Can A Mobile App Which Supports An Mdm Work On Devices Which Do Not Run On Mdms

Can a mobile app built with an MDM integration (Mobile Device Management solution i.e. Maas360, Airwatch, etc.), work on some other devices which are not enrolled in that MDM? Does

Solution 1:

Yes, the app can work outside of MDM (unless you use a legacy app-wrapping techniques, not commonly implemented today, e.g. Knox v1 app signing service).

Important: while the app will work, the features that rely on MDM need to be coded in such a way so they gracefully fallback when MDM is not available (e.g. prompt for user input or disable features)

Solution 2:

I think maybe the distinction between MDM and MAM will be useful to understanding the answer to this.

An MDM is typically a system where devices are enrolled in control by a central server. The exact mechanism of this varies between iOS and Android and it's important to note that an iOS device can be enrolled in only one MDM system while an Android device an be part of many.

MAM is broadly speaking adding administrative controls to an app, usually by way of inclusion of an SDK and often using a secondary app to provide things like authentication services by way of custom protocols and other forms of inter-app communication.

Many systems support a blend of these two approaches so the distinction can become a bit blurred.