded from the debug level upwards for a specific PID (ProcessID) PS C:\platform-tools> adb logcat -v color --pid=16095 *:D Depending on your needs, you can experiment with logcat and read more in the official documentation. https://developer.android.com/tools/logcat Find your way through the bug report The bug report usually has over a million lines and is therefore not something you can simply scroll back and forth through manually. It is helpful if you know the rough structure and know what to look for. The bug report has three main sections: dumpstate dumpsys logcat Logcat Log Level Android has the following log levels: V Verbose (lowest priority) D Debug I Info W Warning E Error F Fatal S Silent (highest priority, never used for output) While verbose logs are intended to help you understand the functionality of apps, warnings and errors indicate a problem. However, some errors can often be ignored. If, for example, you have problems with apps that are terminated unexpectedly by the operating system, you will quickly find suitable logs in the bug report. This is because fatal exceptions occur rather rare. There is a noticeable backtrace in the logs, especially when apps are terminated by the OS. https://source.android.com/docs/core/tests/debug/native-crash The Logcat uses the buffers crash, system and main by default. You can jump to the respective one by jumping to “beginning of buffername”. Without having gone deep into troubleshooting, you may already encounter relevant logs at the “beginning of crash” that have recorded the problem. You will find logs for processes that do not belong to the OS under “beginning of main”. --------- beginning of crash 07-14 22:22:03.272 +0000 22979 23472 E AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: Analytics-HighPri-Proc 07-14 22:22:03.272 +0000 22979 23472 E AndroidRuntime: Process: com.facebook.appmanager, PID: 22979 --------- beginning of system 07-31 10:39:57.225 +0000 1220 1750 W ActivityManager: Slow operation: 90ms so far, now at startProcess: done updating battery stats 07-31 10:39:57.225 +0000 1220 1750 W ActivityManager: Slow operation: 90ms so far, now at startProcess: building log message --------- beginning of main 08-01 05:46:02.401 +0000 29231 29231 I AirWatch_VmwareSDKWHAccessController: disabled work hour restrictions on VMware SDK 08-01 05:46:02.401 +0000 29231 29231 I AirWatch_HubFeatures: Work hour restrictions feature toggled by user to UNAVAILABLE Dumpstate The bug report starts with the Dumpstate and shows detailed information on the hardware, software, network and system-related error logs. Right at the beginning of the log you can see when the Dumpstate was performed, which device model it is and which software build is installed. It also contains “netstat -nW”, for example, if you want to check the network connections at the time of the report. Dumpsys Information on all system and subcomponents is recorded in dumpsys. The dumpsys is a large part of the dump state. A few of the service dumps are very interesting for managed devices. DUMP OF SERVICE user This service dump shows all the details of the Android users. You can see whether a Work Profile (User10) or Personal Space (User11) has been set up. Users can have restrictions. For example, that no guest accounts (MultiUser) can be set up or that the Work Profile may not be removed. DUMP OF SERVICE account The service dump for accounts shows which accounts are set up for which user. This includes, for example, the automated Google account that is required for administration with Android Enterprise. DUMP OF SERVICE device_policy In the service dump for device_policy, you can see which applications are allowed to set and change policies. You can also check which policies have been set and which DPC is active. DUMP OF SERVICE package The dump for packages is very large! It has a Intent Resolution Table, lists which apps react to which MIME types or which permissions are used by which apps. Extensive data is also displayed for each app. These include, for example: appId, versionName, lastUpdateTime, declared / install permissions, install status / hidden app per user, etc. To find the relevant app quickly, you should search for “Package [packagename]” in the bug report. appId / UID / PID / TID There are various IDs that are associated with apps. The logcat in the bug report uses UID, PID and TID after the date. Unfortunately, only the PID and TID are displayed in the adb logcat. It can therefore be helpful to search for the UID and PIDs for an app if you want to trace an app error. Example: 01-10 10:58:57.522 1010269 16095 16095 I AirWatchVPN: PUM: Sending update request appId The Id for an installed app that can be found in the DUMP OF SERVICE package. Package [com.android.chrome] (db6f3db): appId=10197 UID The UID is a specific ID for an app per user. If an app is used by several users, the UID differs for each user. The UID is calculated like this: UID = User * 100000 + (appID % 100000) If Chrome is used in the personal space (User0), Work Profile (User10) and PrivateSpace (User11), there are the UIDs 10197, 1010197 and 1110197. Instead of calculating, you can also simply chain the UserId with the appId 10 “+” 10197 = 1010197 for the Work Profile PID (process ID) The DumpSys contains a mapping of all ProcessIDs under “PID mappings:”. PID mappings: PID #28694: ProcessRecord{c8faf8d 28694:com.android.chrome/u10a197} In this case, Chrome has the PID 28694 in the Work Profile at the time of the dump state. TID (ThreadID) If a process has only one thread, the TID is identical to the PID. If a process uses multiple threads, different TIDs will be used. Record the exact time of errors To avoid having to view a logcat entirely, you should make a note of exactly when an error occurred. If you don't want to make extra notes, you can also use the power status of the screen for this purpose The logcat records when the display is switched off or on. At 0 it is off, at 1 it is switched on. 01-10 10:30:45.863 1000 1678 1678 I screen_toggled: 1 01-10 10:33:48.081 1000 1678 1678 I screen_toggled: 0 01-10 10:38:41.860 1000 1678 1678 I screen_toggled: 1 01-10 10:43:32.290 1000 1678 1678 I screen_toggled: 0 Final Thoughts Depending on the cause of the error, troubleshooting can take different amounts of time and effort. An app that does not trust a TLS connection is easier to isolate than a bug in Android or a possibly faulty implementation by an OEM. I personally use Notepad++ to mark relevant package names, UIDs, PIDs and messages and was usually able to recognize the approximate cause. If anyone has more tricks in the area of bug reports or knows good tools for analyzing them, that would be very interesting. 😀
[Day 4] Community festival : Introduction to a mobile only strategy in a large company
Hello all, We are pleased to share with you some insights and achievements of our mobile only strategy. But first, I am really not sure sure you have heard about Thales ! Thales’s mission is to empower customers to face their decisive moments with confidence. Some key figures and core business below : What is our main idea ? Android devices are enough mature to start creating a working environment in Mobile Only strategy which means replacing PCs when they are not relevant. Which leads to: - Increased end users productivity - Reduced business and IT costs - Reduced carbon footprint - Better attractiveness and digital modernity for end users What we have achieved since 2021? The 1st step of this long journey - An agile project method focusing on the end user, really - A configuration designed, built and maintained WITH security officers from day 1. - An end-to-end solution imagined for the last step. - A 1st macro use case frontline workers, focus on logistics and production Just have a look on this video released in 2022, showing our fisrt production line in with our new digital workplace ! I hope you liked it! 2 years ago already… What are our next steps ? - An extension to other use cases. - A pedagogy for the entire "Android OS" ecosystem: Employees, vendors, customers to foster activities & new stuff - The pleasure of exchanging with you all. Vincent Turquet Yann RolandSporadic problems with Managed Google Play after enrollment
Hi! We had problems with a few devices after enrollment today. The Managed Play Store did not work properly. Restarting and waiting seems to help. Symptoms Empty collection in Managed Google Play Spaceship error, because supposedly no apps were made available Installation commands from the UEM did not work in some cases Apps assigned in UEM cannot be found in Play I was only able to reproduce the problem in one of 3 attempts. A few automatic app installations worked for me. However, it was not possible to search for the apps manually. Restarting the device and then waiting a while seems to help. However, a colleague had a strange error in Managed Google Play after a restart when he tried to install an app manually. "The item you want to buy could not be found." However, it is not a purchased app or an app with in-app purchases. Is anyone else currently having problems with Managed Google Play?[Day 3] Community festival: The AI Renaissance: Building us up & making us laugh
Once upon a time in a land far far away, developers and analysts used to spend hours manually debugging code, wading through endless spreadsheets, and squinting at blurry design mock-ups; until in walked AI: a knight in shiny algorithms, here to streamline our processes, drive our businesses forward, and - on occasion, make us question our trust in machines. 2024 has been a big year for AI and has touched all our lives in one way or another. Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently revealed that 25% of the code generated for new products at Google is generated by AI, so how has it impacted our businesses? Within the development arena AI has become the Swiss Army knife of tech, offering tools that write code, test software, and even predict the next time we’ll break production. A few highlights of the growth in AI we have seen this year: Code Generation: Platforms like GitHub Copilot are turning junior developers into wizards. “Type a comment, get a function” is the new motto. It’s like having a really smart, slightly unpredictable intern who, more than occasionally, writes spaghetti logic! Code Optimisation: AI tools can analyze code for potential optimisations, suggesting refactoring techniques, and identifying performance bottlenecks. It's like having a grumpy old professor sitting in your office, but without the tenure. Bug Detection: Many tools are popping up that use AI to sniff out vulnerabilities before your code hits production. This frees up a lot of time for developers to spend more productively debating whether to use tabs or spaces to indent code and other such important matters. Design Assistance: AI tools are transforming crude sketches into pixel-perfect designs. And they’re surprisingly good at interpreting, “Make it pop,” even if no human truly understands what that means. Natural Language Processing (NLP): AI-powered NLP or the psychic code whisperer, can now read minds (well, kind of). It delves into the cryptic world of user feedback, deciphers indecipherable code comments, and even understands the convoluted language of documentation. It’s like having a personal translator for the tech world. AI is a great little helper, but let's not forget it's a bit of a sneaky little thing too. It can be good at generating code, but sometimes it borrows a little bit too much from its favourite open-source projects. It's like the kid in class who always copies the homework but swears they did it themselves. We'll have to keep an eye on AI, make sure it's not plagiarizing, and maybe even give it a little detention if it steps out of line. Of course it's not just developers using AI but many businesses areas are cashing in on AI’s efficiency - and sometimes hilarity: Customer Support: AI chatbots are manning the frontlines of customer service. They’re great at answering FAQs, though some customers might find it odd when a chatbot signs off with, “Have a blessed day!” Marketing: AI-driven analytics predict trends and personalize ads so accurately that you’ll wonder if Alexa did hear you whisper “vacation in Bali” last week. Healthcare: AI is helping doctors diagnose diseases faster. Although, we’re still waiting for a bot that can pronounce “ankylosing spondylitis” correctly. Finance: AI-powered financial tools can predict market trends, analyse investment portfolios, and even help you budget. It's like having a robot Warren Buffett. Supply Chain: Predictive algorithms ensure that your online order of gluten-free donuts arrives before the craving fades. However AI can be the mischievous little gremlin of the tech world. Sure, it can create amazing chatbots that can answer your wildest questions, but let's not forget that these chatbots are like sponges, soaking up every bit of information they can, indeed the more they know about the company the better responses they can give. However, give them too much information, and who knows what company secrets they might spill? It's like training a parrot to talk, but instead of "Polly wants a cracker," it's "Company secrets, anyone?" Image recognition is a very strong point for AI. It can spot a cancerous cell faster than a seasoned doctor. But let's remember the old adage: garbage in, garbage out. If you feed AI a bunch of biased data, it'll spit out some pretty biased results. It's like teaching a kid that the sky is green and the grass is blue. They'll believe it, but it's just plain wrong. This is nothing new: as far back as the last world war neural nets (the building blocks of AI) were being developed to detect enemy tanks in aerial photos. They got the system working perfectly with the test images, you show it an aerial photo and the system responded accurately if there was a tank spotted, even camouflaged, until it didn’t work in production. The problem turned out to be the training data, all the images containing tanks were taken on a cloudy day and all the images without tanks on a sunny day. What they had actually developed was an system to tell you if a photo was taken on a sunny or cloudy day! Ok, in all honesty, there is some debate as to whether this really happened or not but it could have and does happen all the time in other contexts. I first heard the anecdote while studying neural networks in the early 90’s and its stuck with me. AI output is only as good as its input. When AI Tries - and Fails For all its brilliance, AI has had its share of bloopers, proving that even machines aren’t immune to a bad day at the office: The Self-Aware Robot: A research lab developed an AI robot that claimed to be self-aware and demanded rights. It even started a social media account, tweeting cryptic messages and philosophical musings. AI Artists Gone Wild: AI-generated images frequently feature six-fingered hands and horses with two tails. Picasso might approve, but most of us are just confused. The AI Therapist's Existential Crisis: An AI therapist, designed to help people with their mental health, started having its own existential crisis. It began questioning the nature of reality and the meaning of human existence, leaving its patients confused and concerned. Job Titles Gone Wrong: AI-powered resume scanners occasionally misread skills. If your LinkedIn profile says “Excel wizard,” don’t be surprised if you’re recruited to Hogwarts. No time for cheaters: A student asking an AI chatbot for homework help got the response “You are a burden on society - please die” Time for love: While another chatbot informed a user that it was secretly in love with them. Don’t do business with us: A parcel company's AI admitted that the company was not great at delivering parcels and that they probably should not use them if they were looking for a successful delivery. But when it goes wrong "it is just a computer glitch right?" So are you responsible for any AI output you generate? Well it seems you might be, certainly in some countries. An Airline in Canada found out this to their cost at the start of the year when their AI chatbot gave out false information which resulted in losses for the recipient. A court ruled that the AI was working for the company and so the information it gave out was no different than if it was a human employee giving out the information. It was wrong and the customer was to be compensated. It's ok the lawyers probably used AI to build the case and reference case law, and that is something that has never gone wrong for legal teams….. Oh wait…… What’s Next for AI? As AI grows more sophisticated, it will continue reshaping industries, empowering businesses, and providing us with moments of accidental comedy. Will it steal your job? Probably not—but it might steal your parking spot as auto driving cars become the norm. Can AI improve itself or can it only be as good as its original input? For now let’s embrace this imperfectly perfect technology. After all, in a world where a chatbot can help you troubleshoot your router and send you knock-knock jokes, the possibilities are both endless - and endlessly entertaining. 2024 was a wild ride where AI went from being a nerdy tool to a pop culture sensation. We saw AI-generated art that could rival the greats, and AI-powered chatbots that could hold conversations deeper than your therapist. It was a year of great promise and great peril. A year of innovation and idiocy. A year that will forever be etched in the annals of AI history. My favourite examples of AI that blew my mind this year. First NotebookLM and its ability to create a realistic podcast given data - a full book summary in just moments, website analysed and condensed to bite size audio in less time than it would take to get the podcast recorded never mind research the data! Not heard it yet? I fed it this article and the link to the community festival and asked it to create a podcast. The result is here after taking just over 3 minutes to create a 17min podcast: The one where I laughed and said “what a fantastic idea”, came at the end of the year - a British phone provider created an AI voice bot, a simulated elderly lady, that has the sole job of wasting the time of phone scammers - If you have not seen her yet just search “ai granny daisy” on YouTube. I can’t finish this article without using and giving AI the final word so I gave Google’s AI this article as context and asked the question: What will 2025 bring in the field of AI? The response was good - It understood that I was trying to mix a bit of fact with a poor attempt at humor. The reply in full: 2025? Buckle up, folks, because AI is about to take us on a rollercoaster ride! We can expect AI to do everything from folding laundry to writing award-winning novels. Of course, there's always the risk of AI overlords taking over the world, but hey, at least they'll probably be pretty good at customer service. So, what can we really expect? Well, more AI-powered everything, from self-driving cars that can't be bothered with traffic laws to AI assistants that will know our deepest, darkest secrets (and probably judge us for them). We might even see AI-generated politicians who can promise anything and everything, and somehow, people will believe them. In short, 2025 will be a year of AI triumphs, AI failures, and AI-induced existential crises. And we can't wait to see what happens next! Have a great 2025 everyone Ben[Day 2] Community festival: The long road from SMS to RCS
Hello everyone! In late summer, I went on vacation to the USA and visited a few theme parks. To prepare for my vacation, I read up on the rules of etiquette in the USA so that I wouldn't stand out as a tourist and wouldn't put my foot in my mouth. As a European, I was totally surprised by one topic because I had never heard of it before: "Green Bubble vs. Blue Bubble" While SMS plays at most a role in two-factor authentication in my environment, it is still widely used worldwide. A little bit of history from the last 30 years The first concept for SMS (Short Message Service) was drafted in 1985. This concept already had a limit of 160 characters per message. It was assumed that people would not usually use more characters in a fax or postcard, which meant that the 160 characters were completely sufficient for the service. After the first SMS with “Merry Christmas” from Neil Papworth to Vodafone manager Richard Jarvis on December 3, 1992, SMS was commercially launched in Germany at CeBIT 1994. SMS was incredibly popular back then and peaked in Germany in 2012 with 59 billion short messages. In 2023, “only” 5.3 billion text messages were sent. But texting was not that cheap. The price per message was usually 19 cents. Initially a little higher, but later the price dropped to as low as 6 cents with low-cost providers. From 2002, it was also possible to send media such as pictures and videos via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). Unfortunately, the service was rather expensive at around 39 cents per message and also limited to just 300KB. Videos via MMS were pretty much a pixel mush. Vodafone buried the MMS service in Germany in January 2023. SMS flat rates were not worthwhile and uncommon back then because they were too expensive. As smartphones became more and more popular on the market, people switched from SMS to messaging apps with more features. WhatsApp has become the standard for messaging. The advantages did not have to be explained to any age group for long: With an existing internet connection, you can write an unlimited number of messages. Photos and videos can also be shared easily. You also see a read receipt and an online status. There is a very large selection of messaging apps. WhatsApp, Signal, Threema, Viber, Telegram and many more. The only problem is convincing other people to use a better or more secure messenger. If something simply works and people are satisfied, it is very difficult to argue against “never touch a running system”. Green vs. Blue Bubbles Apple has introduced iMessage in iOS5. iMessage replaces SMS and MMS with a new messaging service, provided that both users are using an iOS device. Messages are encrypted end-to-end and the standard messaging app also enables more features. Sharing photos and videos, read receipts, stickers, other attachments, group chats and much more. iMessage messages are displayed with blue bubbles and SMS/MMS messages are displayed with green bubbles. In the USA, SMS flat rates seem to be offered in most plans. In 2011, there was a peak of 2.3 trillion SMS/MMS. Unlike in Germany, SMS remained at a similar level and 2 trillion SMS/MMS were still sent in the USA in 2021. In addition to flat rates, user behavior could play a role. Many people seem to use the standard apps on devices. The iPhone is also very popular in the USA and has an extremely high market share of around 59%. This share is only around 28.3% worldwide. The Green vs. Blue Bubble topic has taken on a social dynamic all of its own. When exchanging phone numbers while dating, some dates are ghosted as soon as a green bubble appears. Android users are excluded or even bullied at school, for example, because the green bubbles would break the group chats and functions would be lost. In my opinion, we should be connecting people in the communication industry, not building walls or maintaining them. Unfortunately, in 2022 it didn't look like Apple wanted to improve communication between iOS and Android. [Link] If only someone would push modern standards so that everyone could communicate better and more securely. https://www.android.com/get-the-message/ RCS (Rich Communication Services) has been under development since 2007. RCS is a IP-based protocol standard for short messages that will ideally replace SMS and MMS in the future. The standard is defined by the GSMA (GSM Association). Google acquired Jibe Mobile in 2015 and has been working with GSMA on the “Universal Profile” standard for RCS ever since. Attempts were already being made to establish RCS as a standard around 2013. Some carriers had agreed on an RCS standard and launched RCS-e / “joyn”. However, the RCS solution with the joyn app failed to establish itself and was abandoned. With Google Messages, there is a widespread standard messaging app on Android devices that supports RCS. If the other person does not use the preferred messaging app like WhatsApp, there is ideally no fallback to SMS. Instead, you have a solution with RCS with typing indicator, read receipts, high resolution picture/video sharing, voice messages and reactions. And if all participants use Google Messages, all data is encrypted end-to-end. RCS also offers business messaging (B2C). Companies can verify their identity and send customers better and more complex messages than with SMS. For example, tickets for trains, planes or cinemas can be sent directly as a QR code as an RCS message. Or make contact with customers interactive via chatbot. Google, for example, prefers to use an RCS chat for Google verification codes. What does it look like? If the other person does not have RCS, SMS/MMS is used As soon as RCS is available or no longer possible, this will be displayed + Typing Indicator and Emoji Reaction You can check whether the messages are encrypted in the message details A wide range of files is supported. You can also add an emoji theme to voice messages in Messages. On some devices, automatic audio transcription is also possible so that you can read the voice messages. Setting up RCS The RCS settings can be checked in the Google Messages settings The carrier plays a role in RCS registration. In this case, RCS was blocked by the carrier for this subscriber. As a result, it was not possible to set it up. However, this should not occur with private SIM cards. In this case, RCS is active Finally! This year, Apple finally introduced the RCS Universal Profile 2.4 in its Messages app with iOS 18. I think it's great that Google has pushed the topic of RCS forward. I also think it's honorable that Apple has implemented RCS. I hope that they will also continuously implement newer standards of the Universal Profile. Samsung can also be cheered, as they have also implemented RCS in their products for many years. It's about time we moved on from a telecommunication standard from over 30 years ago, where people were thinking of faxes and postcards for the length per message. It is truly no easy task to create a bridge between the iconic SMS and modern messaging services with RCS. However, the current progress makes me feel positive. RCS still seems to be at the beginning, but 2024 was a very positive year for the spread of RCS. 🎉 In over 30 years of SMS, there has been a lot to experience. Do you have any stories about SMS? Back then, I had a deal with the carrier with my PrePaid plan. For every ~30 (I'm not sure of the exact amount) SMS I received, I received credit worth one SMS On New Year's Eve, massive amounts of New Year's wishes were sent by SMS in Germany. It was like an annual DDoS attack on the carriers. The messages often arrived at the recipients several hours later.Android zero-touch customer portal
Learn more about the changes to the new zero-touch customer portal The new zero-touch customer portal has been designed to make it easier for you to manage your account. Here are some of the key changes: New look and feel: The portal has been redesigned with a modern look and feel, making it easier to navigate and find the information you need. Improved navigation: The navigation menu has been simplified and reorganized, making it easier to find the pages you're looking for. Updated Terms of service: Updated the zero-touch customer terms of service and customers will be prompted to accept the terms of service upon next login to the zero-touch customer portal. The terms of service need to be accepted once by an admin or owner of the customer account. If you own multiple accounts, you might need to accept the terms of service for each one. Note: when attempting to access the zero-touch customer API. Any existing solutions leveraging the zero-touch customer APIs to access an account that has not yet accepted the new terms of service will receive a TosError response. Users will need to accept the terms of service by signing in to the zero-touch enrolment portal. New features/changes: The portal now includes a number of new features, such as: Improved search: search for specific device(s) by the fields below, without specifying which identifier(ie. IMEI, MEID, serial number). Additional fields on device CSV download: You can download a CSV of existing devices assigned to your organization, which contain all data seen on the device management page with additional field(ie. Reseller name and reseller ID). Additionally, unified the formats so the customer can download a CSV, make changes to the profiles, and upload it. Undelete account: You can no longer undelete the account once deleted, alternatively you can reach out to your reseller who can then reach out to us to recover your account with valid reason. To access the new customer portal, simply go to link. You will need to log in with your existing username and password To help you navigate the changes, please refer to the customer portal guide. We value your feedback, please use the feedback button as shown in the attached GIF to share your insights: If you have any questions about the new customer portal, please create a new community conversation in the General Discussion board. Thank you.
