Google boosts remote Android management for admins

Google has enhanced the enterprise management capabilities for its Android smartphone platform, making it possible for administrators to secure and reset lost or stolen devices.

In a blog post on Thursday, Google Enterprise Mobility product manager Mayur Kamat wrote that Android already worked "quite well" with the Google Apps productivity and collaboration suite, but the company was working to provide more functionality for those organisations using both platforms.

One of the key updates is a new version of the Google Apps Device Policy app, which now makes it possible to locate a lost or stolen Android device on a map, call it, and reset the device PIN or password remotely through a new site called My Devices. However, the Android devices must use version 2.2 or higher of the open-source operating system, if they are to be remotely manageable in this way.

Google Apps administrators are now also able to mandate the encryption of data on Android devices, although this will require devices using Android 3.0, or 'Honeycomb', which is currently only available for tablets. Google has also introduced a new corporate contacts app called Google Apps Lookup.