APK (Android Package Kit) signing

[kgareis]

My customer (SR 695760353) had vmware create a custom APK for their Cisco model 860 IP phones, and vmware is saying that they need Cisco to sign the APK file. Is this something the Cisco IP phone developer team helps customers with?

[dstaudt]

Reading the SR notes, doing some reading, and based on past experience supporting Cisco Android device developers, a few thoughts:

• The customer should be able to install the unsigned APK via side-loading, if they enable installation of apps from unknown sources.  This can be enabled from the individual phone UI, or via EMM (i.e. Airwatch).  However, this is usually not a great idea...
• So, to be able to install from a 'known' source, the app must be registered with and installed from the Google Play Store.  Cisco could assume this role/responsibility (e.g. perhaps to publish it under the Cisco Google Play brand and make APK available for all mutual customers), however that would involve business negotiations/dev&support commitments/contracts/etc.  For this situation, probably the customer would act as if they developed the app themselves (essentially they commissioned it from VMWare) and publish it - for an enterprise org via a managed Play store
• To be able to publish the APK to an org's private/managed store, an org user would register as a Google Developer, generate a signing key, sign the app using Android SDK tools (i.e. apksigner), and upload it to their managed Play store.
• Once the app is in the org's Play store, it can be pushed via EMM/Airwatch.
• I don't know anything about Airwatch, but I assume the APK signature is not a requirement of Airwatch itself..?

[jackychane82726]

Hello,

Yes, the Cisco IP phone developer team can assist with signing the custom TextPlus APK for the Cisco model 860 IP phones. You may want to reach out to them directly to initiate the signing process for the APK file.

Best regards.