Configure iOS applications with Microsoft Intune

  • 8 minutes

With Intune, school IT administrators have access to diverse applications to help students unlock their learning potential. This section discusses tools and resources for adding iOS apps to Intune.

Applications can be assigned to groups:

  • If you target apps to a group of users, the apps are installed on any managed devices that the users sign into.
  • If you target apps to a group of devices, the apps are installed on those devices and available to any user who signs in.

Add apps

✅ Add applications to your inventory

Tip

The best user experience for receiving apps on a device is for apps to be assigned using Apple School Manager and the Volume Purchase Program (VPP) with device licensing. When device-licensed VPP apps are assigned to devices or users, the app can be installed without user interaction. For iOS apps without VPP, the user is prompted to sign in to the App Store with an Apple ID.

Volume purchase program (VPP) apps

To add apps from VPP, set up a connection to Apple School Manager and add your apps in Apple School Manager.

For more information, see Configure VPP tokens.

iOS App

To add apps to iOS devices without using VPP in Intune for Education:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center.
  2. Select Apps > All apps > Add.
  3. In the Select app type pane, select iOS store app.
  4. Select Select. The Add app steps are displayed.
  5. Select Search the App Store.
  6. In the Search the App Store pane, select the App Store country/region locale.
  7. In the Search box, type the name (or part of the name) of the app. Intune searches the store and returns a list of relevant results.
  8. In the results list, select the app you want, and then select Select.
  9. Follow the steps remaining steps and select Create.

Note

Apps installed with this method will require the user of the device to sign in using an Apple ID to install the application. To avoid prompting the user for an Apple ID, use VPP apps.

Web apps

To create web applications:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center.
  2. Select Apps > All apps > Add.
  3. In the Select app type pane, under the Other types, select iOS/iPadOS web clip.
  4. Select Select. The Add app steps are displayed.
  5. Follow the steps remaining steps and select Create.

For more information, see Add web apps.

Other apps

Intune also supports deploying iOS/iPadOS LOB apps from the Intune admin center. A line-of-business (LOB) app is an app that you add to Intune from an IPA app installation file.

Assign apps

✅ Assign apps from your inventory to groups

To assign applications to a group of users or devices:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center.
  2. Select Apps > All apps.
  3. In the Apps pane, select the app you want to assign.
  4. In the Manage section of the menu, select Properties.
  5. Next to assignments, select Edit.
  6. Select one or more groups to for the app assignment and select Select.
  7. Review your selections and select Save.