One announcement that received a little less fanfare than Android L and the Android Wear smartwatches at Google I/O this week was Android Work, an enterprise security and management framework which could rival BlackBerry’s own security suite.
According to the intro video, Android Work will eliminate the need for multiple devices for work and personal use. Rather, specific apps for the workplace can be purchased in bulk by a business, doled out to employees and then managed by internal IT professionals. Work apps will even feature a badge with the Android Work logo, ensuring that businesses will be able to delineate between personal apps and apps for work.
Android Work will support both personal devices that employees bring to work as well as devices issued to employees by the company. In order to enable a personal device for use with Android Work, the company simply creates an Android Work profile on the device, which will allow the user to separate data and apps required for work and personal apps and data.
“No one wants to carry two phones,” Google’s Sundar Pichai said during the I/O keynote “With L, there will be a whole set of APIs (application programming interfaces) to unify both experiences for a user, one for personal and another for corporate. That’s full enterprise security.”
Check out the video introduction to Android Work below.
