android.autoinstalls.config.samsung Copy

Labelled "ConfigAPK", this is Samsung's Play Auto Install (PAI) device configuration package. PAI is a Google partner service that lets an OEM specify a set of applications to be installed on a device from Google Play instead of preloading them into the system image. The OEM defines the app set in Google's Android Device Configuration portal, targeted by region, carrier, build and OS version, with apps marked as installed by default, required, or merely offered for the user to choose. A small configuration package on the device identifies the build to that service. The package name follows the android.autoinstalls.config convention used across makes. In this site's current sample Samsung is represented by one make-wide package, whereas several other vendors appear under per-model names such as android.autoinstalls.config.lenovo.p513 and android.autoinstalls.config.hmdglobal.sunfire. The practical effect is that the apps a Galaxy device installs for itself at first boot, or after a factory reset, are not all baked into the firmware: some arrive from Play because this configuration says they should. That is why a freshly reset device can end up with apps that were not in the image. It is a configuration stub with no launcher icon and nothing a user interacts with. Provenance and spread from this site's own data: it is seen only on Samsung devices, signed with a Samsung key that in this sample signs nothing else, and observed from API 28 through API 37, so it is long-standing rather than tied to one Android release. Reported versions range from 0000 to 1009, which are configuration revision markers rather than app releases. No source establishes a change in this package's role across Android versions, and none is implied by the data here. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk use this is worth understanding rather than fighting. It plays no part in enrolment or policy, and once a device is provisioned the package has done its work, so disabling it has no effect on day-to-day operation. Where unwanted vendor apps at setup are the concern, the supported controls are the EMM's own application policy and the enrolment configuration, which govern what is installed and what is hidden on a managed device. Removing this package only changes what a later factory reset pulls down, and it is not a substitute for policy.

• What is Play Auto Install (PAI) in Android and how does it work? - Jason Bayton →
• Distribute apps - Android Management API - Google for Developers →
• Package provenance for android.autoinstalls.config.samsung - Android System App Database →
• Package search for android.autoinstalls.config - Android System App Database →

• Signed by the device maker's own signing key (Samsung), so it is an OEM preinstall, and that single certificate is consistent across all 15 device profiles. This attribution is tentative - the certificate has only been seen on Samsung so far (1 package, 26 observations).
• Its largest observed manifest declares 1 permissions: 1 runtime (user-granted).
• Reported as an updated system app on 8 of 15 profiles - a newer build is installed over the one in the system image there.