Branded Mobile Apps Overview and Customer Requirements

Branded apps are Android, iPhone, or iPad apps developed to meet an organization’s specific business needs. They are distributed privately and securely to members of the organization through Apple Business Manager, MDM/Google EMM, or any other EMM.

Mobile teams submit branded apps through Google Play or App Store Connect. Then the customers can assign those apps to the Apple Business Manager, MDM/Google EM, or any other EMM account. Once approved, they are available to the organization so that only the assigned employees can view and access them.

Note, the branded mobile app is not the same as Simpplr's native mobile app. For info on the native mobile app, click here.

Creating a branded app

To create the Custom/Branded app, Simpplr requires the following components to be provided: 

Note:

All of the following components are required for development to begin.



Simpplr org information

  1. Org ID. To find this, go to Salesforce as an Admin user, then in Setup, type Company Information into the Quick Find box. Your Salesforce org ID is shown in the Organization Detail section.
    Salesforce_org_ID.gif
  2. Salesforce base url. This is the Salesforce instance url you have tied to your org's Simpplr intranet.
    salesforce_base_url.png
  3. Simpplr app url. This is the url you receive on the home page of Simpplr.
    simpplr_base_url.png
  4. Your company's main website domain name. For example, simpplr.com. If you have multiple websites or domains, provide those as well. This allows us to enable both the universal and branded apps. 

 

Apple Business account (iOS users) and Google EMM (Android users) account information

(Get Apple Business manager account

Note:

Simpplr requires redemption codes from every ABM account your org has.
  1. The Apple Business Manager org ID and name can be found under Settings > Enroll information in the ABM account. We will need the exact name and organization ID as shown in the Orginisation Info section.
    ABM_Account_info.png
  2. An MDM solution (optional) compatible with the Apple business account will also be required to manage the app distribution. Otherwise, it can also be done through Apple Business Manager’s code redemption feature. (learn more)
  3. Similarly, in the case of Android, an MDM solution like Google Enterprise and Google EMM will also be required to distribute.
  4. In the case of a private Android app, a Google developer accounts’ organization ID and name will be required to publish branded apps (learn more).

App name

  1. The mobile app name can be anything you'd like, as long as it's available on the Apple or Google Play Store. However, the name should reflect exactly how you want your intranet name to display in Apple and Google Play. For example, if you want your name to be theHub, then you should tell us it's called theHub, not "The Hub".

App icon

Reference: 

https://blog.clevertap.com/fixing-notification-icon-for-android-lollipop-and-above/

Here we need two different icons for iOS users and two for Android users:

  1. (iOS users): One logo/icon in PNG format. Dimensions: 1024x1024 pixels (shouldn’t be transparent) to be used for the app store icon. 
  2. (Android users): A 256x256 pixels transparent icon with logo/artwork in white to be used as an icon in the notification bar on Android. (Only needed for Android app). *This icon must be white and transparent.*

Splash and other screens

  1. One image logo/art-work (non-transparent) in PNG format with dimensions 2732x2732 pixels centered with the center square dimension 1000x1000 px. This image will be used as a Splash Screen, shown upon opening the app. Note this image will only take up about 25% of your phone's screen. You'll also see a "Powered by SIMPPLR" label at the bottom.
    Image from iOS (18).png

Theme color

Provide your desired theme color code for branding. By default, the app will use what you have in your web app's branding. It is used to display the base color in the application. If you'd like to provide a different color, it should be in the form of a hex code, e.g., #1cbc9c. Similarly, you can provide a different color to work in dark theme. Ignore if you want to keep the same color for both dark and light themes.

Web intranet screenshot

We require your web environment’s home dashboard screenshot. We use this to create the Android app listing on Google Play store.

Process

Once all the details are received, the Simpplr Dev and QA team require 6-8 weeks to build, test and upload the app.

To test the mobile application, Simpplr will need:

  1. An active user in your Salesforce instance with Simpplr license and permission sets
    assigned to them. Your system admin should create a standard user using the email address -
    onboard@simpplr.com so as not to interfere with a real person's profile in your org. 
  2. If you are using a SSO and want the application to support the SSO, create an
    account with an email address that your IT and Executive teams have access to. This account should be mapped to the user created in the previous steps.

Note:

Without the last two, we will not be able to test the login workflow for your org.

Enablement and adding domains

Before distributing the branded mobile app, make sure your org has it enabled. App managers can enable the mobile app by:

  1. Going to Manage > Application > Setup > Mobile app.
  2. In Distribution and promotion, ensure Enabled is selected. Note the branded iOS app can be distributed without an MDM. The branded Android app can be distributed without an MDM if it is publicly available on the Google Play Store.
  3. App managers can also send the app download link from this menu either via SMS or email.
    Mobile app enablement.gif

App managers can add multiple domains for mobile usage as well. In the same menu, enter each applicable domain for your org. Users with an email address tied to these domains will be able to access the mobile app.
mobile app multiple domains.png

It's important to note that if your org ever changes its Salesforce URL (setting up a vanity URL for instance) or Simpplr URL (changing the company domain), you will need to add the new domain(s) to this list. Examples of each of these URLs are shown below.
Simpplr url.png

Simpplr URL


Salesforce url.png

Salesforce URL

 

App distribution

  • In case of iOS, you can distribute the app to users through Apple’s business manager code redemption feature or can connect and distribute with other external MDM (learn more).
  • In the case of Android, you can keep the app public and let users download the app from the Google Play store directly or in case of the private app, user can choose to distribute through Google Enterprise (EMM) or with any MDM.
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