Remote Control

Remote Control and Remote View

Overview

The BlueFletch Portal provides device administrators with the capability to view or control their users' mobile devices from a web browser. In Remote View mode, an admin can see the behavior of the device as it is used. In Remote Control mode, an admin can interact with the device via touch, Android buttons (Back, Home, Recents), and BlueFletch Enterprise plays.

Requirements

• Zebra devices, or devices with signed BlueFletch Platform Services integration, running Android 8.1 or higher.

• Remote Control Agent APK (package name: com.bluefletch.ems.emm.remoteagent) is installed on the devices and granted permissions.

• Messaging APK (package name: com.bluefletch.ems.messaging) is installed on the devices and started.

• Remote Control feature for the organization's Portal has been turned on by a BlueFletch account manager.

Initiating Remote Session

Remote Control can be started on the BlueFletch Portal from three locations: Device Details, the Playbook MDM Devices tab, and (if the organization is enrolled in Android Enterprise) the EMM Console Devices tab.

Device Details displays a Remote Control button that initiates the session. Both Devices tabs have a Remote Control menu option within each device's respective Device Summary page.

Device Summary Menu

Upon initiating the remote session, the web browser opens a new window and connects to the device via Messaging. When the device successfully receives the MQTT message from the browser, it displays a prompt asking the device-side user to grant permission for the Remote Agent application to begin capturing the screen. If this prompt does not display immediately, the admin on the Portal-side can press Retry Video.

On Zebra devices, the Remote Agent will automatically trigger the prompt to grant the video permission. Remote Agent will also wake a Zebra device if it is sleeping so that the automatic grant action can occur; the device will still require user intervention if it has a screenlock.

Active Remote Session

Once a Remote View session is started, the device can be viewed and the End Session button is available when ready to terminate the connection.

Once a Remote Control session is started, the admin has various options to control the device.

Controls & Actions

Device controls include:

• Reboot

• Volume Up

• Volume Down

• Wake/Sleep Device

• Screenshot

• Home (replacement for Android Home button if the device has hardware buttons)

• Back (replacement for Android Back button)

• Recents (replacement for Android Recents button)

The Actions selector contains fields for all the play types available through BlueFletch Enterprise. They can be run as one-time events on the device. Read the complete details on the different types of plays and their requirements here.

Remote Actions

Logged-in State

Zebra devices can report the authentication state of the device to the BlueFletch Enterprise database, and the Remote View or Control session can display the current user below the screen display.

To configure a device to report the login and logout actions, include the following intents in your launcher.json configuration file:

"intents": {
    "login": [
        {
            "action": "com.bluefletch.ems.remote.ACTION_LOGIN",
            "package": "com.bluefletch.ems.emm.remoteagent",
            "typeIntent": "b"
        }
    ],
    "postLogout": [
        {
            "action": "com.bluefletch.ems.remote.ACTION_LOGOUT",
            "package": "com.bluefletch.ems.emm.remoteagent",
            "typeIntent": "b"
        }       
    ]    

For more details on the key-value pairs within these intents, please see the documentation on Custom Intents for Launcher Configurations.

Terminating Remote Session

To conclude the remote connection, press the End Session button in the lower right corner and confirm the intention to close in the dialog displayed. The browser window that was launched for the session will close.

End Remote Session