Google's making it easy for small businesses to manage their Android phones

Android Enterprise Source: Jerry Hildenbrand / Android Central

What you need to know

Android Enterprise Essentials provides core data protection features for small and medium-sized businesses.
Devices purchased through the program come pre-configured and no additional action is needed by the user.
Google plans to make the program globally available in early 2021.

You probably have heard about how businesses can administer accounts for people who have a company phone or bring their own phone to work, or maybe you even have experience with it. Typically we think of huge Fortune 500 style companies with their own internal IT department when we talk about device and data security, but smaller businesses face the same sort of security risks as their larger counterparts do.

Well, Google understands that smaller businesses require the same sort of secure phone that large companies do. In response, they've kicked off Android Enterprise Essentials to help bring just that in an easy-to-manage package.

Investing in mobile security doesn't have to be a big, complicated endeavor. It's about using the right tool for the job to help ensure that critical protections are in place.

Android Enterprise Essentials comes from the same team that manages the Android Enterprise device management and security tools that so many big companies already use and they have pulled out the crucial and essential features for businesses so there is no need for a big-budget IT department.

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Android Enterprise Essentials makes it simple to do things like force encryption and a lock screen, ensuring Google Play Protect can't be disabled and that users are only allowed to install apps from the Google Play Store, and provide the ability to remote wipe all company data from a device that's lost or stolen. These protections stay in place even if a phone is factory reset.

The features are applied automatically. All a business owner needs to do is purchase one or more devices and have its employees sign into them like any other Android phone.

Google is working with Synnes in the United States and Tech Data in the UK to distribute devices with Android Enterprise Essentials preconfigured and in early 2021 we'll see more partners as Google takes the program global. You can learn more about Android Enterprise Essentials at Google's Enterprise web portal.