Feature Spotlight: Default Updates

Here’s a question: Do you remember the last time you updated your phone? Certain devices, for example, might give you the option to defer updates, so you might have a phone that’s behind the latest release by a few days. 

Before we get into the security reasons why updating your phone is a big deal, let’s talk about the updates themselves.

State of the System Update

Depending on the device model and operator, you might get an update a few weeks after the actual release. When you get this notification, you’re prompted to go through the steps to update your phone. You know, tapping the button, letting your phone do a reset cycle, that sort of thing. 

But did you know this process is also available through an MDM? 

You heard that right. You can replicate the consumer experience on a fully-managed Android device.  

Now, why would you ever want to do that? 

Updates for Fully-Managed Devices

It really comes down to the device itself. Not every device will have the full gamut of update options available. 

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For example, the Esper console gives you the option to: 

• Update automatically 
• Postpone installation 
• Windowed installation 
• Disable update
• And introducing our newest option: Default update. 

You can probably guess what all of these settings do just by looking at them. In short, Esper software controls the update policy so that users no longer have to accept the update for each device. 

Why Manually Update?

Now, prior to introducing the default behavior, OEM updates worked fine for most customer use cases. 

However, we found that some device manufacturers not only blocked the user from performing a manual system update but also didn’t reliably update the devices all at once. This left users having to factory reset devices to update them, which, of course, seems like a lot of work when you’re managing a fleet. 

Now, to be clear, these devices would receive the update eventually. However, since these devices received rolling updates that could take weeks to complete, it was more efficient to perform manual updates. 

To address this issue, we introduced a default update option. Default update is just as it sounds: it allows the device to update according to its factory default settings. In this case, as long as the device has Android Settings enabled, a user can go to Settings > System Update and perform an update just as if they were updating a personal phone. 

We aren’t applying any policy enforcement here — we’re leaving that up to the device. 

Stay Calm (and Carry on With Those Updates)

You’re probably not going to find many fully managed devices that use the Default update out in the field. However, predictable behavior is often crucial for devices that operate in labs. That’s why we’ve made this feature available in Blueprints, so customers can choose how their devices receive updates. 

Oh, in the case of those rolling system updates, you have the option to perform manual updates now. 

Now, before you check the last time you updated your phone, why don’t you check out all the other cool features Esper has to offer? 

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