How to Uninstall VMware Intelligent Hub from Android

What is WorkspaceOne Intelligent Hub

And Removing VMware WorkspaceOne Intelligent Hub from Android phones

Let's start with the basic question, what WorkspaceOne Intelligent Hub is and what does it do?

Well, it's not easy to get this one answered in short. It would require its own post. But anyways, I will try to summarise it in a short way. Please do comment if you are looking for a complete post on it. I've seen multiple reviews on Google Playstore where many users have asked, "I've installed Intelligent Hub but how to remove this app" or "can someone help to uninstall this app, I am not able to remove the Intelligent Hub".

So, lets start first with, what VMware WorkspaceOne Hub is -  WorkspaceOne Intelligent Hub is a Mobile Device Management application for Android phones and it falls under an umbrella term called Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) app. Similar apps are also available on different Platforms like iOS, Windows and different companies have their own client application created. For example, Microsoft has InTune, IBM has MaaS360, Ivanti got MobileIron and there are many more. This client app allows organizations to securely enable employees to use their mobile phones and the applications on them. EMM apps help IT department of a company to control the device (not as in actual control but manage the device settings, applications, etc). They can deploy and remove the applications on the phone remotely. They also can deploy restrictions on the device like Not allowing a user to open Camera or to open Playstore app etc. Thus, managing the device to increase the productivity of the workforce. Most of the device users are either being requested by the company to install the Hub app from Google playstore OR the company's IT department itself would install the app and have it enrolled for the user. 

Why can't you uninstall Hub?

The moment you try to enrol the phone with Intelligent Hub, the app would request certain permission which I will be discussing later in the article, which is the cause of the issue. Be it company-owned mobile devices (i.e. Corporate Owned) or your personal device (i.e. Bring Your Own Device - BYOD), the day you do not want to use this app, you will have to unenrol yourself from the Intelligent Hub application first. Point to note here is unenroling from the Hub app will not uninstall the app.

Although, it's just a 100MB-150MB app, but no one would want an app that just sits on device ideally and consume space. You try to go to Settings > Apps > Find Hub. Here, what you find is, Uninstall Option is Disabled. This is what annoys everyone, why would an App which is installed by you, does not get uninstall.

And you would ask, why I am not able to uninstall it from my Android mobile. The simple reason is - it's Google (of course because Android is from Google) and your company's IT Admin does not want you to uninstall it from the phone.  But if you have a mobile enrolled in a specific mode you should be able to. Let's look into it further.

Why Google, because the MDM app is using the capabilities which Google has provided in the Android OS. The whole ecosystem is designed by Google in a certain way so that IT dept. or the WorkspaceOne UEM console Admins can managed it.

When you install any MDM application be it Android Intelligent Hub or some other MDM app onto your mobile, during the initial setup, the application would request certain permissions. Among these permissions, there is one that would ask you to set the application as Device Administrator. 

I am sure, you should be able to recall the below screen when the app was getting configured and you had to choose the Activate option.

Now another question arises, what is Device Admin? Let's do a small quick dive into it before proceeding. 

As the name suggests, Device Admin applications are the ones that have control of the device.

For example, "Google Find my Device" will be pre-installed on every Google Playstore supported device and this app will be de-facto a Device Admin. As the app has elevated permission already given by Android OS, this app is capable of ringing the device and locating the device without user's intervention. That is the only reason, we are able to find the device even if the mobile screen is locked and no one is using it.

You can see the same on your mobile phone under the Settings > Security & Location > Advanced > Device Admin App .  The Find My Device app is set as Device Admin with a Tick mark. The Tick suggests that the listed app is Device Admin and Un-tick refers that the app is installed but not set as Device Admin.

Steps to Uninstall Intelligent Hub from Android phones

So, if you want to Uninstall the Intelligent Hub from your mobile and if your phone is enrolled with and Android Legacy mode of enrolment called Device Admin mode, you just need to perform the below steps. For more details, you can check this guide from Google on Legacy Deprecation.

Go to Settings > Security & Location > Advanced > Device admin apps

Untick or Disable the WorkspaceOne Intelligent Hub

On the next screen, select "Deactivate this device admin app"

Go to Settings > Applications & notifications > Search for Hub and click on Uninstall

When you cannot Uninstall Android Hub

There is one more real-time scenario when you see Hub is installed on the device but the option to "Deactivate this device Admin app" is Disabled (Grayed out). This is the case, where the mobile was enrolled in Work Managed or Device Owner mode or Corporate Owner Personally Enabled (COPE). You can confirm this by launching the Hub app and clicking on "This device" option. If you are seeing "Work Managed" or Corporate Owner Personally Enabled as in the below screenshot, you can be sure that the Hub app is Device Owner app and your Company or IT department is in complete control of the mobile phone. 

     

For the Work Managed and Corporate Owner Personally Enabled (COPE) enrolled mobile, the OS does not want you to un-enroll the device on your own and it does not want you to Uninstall the Device admin app too as the mobile device, in this case, would usually be owned by the company.

Hence, when you go to Device admin settings on your mobile device, you would find the setting as Disabled for you to click.

As the option is grayed-out , you will not be able un-install the Hub app. If your Company IT Admin has permitted you to see and launch Hub, you can try launching the Hub app. From the Account screen, tap on This Device option and then tap on the Enrollment option. You would find Unenroll Hub if IT admin has kept the option enabled. If it's enabled by mistake, try not to click on it. Click it in Work Managed Mode or Corporate Owner Personally Enabled device would factory reset the device. This is expected Designed behaviour.

  

If you like to understand more about Work Managed mode, you can take a quick read on my earlier post - difference between Work Managed and Work Profile modes. You can also take a look into How to install and uninstall the Test DPC App on mobiles.

It should be noted that the above information is applicable for other MDM android apps like IBM Mass360, Miradore, MobileIron, and other widely used MDM applications. There might be a small change in the way the app is installed or configured on the mobile phones but the process of uninstalling these types of apps, once they become device Admin, is the same.

Hope, you'd find this article useful and learned something new. 

Also, if you have any more questions with respect to what happens to your personal data when VMware WorkspaceOne Hub installed, you can go through this FAQ page directly from VMware - 

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workspace-ONE/services/intelligent-hub_IDM/GUID-33E67A6A-F411-43CB-A913-DA365A31C04D.html

Please do comment below if you have any questions or suggestions.

If Privacy is important to you, you might be interested to learn if you are being watched via Intelligent Hub: https://g33ktricks.blogspot.com/2023/10/privacy-concerns-with-intelligent-hub.html

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