Widgets on COPE - MS Intune

[jarmo_akkanen]

Hey,
Unfortunately there are no settings and/or no chance configure Widgets on COPE in MS Intune. There is specific setting in Intune restrictions config profile to allow/disallow Widgets for BYOD method.
Is this problem tied only MS Intune or is this something for Google? 

Majority of our 10k fleet enrolled as  COPE and it's a big gap not having widgets available for Work Apps.

Thanks
Jarmo 

[Moombas]

Hi Jarmo,
we have fully managed devices only and widgets for provided apps are available but we don't use Intune but different MDM.

[jarmo_akkanen]

Hey Ras, 
You mentioned "fully managed"....  Are you using COPE or COBO? Which MDM your using? VMware Workspace One or some other?
If it's available for you with different MDM then I think this is something for the Microsoft make it available in Intune as well.
Thanks
Jarmo

[Moombas]

I don't like that description even it's jused a lot, i know.
I differentiate between "fully managed" (work only) which means that the device is entirely managed/full accessable and  owned by the company (we only use this currently) but could be re-enrolled by the enduser if needed and "work profile" which means a fully managed device with a private part and work profile installed (what you call COPE).
I left out BYOD here now, because i think this doesn't matter here.

You may take a look into this: https://vmlabblog.com/2021/04/how-to-add-widgets-for-work-profile-apps/

We are using Soti Mobicontrol and as said, only "fully managed" via Zero-Touch for now.

[jarmo_akkanen]

Hi RAS, 

Thank you for your info. I just did further testing and this is the result for Microsoft Intune:

1. Personally-Owned with Work Profile (BYOD) enrolled = Widgets available for WP apps
2. Corporate-Owned with Work Profile (COPE) enrolled = Widgets NOT available for WP apps
3. Fully Managed (COBO) = Widgets available for apps

I will compose a ticket to MS if they have plans to bring setting available for widgets on Corporate-Owned with Work Profile (COPE) enrolled devices.
thanks
Jarmo

[jasonbayton]

I've run through all the policy settings for WP/COPE also and it appears indeed widgets are only configurable in the personally owned configuration profile. I'd agree with you raising it with MS, please report back 🙂

Personal: 

Company: Not present.

[jarmo_akkanen]

Hey, We did a DCR (Design Change Request) to Microsoft to have Widgets available for Work Profile app on devices enrolled as COPE (Corporate-Owned Personally Enabled).

According to Microsoft "DCR is approved and is in the pipeline for future releases, however there is no ETA due to our product group taking and completing the requests based on severity."

I'll keep you posted once there is ETA available or DCR completed and widgets available.
-jarmo

[Lizzie]

Fantastic to see your DCR got approved and that it's in the pipeline for future releases, thanks so much for the update here @jarmo_akkanen.

Would you mind accepting your last reply as 'Accept as Solution' this way it will highlight it if others are looking for something similar. 

Thanks again. 

Lizzie

[jasonbayton]

Good news! That was surprisingly easy for a Microsoft product too 😉

[GMenzies]

Similar issue in our org, we've raised a DCR also for it, if you get an update would be great if you could share here  @jarmo_akkanen 

[jarmo_akkanen]

Hi @GMenzies @jasonbayton @Lizzie @Moombas 

Finally there is a solution to get widgets available on COPE enrolled devices.

To enable widgets to a specific application, you need to utilize this policy (addCrossProfileWidgetProvider), and make sure to add the package name of the application (for example com.microsoft.office.outlook) that you want to enable its widgets in the parameters.
Please contact your MDM vendor (our case MS Intune) and raise a request to implement this API if they haven't done so already.

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/admin/DevicePolicyManager#addCrossProfileWidgetP...

We will test this asap once we get the API implemented by Intune folks. Keep you posted....

Google engineers have tested it using testDPC and it works.
Before:

Configuration:

After:

thanks

Jarmo

[Rakib]

It says it was added as part of API 21, is it just laziness from MS or is it supported for devices from API 21.

I will also raise a ticket to Microsoft.

[jarmo_akkanen]

I got the info from Microsoft yesterday: "At the moment it’s not possible but let me ask our Intune PG if there is anything on the Roadmap or if we need to raise a DCR or similar."

I replied to them since we have had case opened to them about this 2 years for now. I think they will take this seriously now.... I'll keep you posted..

thanks

Jarmo 

[weberda]

Haha, love this thread and the answers from microsoft support / PG 🙃

Our DCR dates back to November 2021. 3 years, happy birthday DCR with MSFT 😁

[KSchroeder]

Is there a DCR identifier/number we can reference?  We would push for this as well; our prior MDM provider did support this for COPE.   A lot of little annoyances we're finding day-to-day vs the prior MDM... *sigh*

[Rakib]

Anyone with any news, I did file a case but we have recently ended our premium support agreement with Microsoft so we are not allowed to file a DCR request anymore.