AT&T's Toggle to deliver enterprise apps to Android phones

10.10.2011
AT&T on Monday announced plans to offer a new service, called Toggle, that will securely run enterprise apps like email on any Android phone a worker chooses to buy.

The service will run on technology developed by Enterproid, a company that just last week received funding from Google, Qualcomm and Comcast.

End users with Toggle will see two separate personas on their Android phones. One includes enterprise-grade email, calendar, contacts and messaging apps and a browser, all of which can securely access corporate data. The other is the open Android platform, where users can download and use any app they please.

Any corporate email service that uses ActiveSync can be delivered to the phones.

IT administrators will have access to a Web console that lets them manage the service. They will be able to manage which employees have access to which company resources, remotely delete or add business applications to the devices, and remotely wipe corporate data stored on the phone.

AT&T will sell the service to enterprises but will allow them to apply it to phones running on other operators' networks. The service will work on phones running Android 2.2 or higher. It requires an application on the phone, which IT administrators can push out to users, and works in coordination with a hosted backend system.