Forum Discussion
How to deploy your custom .apk files to android fully managed devices from Intune
Hi Shabbir, this limitation of Intune is a big reason why I would never recommend it for the Fully Managed device use case. Intune only supports distribution of applications through Managed Play on Fully Managed Android Enterprise devices. I personally believe that Managed Play does not offer comprehensive version control or installation management that is suitable for managing a line-of-business or mission critical device estate. Therefore any MDM that only supports Managed Play for app installation is in my book, not suitable for line-of-business device management. My strong recommendation would be to evaluate an alternative EMM with a custom DPC that supports both Managed Play AND direct APK installation on Fully Managed Android devices.
I found this article which mentions that we can host it externally and publish it in google play store, i don't know how it work but need to involve application team to get their input on this requirement, also i have open a case with Microsoft and will see what they suggest in this case.
https://support.google.com/work/android/answer/6145182?hl=en&sjid=5870071348238158035-EU
Thanks Matt.
Having the exact same scenario. The externallyHosted json file looks to be the official way forward.
Has anyone been able to get the externallyhosted.py to work.
There's a few steps to get it to work and getting stuck at:
__main__.MissingPrerequisiteError: Couldn't find the aapt binary on system's PATH. This binary is part of the Android developer's SDK. Please ensure it is available on the PATH.
aapt2-8.6.0-11315950-windows.jar downloaded, cant import as a custom plugin.
Error: aapt2 failed to load plugin descriptor from file
Tried adding a system path to a folder which contains aapt2.exe still get the same error.
