Supporting the hybrid workforce: Extending Chrome management to mobile devices

The way we work is evolving. With organizations shifting to hybrid work environments, employees need easy access to business apps and data anytime and anywhere. From a management perspective, this means IT needs to be able to manage their tech stack across various devices and operating systems. 

Chrome Browser Cloud Management gives IT teams a simple and efficient way to manage and secure their browser - all from the cloud. You can manage your deployment across Windows, Linux, macOS and now, Android and iOS too. 

Managing Chrome on Android and iOS

As of our 100th release ?, Chrome Browser Cloud Management now supports Chrome-on-Android and Chrome-on-iOS.  We have heard from healthcare, finance, telecom, retail, and even government agencies that it’s extremely important to securely manage Chrome on mobile devices for both frontline workers and knowledge workers.  

That means, from one place, IT teams can:

• Configure and set Chrome policies across platforms for a more secure and consistent cross-device user experience 

• Get aggregated reports about browsers, versions and device details to make better decisions within their corporate environment 

• Use APIs to export information for custom dashboards and workflows

We’ve recently released a ton of other capabilities available through Chrome Browser Cloud Management. Here’s a few highlights: 

More control over extension updates

Extension pinning gives IT the ability to pin the latest version of a Chrome app or extension to control when they are updated to a newer version.  This is useful for organizations with strict change management requirements - especially in highly regulated industries.

Increase access controls with more granular admin privileges 

The team also just introduced a read-only privilege that enhances permission controls available to admins in the Google Admin Console. Admins can grant or restrict access to a subset of other admins. The “Read-only” access will restrict access to Browser Management actions such as moving browsers between organizational units or deleting browsers. This is a great resource for organizations who want to keep their deployment as secure as possible, but want multiple administrators to be able to manage Chrome.

Do more with Chrome Browser Cloud Management reports

This feature allows IT to export data directly into CSV from Chrome Browser Cloud Management reports, so data can be used across their organization or in other reporting tools. It is currently available for Managed Browsers, but will soon be available for Apps & Extension data and Version information. Stay tuned for Q2 when these launch to GA!

Get additional details on applications and extension requests 

Many of our administrators continue to tell us that extensions are critical to business productivity, but they want to have oversight over which ones are being used in their organization.  The App Details API enables IT teams to get detailed information about extensions and the number of extension requests.  We also have a new Github page with examples of how to use other APIs.

Customizing policy ordering

Advanced administrators may have to deploy both Platform (Registry, Group Policy, PLIST, managed preferences) and Cloud policies simultaneously to manage Chrome in complex environments.  Now IT teams can easily change the order of precedence for Chrome policies to meet their organization's needs.  

Get 24/7 support from Chrome experts

Did you know that you can get support for your Chrome browsers? Save IT time and keep users connected to the web with 24/7 support from Chrome experts.  Chrome browser support is included for your whole organization if you have any of the following:  >100 Chrome OS CEU licenses, >100 Google Workspace licenses or Google Cloud Platform Enhanced or Premium Support. 

Chrome just had its 100th release last week! To celebrate what we’ve been able to accomplish together and hear from the team on our favorite features and milestones from the past 100 releases, check out our LinkedIn.  To learn more about how you can use Chrome Browser Cloud Management in your organization, visit our website.