How to place default iOS apps on the blacklist or whitelist

Company-owned iOS devices can be entirely managed via MDM. For that purpose, the devices are set to supervised mode. In the following, we’ll show you how to place system applications (those that don’t come from the iTunes Store) onto a blacklist or a whitelist.

Aim

On a fully managed device (supervised device), a blacklist can be used to block system applications (such as the mail app or the camera app) or any other apps (from the App Store). Whereas, if only genuine (system) applications are to be made available, they can be placed on a whitelist. Then only the apps on the whitelist will appear on the device – all other apps will be hidden. In this How To you will learn how to use a Policy to create blacklists or whitelists and assign them to your users.

Note! Use the kiosk mode, if the user is only allowed access to a single app.

Implementation

• Set up a policy in the Cortado management console under Control Panel→ Policies→ iOS Policies.
• In the Supervised Devices tab, select either the Blacklist or Whitelist radio button (example in illus.).
• Use the search button to add apps that are located in the Apple App Store onto the list.
• Under Application bundle ID enter the bundle IDs of the (system) app(s) that you want to place on a blacklist or whitelist.
• In the example, several apps have been placed on a whitelist (see illus.).

• Now assign the policy to the users, groups or devices.

Note! The settings app and the phone app are always displayed and cannot be hidden with a blacklist or a whitelist.

• If you create a whitelist for multiple apps, only those apps will be displayed on the device (example in illus.).

• Conversely, if you create a blacklist with one or more apps, those apps will no longer be available to the user.
• In the example, the Photos, Music and FaceTime apps have been placed on the blacklist (see the illus. on the right).

You can see a list of the bundle IDs of all system apps that are able to be blacklisted or whitelisted here: