DEVELOPERS BLOG

Shared Android Devices with BlackBerry Dynamics

When a BlackBerry Dynamics app is first run, it is activated against a specific user’s account.  This ties the app to that user, allowing the app to identify the user and make use of various methods of single sign-on to access enterprise resources.  This works great when a device is owned and used by a single user. 

But what about shared devices?  Having users activate and deactivate applications at the start and end of their shift would be very inefficient and inconvenient.  Instead, activate the BlackBerry Dynamics app within multiple Google accounts on the same Android device.

Android 5.0 (Lollipop) and higher supports the ability to add multiple Google accounts to a single device.  This allows each Google user to install their own set of apps that have their own localized app data.  To accommodate multiple users for a BlackBerry Dynamics app, add multiple Google accounts to the device, install the BlackBerry Dynamics app in each one and then activate with different BlackBerry Dynamics accounts. 

It’s that easy.  Now you have a device with multiple copies of a BlackBerry Dynamics app, activated with different accounts, each with their own local passwords and data storage.  Users can simply switch between the local Android accounts to access their own instance of an app.  No deactivation or reactivation required!

Mark Sohm

About Mark Sohm

Senior Technical Solutions Manager on the Solution Architects team.

Mark Sohm joined BlackBerry in 2003 and currently works as a Senior Technical Solutions Manager on the Solutions Architects team. Mark Sohm has been helping developers create applications using BlackBerry technologies for over 15 years, starting way back with the very first BlackBerry JDK on BlackBerry OS 3.6 through to BlackBerry 10 and now Android with BlackBerry Dynamics and Android Enterprise.