The next Knox cloud service release is scheduled for March 22, 2023, PDT. This release is expected to include new product features and changes that aim to improve product usability in the Knox ecosystem. During the release process, SamsungKnox.com and each of the product consoles will continue to be available.
Keep in mind that these pre-release notes include future feature commitments and other information that may change leading up to the actual release.
Expected changes to Knox cloud services
Common changes
The Knox cloud service 23.03 new and updated features are available for testing in the Knox User Acceptance Testing (UAT) environment starting from March 10th. For more information about the UAT environment, see our UAT announcement.
With the upcoming release, certain common changes will affect all Knox cloud services.
Update to supported Android versions
In accordance with our updated Android support plan, the minimum supported version for Android devices registered in Knox Mobile Enrollment, Knox Manage, Knox E-FOTA, Knox Configure, and Knox Deployment app have each rolled forward. To review the minimum version on a product-by-product basis, see Policy update on Knox supported versions in the documentation.
Simplified registration for and access to Knox cloud services
The registration and access flows for Knox cloud services are streamlined. The My Knox dashboard is retired, and you can now sign in to the Knox Admin Portal directly and manage your Knox services. After you sign in the Knox Admin Portal, you can operate your preferred service right away. If you'd like to display or register for additional Knox services, click your account icon > Settings > Show/hide services.
Service-specific changes
The following table summarizes the key changes to Knox cloud services that will go live with the upcoming release.
| Service |
Changes |
| Knox Admin Portal |
- Simplified registration and access to Knox cloud services
- Deprecate the My Knox dashboard, and streamline the registration and access flows for Knox cloud services to reduce the barrier of entry and provide a cohesive user experience.
- When a new user signs in to their account for the first time, greet them with a welcome screen and guide them to select services they want to view and access on the Knox Admin Portal. Have this onboarding flow replace the Knox Admin Portal auto-tour.
- Knox Admin Portal homepage
- Provide a post-sign-in homepage that contains guidance about how to get started with Knox services, including links to the latest features and support resources. Make all functions and resources that were previously found on the My Knox dashboard available through this homepage.
- Allow you to set the landing page to be either the new homepage or the dashboard of a Knox service in Settings. Add a link to the homepage to the Knox Admin Portal badge in the top-left corner and Home in the navigation pane.
|
Knox Platform for Enterprise
|
- Renew a license — If your Knox Platform for Enterprise Premium license is about to expire within the next 90 days, or if the license has expired, you can renew the license for another two years.
|
| Knox Mobile Enrollment |
- Advanced profiles for active Knox Suite license holders — Introduce advance profiles, a new type of profile that complements regular profiles and lets you:
- Automatically lock a device if it isn’t enrolled by an EMM within a window of time.
- Remotely lock or unlock one or more devices to prevent data leaks in the event of device theft or loss.
- Immediately lock a device if it’s rooted or running unofficial firmware.
|
| Knox Manage |
- Android Legacy deprecation — Sunset support for the Android Legacy platform.
- New Knox Manage license type — Add a new individual Knox Manage license type, the KLM12 prefix.
- Benefits of the KLM12 license will include:
- Frictionless access to all Knox Platform for Enterprise features, including Premium features, without the need for additional Knox Manage with Knox Platform for Enterprise licenses.
- The ability to seamlessly downgrade from a Knox Suite license to a Knox Manage license, without the need to re-enroll devices and reassign them the new license.
- Local resellers will supply the new license. The legacy license (KLM09) will only remain available to customers who have already purchased it.
- Support for fully managed mode with AMAPI — Support fully managed mode for the Android Management API platform. Provide user-based enrollment (requires a user account) or userless enrollment (requires an enrollment token issued by the IT admin). User-based enrollment will provide activation through a QR code, while userless enrollment will provide activation through tokens. Both modes will also support other enrollment technologies, those being Knox Mobile Enrollment and Zero-touch.
- Content management for iOS and iPadOS — Introduce support for mobile content management on the two Apple platforms. Allow you to add, push, and sync files to managed iPhones and iPads. The device user will be able to view and manually sync the content in the new Content screen of the Knox Manage agent. If the agent doesn’t support a file’s type, the device user can open it in an external app.
- Home Screen customization for iOS and iPadOS — Add a Home Screen Layout policy, which allows you to create one or more custom layouts for the Home Screen of iPhones and iPads. Provide controls to specify the app shortcuts, web clips, and folders in the Page area, and the four favorite apps in the Dock area.
- Chrome OS policy enhancements
- Add 46 new policies across the Users & Browsers, Device, and Managed Guest Session categories.
- Add Portuguese localizations for Chrome OS policy names.
- Unenroll devices from Knox Mobile Enrollment — Add the option during device unenrollment to remove the device from Knox Mobile Enrollment as well as Knox Manage. This functionality will only be available if you sign in to your admin account with a Samsung Account or a supported third-party SSO identity provider.
|
| Knox E-FOTA |
- Restrict firmware downloads based on Wi-Fi access points — Allow you to configure a campaign to have blocklists and allowlists of up to 50 Wi-Fi SSIDs each, to confine Wi-Fi firmware downloads to specific access points. Doing so will prevent network clogging due to data-intensive updates. These restrictions won’t affect downloads over mobile networks.
- Improvements to firmware scheduling — Allow you to configure different download and installation periods. Allow you to schedule firmware updates to occur at any time during weekends and prevent network overuse during daytime hours.
- Campaign prioritization of EMM groups — Allow you to reassign the campaign priority of multiple EMM groups by collectively moving them either to the top or bottom of the group priority list in one swift action. Whenever the device is associated with multiple EMM groups with multiple campaigns at the same time, the revised group priority will decide which campaign and policies apply to a device. Also, provide the ability to assign priority from both the Update group priority and Update all group priority dialogs on the EMM groups page.
- Improvements to EMM reconnection — Permit updates to your credentials at any time through the Reconnect EMM action on the EMM groups page. This improvement will only be available to admins with EMM reconnection permissions.
- Fix for EMM group sync lock — Fix a soft-lock issue that occurs when users try to manually sync EMM groups prior to the completion of a group sync action. The Sync now action will be hidden until the ongoing EMM group sync is complete.
|
| Knox Asset Intelligence |
- Individual Knox Asset Intelligence licenses — Introduce Knox Asset Intelligence license keys independent of Knox Suite, with no feature or console differences between the two. The license will be upgradeable to a Knox Suite license at any time. Conversely, you’ll have the option to replace a Knox Suite license with an individual license.
- Support for managed service providers in the Knox MSP Program —Add support for managed service providers in the Knox MSP Program, enabling them to manage Knox Asset Intelligence services for customers.
- Additional support for secondary IMEIs on dual-SIM devices — Support secondary IMEIs for app, battery, and scanning-related dashboard charts. CSV file exports will also include secondary IMEI information.
- Enhancements to battery charging event data — Add the following data points related to charging events, and include them in CSV exports:
- Device battery level
- Time remaining until a device is fully charged
- Battery voltage
- Additionally, devices running Android 13 and higher can now report pogo pin chargers as a charger plug type.
- Updates to app usage data on the dashboard
- Remove filter for average battery usages less than 0.1% and show all app usage data and is now shown on the dashboard.
- Let you filter out data from certain apps in your dashboard settings to remove unwanted insights.
- Tcpdump log support — Enable device users to send you tcpdump logs from devices running Android 12 and higher to help with advanced troubleshooting of network issues between the device and server. Add this feature to the Error Reports section of the agent.
- Device data collection toggle — Allow admins with the Manage dashboard permission to turn off device data collection for all available data points, including app runtime and network usage data.
- Battery charging event history in the agent — To help you identify when your devices might be encountering charging issues, display historical battery charging data in Diagnostics > Battery screen of the Knox Asset Intelligence agent. This charging history will span the last 14 days, and include insights like in and out amperage, battery charge, and battery voltage.
- Device drop detection (beta) — Introduce drop detection, which tracks which devices are dropped most often, as well as how many times a device is typically dropped before it requires repairs. This feature is intended to help you identify which device models you may want to consider putting protective cases on, or if a device may need to be replaced soon. Initially, drop detection will only be supported for certain device models. You’ll be able to turn on drop detection in your dashboard settings.
|
| Knox Configure |
- Push update enhancements
- Allow the device user to schedule push updates to be installed overnight. If an update is scheduled for overnight installation, make the device attempt to apply the update between 2:00 AM and 5:00 AM according to the current time zone. If the device is in use during that time, it should attempt to apply the update the next night during the same period. If the device fails to apply the update overnight for four consecutive days, it will attempt to apply the update whenever possible the next day.
- In addition, show the total download size of the update in the notification in order to help the device user make an informed decision about when to apply the update.
- Allow you to prevent the device user from delaying push updates by selecting Push update without requesting end-user consent when updating a device profile in Knox Configure.
- Customizable lock screen shortcuts — Add shortcuts to the left and right corners of the device lock screen while customizing a device profile. This will allow the device user to quickly access frequently used apps from the lock screen. Shortcuts can point to pre-installed apps as well as any apps installed by the Knox Configure profile.
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| Knox Guard |
- Knox Guard Advanced — Offer a new license, called Knox Guard Advanced, that provides value-added features on top of existing Knox Guard features. Allow you to install up to five apps on the devices, up from just one in earlier releases.
- Generate PIN for deleted devices using API — Add new operations that create PINs for deleted devices, to help device users unlock their devices.
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Samsung Care+ for Business
|
- Addition of basic warranty period dates in device details — Show the basic warranty period’s start and end dates in the details of the device. This change won’t apply to US customers as their extended warranty period goes into effect at the start date of the basic warranty.
- Addition of tooltips to the device and license details — Add tooltips that provide additional information for the items in the device and license details panes.
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