Automatic OTA update in ios app that is blocked by managed access

Question

My client should find a way to automatically remove application updates on multiple iphone 3gs devices remotely. These devices will be in controlled access mode so that users can access the application in question.

I believe that we have two distribution options:

• B2B user application through volume purchase program
• Apple Enterprise internal application

Having examined our options, I see that updating the on-air application can be achieved with:

• Build update functionality in the application to check for new updates (only for the enterprises I guess?), And automatically update and restart the application.
• Using MDM, for example http://www.air-watch.com/ (as I understand it, must Apple Configurator have devices connected via USB to work?)

I am wondering if anyone can tell me if any of these options are possible when the devices are in managed access mode? Or are there any other solutions that I skipped that can automatically control the application remotely while the device is in managed access mode?

Answer 1

You can solve this with the distributed Enterprise application.

• Only app. Update the OTA update check from your application when the application comes to the forefront (or some other indicator at the leisure of your customers, for example, added time delay, etc.). Mostly self explanatory; You make a call to your clients / your API to check the version and inform the user about the new. Updating can be optional or mandatory (preferably declared by the API and changed if necessary); Report this to the user. The user acts on him, and you install OTA through the ITMS link provided by your API call. And so it is.
• MDM Tbh, I'm a little trembling here. Theoretically, this is also possible with MDM, but I'm not sure if they are (variable) MDM solutions or some wrong configurations, but clients tend to lose control after some time.
• Both. Yes, you can live well with both. MDM, so far everything is in order, but as a backup, the well-structured App + API mechanism for outputting OTA updates. This is especially useful if you have clients where some departments are under MDM and others are not. That way, some can get it through MDM (and if all else fails through the application itself), others will get it through the application.

Compromise is a matter of personal preference, if there is a fully working MDM solution, the update will be pushed, and the user, however, is “malicious”, can not do anything against it. But the same is true for the "application-only" solution, since you have the option of not letting it use the application if it doesn't update (either by not providing a cancel button, or as you are in a corporate environment, and there it is allowed to exit(0) ).

From experience, I prefer any solution that has the option "Application Only", because this is the last reserve, if anything on the client side fails. All that can be added on top is just sugar for the cake.

Although it doesn't really matter, the app-only solution always works well with Push Notifications when an update is released.