It is common knowledge among many Intune administrators that Line of Business (LOB) is the method for creating Android application using an APK file but this is only true for devices setup with the Targeted Platform as Android Device Administrator or Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
This means that LOB method cannot be used to package APK file for Android application deployment for Android Enterprise Personally-Owned Work Profile,Android Enterprise dedicated devices,Android Enterprise Fully Managed or Android Enterprise Corporate-Owned Work Profile; which is what most enterprise level organizations use.
To deploy the APK file successfully, you need to use Managed Google Play Private Store to make the available only in the Google Play store associated with the user’s tenant. It takes less time to publish and become available for distribution compared to a publishing it in Google play public store which may take a longer period for Google to vet and approve. This can take as low as 10 minutes to publish, approve and become available for distribution.
Navigate to Intune portal>>>Apps>>>click on Android>>>click Add; App Type (Managed Google Play Store) and click on Select.
Once you click Select, it will connect to your organizations Google Play Store which has been connected to Intune. Click on the “Lock” icon representing Private Apps to open the Managed Google Play Private Store; Title (My Private App); APK File (Upload the APK file here)>>>the application will indicate Not Available Yet and this make take between 10 to 20 minutes.
Once the application has been approved, the Not Available Yet will go indicating that it is available in the Google Play Store.
Click Search for Play Store icon and in the search area type the name of the application and click the Search icon.
Once the application displayed, click on it to open it, then click the Select button and then click the Sync button on the top-left to add the application to your application list; this may take 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
During the process, the message “Managed Google Play Sync in progress. Apps added in Managed Google Play will be created when the sync completes“, will be displayed on the top of your list of applications.
When the application is added, click on it and click on Properties on the left side of the page and in the Assignments area, add the desired group for the application to deployed to them.
