IBM Support

Enhancement to the Kiosk UI for Optimal User Control

Release Notes


Abstract

MaaS360 enhances the COSU Kiosk UI to customize the status bar for Kiosk enabled devices and set the font color on Kiosk launcher container. The customization gives users more control over the information that is displayed in the status bar of the device. Users can now selectively show or hide parameters such as email, username, Bluetooth status, and wifi connectivity by adjusting settings in the kiosk launcher.

Content

The enhanced Kiosk customization capability significantly improves the user experience in the Android Enterprise MDM settings by accommodating different industry requirements. The ability to customize the status bar adds flexibility, making the product more versatile. 
Currently, when the Show Custom Status Bar setting is enabled in the Kiosk Launcher Settings section, the device automatically displays multiple parameters such as battery information, wifi status, user login information, date and time in the kiosk device home screen. For more information, about configuring Additional settings in Android Kiosk mode, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/maas360?topic=mode-configuring-additional-settings-in-android-kiosk.

What's new in the Android agent device in Kiosk mode

Customization of the Kiosk custom status bar

The following control parameters are added to the Kiosk Additional settings that can be visible in the custom status bar and on the Home screen. 

  • kioskCustomStatusBar.showUserName
  • kioskCustomStatusBar.showEmail
  • kioskCustomStatusBar.showBatteryIcon
  • kioskCustomStatusBar.showBatteryPercentage
  • kioskCustomStatusBar.showWifiIcon
  • kioskCustomStatusBar.showNetworkIcon
  • kioskCustomStatusBar.showClock
  • kioskCustomStatusBar.showBluetoothIcon
  • showDeviceNameOnHomeScreen
Administrators can add the control parameters with custom settings in the form of key-value pairs. 
For example:
  1. Click Kiosk Additional settings tab
  2. Add the policy with kioskCustomStatusBar.showEmail as key, set the value as false, and publish the policy.
  3. After this policy is enforced, the email ID is not displayed in the status bar on the device. 
Setting branding font color on Kiosk launcher container
By default, the font color for the app name and home screen in the kiosk container is set to black. With this release, the administrator can now customize the font color for the app grid, device name on the home screen, and the apps/widget tab in the top-left corner. However, the app launcher font color setting is only available to IBM Support. To request a color change, please contact support and specify the color in hexadecimal format.
Ability to show Device Name on Home Screen
The administrator can customize the home screen of the device to display the device name. You can add the policy with showDeviceNameOnHomeScreen as key on the  Kiosk Additional settings tab, set the value as true and publish the policy. The device name is displayed on the home screen. By default, the value is set to false.
Move drawable app container icons to mipmaps
By default, few first party apps were displayed in square icons while the other icons in the user interface adhered to the operating system's icon standards. In this release, all the icons adhere to the operating system's icon standards. For example, if the operating system standard is circular, then the icons are displayed in circular. If the operating system standard is rounded square, then the icons are displayed in rounded square.

The following figure displays the changes in the MaaS360 agent.

screen

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Document Information

Modified date:
12 February 2025

UID

ibm17174240

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