Blog Post

Microsoft Intune Blog
2 MIN READ

Microsoft Intune Remote Help adds full control for Mac

Kara_Wang's avatar
Kara_Wang
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Apr 22, 2024

We're excited to announce a major enhancement to Microsoft Intune Remote Help's capabilities: full control support for macOS devices. With organizations that use macOS devices in their environments, providing efficient and secure remote assistance is paramount. This is part of a broader effort across Intune to provide cross-platform support and allow IT admins to manage any device with Intune. With this new functionality, IT help desks can now not only view Mac devices, but also take full control of them, streamlining troubleshooting and reducing time to mitigation. Whether it's configuring settings, troubleshooting software glitches, or assisting information workers, help desks can tackle problems quickly and efficiently.

Remote Help empowers IT to provide secure helpdesk-to-user connections. Remote Help helps to mitigate security risks, improve efficiency, and support workers anywhere. With the rise of help desk spoofing, the strong authentication built into Remote Help and security controls are more important than ever. Every help desk connection can be trusted, protected with compliant, conditional access policies, including the ability to support multi-factor authentication—ensuring the identity of both the helper and end user. Before initiating a remote session, helpers receive non-compliance warnings if the user's device does not adhere to organizational policies. Helpers and sharers can also maintain a continuous thread of communication throughout the session, leveraging the chat feature which supports special characters and multiple languages.

How Remote Help works with macOS devices

After an employee reports an IT issue, the help desk starts a Remote Help session through the Intune Admin Center so that they can assist.

The help desk technician can identify the relevant device and begin a Remote Help session within the Intune admin console.

When beginning a session, the helper now has the option of full control, which is a new capability for macOS devices.

The helper has the ability to begin a screensharing session or a full control session.

Remote Help shows the employee the help desk technician's photo, name, job title, and domain verification through Entra ID creates confidence that the correct person is accessing their device.

The help desk's photo, name, job title, and domain verification are all surfaced through Entra ID. The sharer is prompted to decline or allow the start of a Remote Help session.

Before beginning the session, Remote Help will check if the sharer's device is compliant. When devices are not compliant, the helper will receive a warning, but can still proceed with the session.

Helper is warned that the sharer's device is noncompliant per organizational standards.

Getting started with Remote Help

Microsoft Intune Remote Help is a key solution in the Microsoft Intune Suite. It is available as an add-on to any Microsoft 365 plan that includes Intune. To get started with Remote Help and the new support for macOS, start a trial of Microsoft Intune Suite today. For more information on Microsoft Intune Remote Help, visit our Microsoft Intune technical product documentation as well as the Microsoft Intune Remote Help product page.

Updated Apr 23, 2024
Version 2.0