MeshCentral - Android Agent, Google Play, Arctic Vault

Starting this week, MeshCentral can start managing an all new class of devices. A few days back, Google Play Store accepted and published the MeshCentral Agent for Android. This marks the first steps in adding basic mobile device management to MeshCentral and offers many opportunities for the future. You can pair Android devices with your own MeshCentral server and start seeing the device on the web site. On top of that, MeshCentral is included in the GitHub Arctic Code Vault which is really cool. In details:

  • MeshCentral Android Agent. Look at the demonstration video here. The community had requested mobile management in the past and work started a few weeks back using Android Studio and the Kotlin programming language to build a basic MeshCentral Agent for Android. Most of the work had to do with pairing the agent to the server and opening a secured, trusted connection to the server. Currently, the Android Agent uses a built-in QR code reader to pair the application with your own server. The QR code contains the server’s address, certificate hash and device group identifier. Once paired, you can connect the device and it shows up on the server’s web site like other devices. Features include:
    • Media Download. Once the device is connected, you can go in the “Files” tab and download images, audio and videos from MeshCentral. In this first version, there is no upload or file delete capability.
    • Device Details. In the device’s “details” tab, you can see additional information about the device including device brand and model and network interface information.
    • Battery Monitoring. While connected, the Android agent will update MeshCentral on any significant changes it’s devices battery state or charging state. This is done in real-time so that if you plug-in your device, it will immediately show up on the MeshCentral web site.
  • Android Agent on Google Play. Once the first version of the agent was built, it was submitted to the Google Play Store and it took about a week for it to be approved. It does not seem like searching for “MeshCentral” works yet, but you can access it directly on the Google Play Store here. This is a huge step in making this new agent easily and widely available. In addition to Google Play, the Android APK is available for direct download on the MeshCentral.com download page. Look for mobile downloads on the right side.
  • GitHub Arctic Code Vault. This is something that was just realized this week, GitHub has a program to store open source projects on archival film in the arctic for 1000-year storage. It’s called the GitHub Arctic Code Vault and 3 of the MeshCentral open source projects have been included in it: MeshCentral, MeshAgent and MeshCentral Router. If you don’t know about this, there is a short video that was made in 2019, before any code was included in the vault. Worth a watch. Obviously, it’s nice to know that MeshCentral will be stored for 1000 years in this remote location.

This has been a big week. In addition to this, MeshCentral has many more bug fixes and improvements. As usual, feedback is appreciated. If you see any problems or need support on something, please create a new issue on GitHub or help other users. If you have not done so already, visit the new portal at https://meshcentral.com, it looks great.

Enjoy!
Ylian
MeshCentral: https://meshcentral.com
Blog: https://meshcentral2.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/meshcentral
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MeshCentral/
GitHub: https://github.com/Ylianst/MeshCentral/issues




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