Android is an increasingly important operating system for a wide array of usages and Meshcentral is making sure administrators can remotely monitor and manage Android devices anywhere over the Internet. We manage all Android devices but make sure we take full advantage of Intel platform features. A few days back we updated the Android Mesh agent on Google Play. Among the many improvements made by my colleague Rick Edgecombe, two stand out:
- Remote Input. When installing the Mesh agent on a rooted Android device, the agent has built-in remote desktop capability. Until now, you could see the display but could not interact with it. In this new agent, Rick creates a new emulated input device that generates both touch and keyboard input. The administrator’s mouse and keys are sent over the Internet and relayed thru this new input device. The result is full two-way control over an Android device. While getting a virtual input device to show up on Android has been done before, it’s certainly very technical and Rick did a wonderful job releasing this feature on Google Play for the world to use.
- Remote Terminal. Up until now Meshcentral has had remote VT100 shell terminal support on all devices except Android. This is now fixed. Rick got the Mesh Agent to launch a new command prompt shell within the Android device and relay the input and output to the network. Administrators can now get command shell access to Android devices over the Internet and perform administrative commands that could only be done this way. It also allows administrators to automate actions and scripts.
These two new features make the Mesh Android agent increasingly capable. The features add to the existing remote file access and remote management features already present and makes it much easier to fully manage Android devices over the Internet. Google Play will automatically update the agent on existing installations.
You can see existing videos about the Android Mesh Android Agent on YouTube here and here.
Enjoy!
Ylian
meshcentral.com
Mesh Agent for Android features & connectivity breakdown.
Screen shot of a rooted Android cell phone using CyanogenMod.
The mesh agent makes a virtual input device show up during remote desktop sessions.
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