Samsung default app for SMS missing

Hi Jelle 

It is very hard to believe but if you have a new Samsung phone then you need to download the message and gallery application from the Galaxy application store. 

Message and Gallery application never pre-installed from Samsung side as far as I am aware because after purchasing my own Samsung device, I needed to install both of these applications from the Galaxy application store, unfortunately.

Hi Jelle 

It is very hard to believe but if you have a new Samsung phone then you need to download the message and gallery application from the Galaxy application store. 

Message and Gallery application never pre-installed from Samsung side as far as I am aware because after purchasing my own Samsung device, I needed to install both of these applications from the Galaxy application store, unfortunately.

Hi Jasmin,

I found the Gallery app but not the one for SMS messages. What do I have to look for?

Another issue is that apps that are preinstalled but not accessible (there is a setting for that in SMC) can not be reinstalled from Google Play in order to use them. So locked system apps can't be used as far as I found out. It would be much better if it was possible to grant access to these system apps through Google Play.

Hi Jelle 

Unfortunately, I also tried to search for the messaging application but I was unable to find it.

For the second issue, I'd suggest opening a support case because for that we need to check your configurations in the Sophos Mobile Control.

Hi Jasmin,

so there is no SMS message app when deactiviating system apps? The documentation says that one isn't blocked.

The SMS app is there when activating system apps but that leaves too much unwanted apps on the device. Blocking those apps leaves them visible which is no solution for us.

Hi Jelle,

tried installing another sms App like Hangouts?

Regards,

Malte

Hi Malte,

no because most of them include advertisements. And from the manual it says that the message app is not blocked so I really would appreciate if the standard app would be available.

Hi Jelle 

Can you please confirm that "Enable System apps" is checked in your Android Enterprise Device Policy > Restrictions?

Hi Yashraj S 

As written in my previous posts system apps are not enabled because that's not what I want. If I do that there are a lot of apps on the device which cannot be uninstalled and then are accessible or at least visible to the user. Deactivating system apps gives me the opportunity to makes those apps invisible. And again: the documentation says that the message app should not be affected by this setting.

Hi Jelle 

Sorry for the confusion here. The messaging application provided by Samsung is getting disabled by default if system apps are not enabled maybe because it is not a base message application provided by Google on the Android platform and the applications which are documented here, are recommended by Google to be available on the devices which are enrolled under Android Enterprise. Samsung's application provided by them on their smartphones is developed by them, that might be the reason behind its blocking. I'll contact my support team to get the review from their side.

You can use the default Google Messages Application as default SMS option for your users. You may need to install on the phone. Please refer this link to the application. If you still want the Samsung message application to be enabled, I'd request you to open a support case as this needs detailed investigation on why Samsung's application got disabled.

Hi Jasmin 

It is getting more and more confusing. The issue with the message app from Samsung was on one device. No other had this issue. So what was the difference? On that device Android 7 was installed. So we upgraded to Android 8, did a factory reset and enrolled it again in device owner mode with system apps disabled. Now the message app is available.

This is not the first time I have had issues with SMC and Android 6 or 7. With 8 and 9 it seems to work much better. Still I can't re-install apps which are hidden by the system apps setting to use them. But I have an open support case for that.

Hi Jelle 

Thank you for the information.

Could you please PM me the case number?