Managed Google Play iframe

Tip: To view a working example of the iframe, try the Android Management Experience.

With the managed Google Play iframe, you can embed managed Google Play directly in your EMM console to offer customers a unified mobility management experience.

Figure 1. The managed Google Play iframe showing the Search apps page.

The iframe contains a title bar and an expandable side menu. From the menu, users can navigate to different pages:

• Search apps: Allows IT admins to search for and browse Google Play apps, view app details, and select apps.
• Private apps: Allows IT admins to publish and manage private apps for their enterprise.
• Web apps: Allows IT admins to publish and distribute website shortcuts as apps.
• Organize apps: Allows IT admins to configure how apps are organized in the Play Store app on their user's devices.

All pages are enabled in the iframe by default, but can be disabled individually (see Add the iframe to your console).

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Features

This section describes the features available in the managed Google Play iframe. For information on how to embed the iframe and implement these features, see Add the iframe to your console.

Search apps

The Search apps page (shown in Figure 1.) lets IT admins search for, browse, and select Google Play apps.

Search box

A search box in the title bar is enabled on the page by default. The search box supports features such as auto-suggest and returns results from apps listed publicly on Google Play. The search results are displayed within the iframe.

Note: If you already have a search feature built into your console, you can disable the search box and pass search queries in the iframe's URL instead. See URL parameters in Step 2: Render the iframe for more details.

Note: If you are searching for private or web apps, use your enterprise ID in order to better find these apps. To see your enterprise ID, click on the person-gear icon at the top right corner of the iFrame and copy the text from the ID field.

Private apps

Figure 2. Private app details screen

The Private apps page allows IT admins to publish and manage private apps directly from your EMM console. To streamline private app publishing for IT admins, the page:

• Silently creates a Play Console account on behalf of the enterprise and grants admin access to IT admins.
• Waives the $25 USD Play Console registration fee previously required to publish apps.
• Requires only an app’s APK and title.
• Publishes apps in as little as 10 minutes (compared to 2 hours in the Play Console).
  Note: apps published from the Private apps page can never be made public.

The first time an IT admin publishes an app in the iframe, the iframe silently creates a Play Console account on behalf of the enterprise. If they make advanced edits, they're prompted to sign in with a Google Account—this can be a any Google Account (e.g. Gmail, Cloud Identity). This Google Account is added as an admin of the enterprise's Play Console account. Afterwards, an IT admin can use their Google Account to sign into the Play Console directly, where they can:

• Add and manage admin accounts.
• Add advanced app details, including a descriptions, screenshots, and more.
• Unpublish apps.

Instructions for IT admins on how to use the Private apps page is available in the managed Google Play Help Center.

Select button

After an app is published, an IT admin can edit its title and APK in the app details page. The app details page also displays a SELECT button (see Figure 2). You need to specify the action that takes place when the IT admin clicks this button (see onproductselect in Step 3. Handle iframe events).

Web apps

Figure 3. The web apps creation form.

The Web apps page lets IT admins publish website shortcuts as private apps to managed Google Play. Web apps are identifiable by their package name (productId) and typically take 10 minutes to publish. After publishing, they're automatically approved for their enterprise can be distributed to users just like any other approved app. Web apps are compatible with other managed Play iframe features: they're searchable in the Play Search page and can be added to collections.

Warning: A web app's title and icon must comply with Google Play Developer Program Policies. Apps that don't comply won't be published and will remain listed as Not available yet.

The web app creation form requires a title, HTTPS or HTTP URL, and icon image (512 x 512 JPG or 32-bit PNG). Additionally, IT admins can choose from the three display options:

• Full screen: The app opens in full screen mode, hiding the device's status bar and navigation bar.
• Standalone (default): The app shows the device's status bar and navigation bar.
• Minimal UI: The app shows the device's status bar and navigation bar, the app's URL, and a refresh option. For HTTP URLs, this is the only available option.

Important: Web apps open in the user's selected default browser (Settings>Apps>Default apps>Browser app). Features (e.g., fullscreen, standalone mode, minimal UI) depend on the user selected default browser's compatibility. It is important to note that some browsers may not support all of these features. IT admins should verify browser compatibility before deployment.

The Web apps page also lets IT admins edit and delete web apps. Deleting a web app removes it from a user's managed Google Play store, but the user may still have access to it if the app is already installed on their device. To delete a web app from a user's device, see delete apps. Instructions for users on how to create and edit web apps are available in the managed Google Play Help Center.

Select button

After a web app is published, its details page includes a SELECT button. You need to specify the action (for example, distribute the app) that takes place when the IT admin clicks on this button (see onproductselect in Step 3. Handle iframe events).

Organize apps

Figure 4. The managed Google Play iframe showing the Organize apps page.

The Organize apps page lets IT admins organize apps into collections (also called clusters). For example, an IT admin can create an Essentials collection for frequently used apps or an Expenses collection for apps related to tracking expenses, logging travel, etc. Collections are displayed in the Play Store homepage on user's devices.

EMM's must utilize the SELECT mode in the iframe URL's parameters to allow searching and adding of apps to collections.

On user's devices, the Play Store app only displays apps from a collection that are available for the user (or device). If a collection doesn't include any apps that are available to the user (or device), the collection won't appear in the Play Store.

Figure 5. App collections (clusters)
on a device.

IT admins can also edit, delete, and copy existing collections in the organize apps page. User instructions for how to perform these tasks are available in the Managed Google Play Help Center.

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Add the iframe to your console

Step 1. Generate a web token

To generate a web token that identifies the enterprise, call Enterprises.createWebToken. The following example shows how to retrieve the token using the Google Play EMM API Client Library for Java.

All pages in the iframe are enabled by default. When generating a web token, you can specify which page(s) to disable. The example below disables Private apps, Web apps, and Organize apps.

public AdministratorWebToken getAdministratorWebToken(
        String enterpriseId) throws IOException {
    AdministratorWebTokenSpec tokenSpec = new AdministratorWebTokenSpec();
    tokenSpec.setParent("https://my-emm-console.com");
    tokenSpec.setPlaySearch(new AdministratorWebTokenSpecPlaySearch());
    tokenSpec.setPrivateApps(new AdministratorWebTokenSpecPrivateApps().setEnabled(false));
    tokenSpec.setWebApps(new AdministratorWebTokenSpecWebApps().setEnabled(false));
    tokenSpec.setStoreBuilder(new AdministratorWebTokenSpecStoreBuilder().setEnabled(false));
    return androidEnterprise
        .enterprise()
        .createWebToken(enterpriseId, tokenSpec)
        .execute();
}

You need to include the returned token, along with other parameters, when rendering the iframe in your console.

Step 2. Render the iframe

Here's an example of how to render the managed Play iframe:

<script src="https://apis.google.com/js/api.js"></script>
<div id="container"></div>
<script>
  gapi.load('gapi.iframes', function() {
    var options = {
      'url': 'https://play.google.com/work/embedded/search?token=web_token&mode=SELECT',
      'where': document.getElementById('container'),
      'attributes': { style: 'width: 600px; height:1000px', scrolling: 'yes'}
    }

    var iframe = gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild(options);
  });
</script>

This code generates an iframe inside the container div. Attributes to be applied to the iframe tag can be set with the 'attributes' option, as above.

URL parameters

The table below lists all the available parameters for the iframe that can be added to the URL as URL parameters, e.g:

'url': 'https://play.google.com/work/embedded/search?token=web_token&mode=SELECT&showsearchbox=TRUE',

Parameter	Page	Required	Description
token	N/A	Yes	The token returned from Step 1.
iframehomepage	N/A	No	The initial page displayed when the iframe is rendered. Possible values are PLAY_SEARCH, WEB_APPS, PRIVATE_APPS, and STORE_BUILDER (organize apps). If not specified, the following order of precedence determines which page is displayed: 1. PLAY_SEARCH, 2. PRIVATE_APPS, 3. WEB_APPS, 4. STORE_BUILDER.
locale	N/A	No	A well-formed BCP 47 language tag that is used to localize the content in the iframe. If not specified, the default value is en_US.
mode	Search apps	No	SELECT: lets IT admins select apps. APPROVE (default): lets IT admins select, approve, and un-approve apps. Deprecated: This mode is deprecated, use SELECT instead. This method will no longer be accessible by anyone after September 30, 2025. APPROVE mode only works if PlaySearch.ApproveApps is set to true in the web token.
showsearchbox	Search apps	No	TRUE (default): displays the search box and initiates the search query from within the iframe. FALSE: the search box is not displayed.
search	Search apps	No	Search string. If specified, the iframe directs the IT admin to search results with the specified string. Note: Only include this parameter when the search box is located outside of the iframe (showsearchbox = FALSE).

Step 3. Handle iframe events

You should also handle the following events as part of your integration.

Event	Description
onproductselect	The user selects or approves an app. This returns an object containing: { "packageName": The package name of the app, e.g. "com.google.android.gm", "productId": The product ID of the app, e.g. "app:com.google.android.gm", "action": The type of action performed on the document. Possible values are: "approved", "unapproved" or "selected." If you implement the iframe in SELECT mode, the only possible value is "selected". }

The sample below shows how to listen for onproductselect:

iframe.register('onproductselect', function(event) {
  console.log(event);
}, gapi.iframes.CROSS_ORIGIN_IFRAMES_FILTER);