Overview

The protected Player for Android gives the following advantages, making Player more suitable for use in unattended locations:

• Prohibit virtual button access (assuming you've configured the OS to hide virtual buttons), preventing users from quitting Player. Think of it as a virtual kiosk mode. "Virtual" because it is not possible to disable physical buttons on an Android device.
• Automatically start Player when the device is rebooted (e.g. after turning on the tablet),
• Give Intuiface users control over when to update Player, avoiding auto-update via the Google Play Store. In fact, auto-update will not be possible.

In all other respects, Player will behave exactly like the standard Player available in the Google Play Store. This includes:

• remote deployment
• (optionally) automatically relaunching the last run experience (via the Player Launch Preference option in the Share and Deploy console)

Important Notes

• For holders of Player licenses purchased before 15-May-2019: this article applies to Player for Kiosks and not Player for Tablets. See next bullet point for the explanation.
• A consumer Android device would NOT satisfy the prerequisites of protected Player because the consumer version of Android does not enable the hiding of virtual buttons.
• The standard Player ignores the Android setting to hide virtual buttons. This is why it is insufficient to simply find a version of Android that hides those virtual buttons. You would also need the protected Player.
• Android edge swipe gestures - for accessing functions like device settings - are already disabled by Player, even by the standard Player.
• There is no difference in cost for a Player license when using the protected Player instead of the standard Player.
• Use of the protected Player will intentionally complicate your ability to exit a running experience. See this section below for approaches to exiting a running experience.
• Do not install both the standard Intuiface Player and the protected Player on the same device. This would result in the consumption of two licenses.
• The protected Player does not support the share-by-url feature.
• Auto-update of Player software is disabled. Updates to Player must be installed manually.

Prerequisite

To use the protected Player, your Android device must satisfy the following two prerequisites:

• runs any variant of the Android OS permitting the hiding of virtual buttons (e.g Home, Back, Recent App)
  AND
• either has no physical buttons or is accompanied by an enclosure that covers physical buttons

The second prerequisite exists because it is not possible to disable physical buttons.

Sample Hardware

As noted above, a consumer Android device would NOT satisfy the prerequisites of protected Player because it is not possible to hide the virtual buttons.

An example of supported hardware is the ProDVX APPC-10DSQ10.1 sold by www.prodvx.com/. The version of Android on this device enables you to hide the virtual buttons:

• Go to Settings
• Select "Display"
• Check "Hide status bar"
• To exit from the Settings panel you must then either
  • plug in a physical USB Keyboard and press the ESC Key
    OR
  • use a product like Teamviewer - that you have installed beforehand - to remotely access this device and press the ESC key on the keyboard of PC running the remote access client.

How to install the protected Player for Android

The Protected Intuiface Player for Android installer is available starting with Version 6.0.6 via the following URL:

• android.intuiface.com/protected for Android 5.0 or later

If you want to get a specific 6.n.m version, just add 6nm at the end of the URL. For example:

• android.intuiface.com/protected/637 - minimum version 6.3.7 (637)

To install the protected Player, download the .apk file onto your device and tap its icon with your finger. That will run the installer, resulting in Player installation.

How to exit a running experience

By disabling the virtual buttons on an Android device that is either missing physical buttons or blocking them with some kind of enclosure, additional steps are required to exit a running experience.

You have three options:

• plug in a physical USB Keyboard and press the ESC Key
  OR
• use a product like Teamviewer - that you have installed beforehand - to remotely access the Android device and press the ESC key on the keyboard of PC running the remote access client
  OR
• call the "Exit application" action from within your running experience using a secret trigger (i.e. something your target audience wouldn't think to do)