Updates to the Managed Home Screen experience

By: Abigail Stein – Product Manager | Microsoft Intune

 

Updated 09/27/24: The newly updated Managed Home Screen app is now generally available! All devices will now see the updated Managed Home Screen experience as the default experience, and the old user experience is no longer available.

 

We’re excited to share that Microsoft Managed Home Screen has recently undergone a redesign to improve the core workflows throughout the application. The updated design offers a more usable and supportable experience within Managed Home Screen.

 

To start using the updates, simply update your Managed Home Screen app to version 2.2.0.91169 or higher and using app configuration policy, set configuration Enable Updated User Experience to True. Read on to learn more on how to get started. IT admins will continue to be able to move to the updated experience by setting 'Enable updated user experience' to true for 90 days. After 90 days, the app configuration will be removed, and all devices will be required to use the updated MHS experience. Stay tuned to this blog for further updates!

 

What is Managed Home Screen?

Managed Home Screen (MHS) is an Android application used on devices enrolled into Intune as Android Enterprise dedicated and fully managed user affiliated devices. It offers the ability to customize and control the user experiences on enrolled devices and allows organizations to accomplish the following tasks:

• Customize and control their Android devices so that users only access what they need, such as controlled app and settings access.
• Curate a consistent and simplified experience across device types and OEMs so that users can easily and intuitively perform their tasks.
• Easily access relevant troubleshooting workflows to address issues on-device or painlessly equip Microsoft support to troubleshoot issues on-device.
• Offer streamlined sign-in and sign-out experiences when a device is configured with Shared device mode.

 

To learn more about Managed Home Screen and how to set it up, read our blog post on how to setup Managed Home Screen.

 

Redesign overview

We’ve heard your feedback about Managed Home Screen and made design changes to make the app more usable and easier to support for organizations. We’ve also added new features to MHS which are only available on the updated experience.

While the redesign offers improvement to the user experience, there is no intended change to feature support and only minor changes in current functionality including:

• Company logo will continue to appear on the home screen but will no longer show on the Session PIN screen.
• Managed Home Screen settings will no longer be accessible with swipe down.

 

Addition of the top bar

To allow for easier navigation and quick access to device identifying information, we’ve added a top bar to the Managed Home Screen page. The top bar is configurable and allows for the display of two descriptive elements. When the device is not configured with sign in, IT administrators can select between serial number, device name and tenant name for the top and bottom element. When configured with sign in, the top element will display the signed-in user’s name, which can be displayed in four possible formats, and the bottom element can be chosen between serial number, device name and tenant name. Read on to learn how to correctly configure the top bar.

 

 

Easily discoverable settings and sign out button

The top bar also allows for quick navigation to settings and, in the case when sign in is configured, the sign out button. Users will now see a settings wheel icon located on the upper right-hand corner of the top bar. Once this settings wheel is tapped, users will only see the settings that the IT administrator has chosen to reveal to them within MHS settings.

 

With the updated experience, users won’t be able to swipe down on the device to access settings. By default, the Settings icon will be visible on the top bar. IT admins can choose which settings a user can configure or disable it altogether by enabling or the disabling the configuration key “Show managed settings”. Note, for the following scenarios the Settings icon will still be displayed:

• If a user is signed in, the Settings icon will be available to view the users’ profile information.
• If there’s no user signed in, but device permissions are required, the Settings icon will be available for the user to grant permissions. No other settings will be displayed unless configured.

 

 

Updated permissions flow

To ensure that essential permissions are not missed by device users, Managed Home Screen has updated the permission granting flow. When Managed Home Screen is initially launched, users will see a dialogue requesting they grant any required permissions.

 

Tapping either the message or the settings wheel will take them to the settings screen where they’ll see the required permissions are prominently called out. Tapping this message will take them to the correct page in the Android settings page to grant the permission that is needed for functionality of all configurations that are set by the IT administrator for Managed Home Screen. If the user rejects the permission, they’ll see a message on the screen and the settings app icon will have a red dot. This updated permission flow should ensure that permissions are not missed and Managed Home Screen can work with all desired functionalities.

 

 

Enhanced troubleshooting features

Managed Home Screen has made it easier to troubleshoot device issues. With the updates, users will have access to a debug menu, which includes the pages for Get Help, Exit Kiosk Mode, and About. From the Get Help page, users will be able to easily upload logs. Users will also be able to view Management Resources, allowing them to launch adjacent management apps if needed. The About page will include key information on Managed Home Screen, including the privacy statements, accessibility statements, and third-party configurable compliance links, if enabled.

 

If an IT administrator configures easy access to the debug menu, the updated debug menu will appear within settings. Otherwise, it will remain hidden to users unless they tap the back button 15 times.

 

 

Getting started

General availability

With the general availability of the updated experience, previous MHS workflows are now deprecated, and support will no longer be offered for the previous MHS workflows. Additionally, new features added to MHS will not be added to the previous workflows.

 

The following capabilities have also been added and are limited to the new experience:

• Brightness Slider and Adaptive Brightness: This feature allows IT admins to expose a setting to allow users to access a brightness slider to adjust the device screen brightness. Additionally, admins can expose a setting to users to turn adaptive brightness on and off on the device.
• Autorotation: This feature allows IT admins to expose a setting to allow users to turn on and off the device's autorotation.
• Domain-less Login and Custom Login Hint Text: Managed Home Screen has added a feature to support domain-less sign in. Admins may configure a domain name which will be automatically appended to usernames upon sign in. Managed Home Screen will now also support a custom login hint string to be displayed to users on the sign in screen.
• Session PIN Inactivity Timer: This feature allows admins to require users to enter their session PIN to resume activity on Managed Home Screen if the device has been inactive for a specified period of time.
  
  

Configuring the top bar

The Managed Home Screen updates include the implementation of a top bar with device identifying attributes throughout the app experience. To configure the top bar, select the elements you would like to display using an app configuration profile. You can either select to Enter JSON data or Use configuration designer. Please use the following keys and values to successfully configure the top bar.

 

If you would like to configure the device name to display as an element of the top bar, it is a prerequisite that you add the following key and value:

 

 

 

"key": "device_name",
"valueString": "{{DeviceName}}"

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to configure the device serial number to display as an element of the top bar, it is a prerequisite that you add the following key and value:

 

 

 

"key": "device_serial_number",
"valueString": "{{SerialNumber}}"

 

 

 

 

 

When sign-in is configured, the first element of the top bar will be the signed-in user’s name. You can configure the format in which you’d like the name displayed using the following key and values:

 

 

 

"key": "header_name_style", 
"valueString":
    • Display Name OR
    • Last name, First name OR
    • First Name, Last Name OR
    • First Name, Last Initial

 

 

 

 

 

When sign-in is not configured, the first element can be selected between device name, serial number, or tenant name. You can configure the primary element of the top bar using the following key & values:

 

 

 

"key": "header_primary_element",
"valueString":
    • Device Name OR
    • Serial Number OR
    • Tenant Name

 

 

 

 

 

In either case, you can select between device name, serial number or tenant name for the second element. You can configure the secondary element of the top bar using the following key and values:

 

 

 

"key": "header_secondary_element",
"valueString":
    • Device Name OR
    • Serial Number OR
    • Tenant Name

 

 

 

 

 

Here is an example of configurations you may set for the top bar to display the device name and serial number, and a user’s name in the format of “Last name, First name”.

Example Configuration key values that can be used with the configuration designer in the Microsoft Intune admin center.

 

Read here for more information on MHS configurations.

 

Feedback

We hope you give this new experience a try! Let us know how it goes by filling out this short feedback form - what works well, what could be improved, and any additional thoughts you might have so we can continue to build a better experience.

 

If you have any questions, let us know by commenting on this post, or tag @IntuneSuppTeam on X.

 

Post Updates:

12/06/23: The newly updated Managed Home Screen app is now available in public preview!

12/12/23: Updated the redesign overview section to include two scenarios.

01/22/24: Updated to include further details about the 'Enable updated user experience' setting.

04/04/24: Update that this feature is expected to be generally available later in the 2024 calendar year.

05/02/24: The newly updated Managed Home Screen app is now generally available!

07/12/24: The timeline to move to the new Managed Home Screen experience has been extended to September 2024 (previously August 2024).

08/21/24: Updates to the "What is Managed Home Screen?" and "Getting started" sections.

09/27/24: All devices will now see the updated Managed Home Screen experience as the default experience, and the old user experience is no longer available.