WhatsApp is a messaging application that allows users to send text messages, make voice and video calls, share multimedia content (such as photos, videos, and documents), and engage in group chats.
In the upcoming sections of this blog post, we’ll explore how to deploy this app on Mac devices using the Intune admin center. Let’s dive into the steps:
Table of Contents
STEP 1 – Download WhatsApp DMG Installer
- On your Mac device, Open any web browser and go to https://whatsapp.com/download
- Click the Download button under the Mac section to download the WhatsApp desktop DMG file.
- You’ll find a file named files-WhatsApp.dmg in your Downloads folder.
STEP 2 – Create an App Deployment
To create an App deployment for WhatsApp on the Intune admin center, follow the below steps:
- Sign in to the Intune admin center.
- Click on Apps > macOS > macOS apps.
- Click on + Add to start the deployment creation.
- App type: macOS app (DMG).
- Click on the Select button to proceed.
App Information tab
Click Select app package file to choose the .dmg application installer. Locate the app package file, then click the OK button to proceed.
- Name: Provide a unique name of the application.
- Description: Describe the application.
- Publisher: Provide the publisher’s name.
The remaining information is optional. Nevertheless, if you have all the details about this application, it can help other team members gain a better understanding and could prove useful in troubleshooting any issues that may arise.
Requirements
In the requirements tab, select Minimum operating system as a condition for application installation. Click on Next to proceed.
Detection rules
In the Detection rules tab, Select Ignore app version to No. Provide CFBundleIdentifier and CFBundleShortVersionString values for WhatsApp.
To learn about how to retrieve CFBundleIdentifier and CFBundleShortVersionString values, you can refer More Information section at the end of the blog post. You can also read more about Ignore app version in that section.
For more detailed information on how to find CFBundleIdentifier and CFBundleShortVersionString values, please refer to the post titled How to Deploy DMG Apps on macOS Devices Using Intune.
CFBundleIdentifier and CFBundleShortVersionString
Assignments
Click on Add group to add an Entra security group containing macOS devices.
Review + create
Review the deployment and click on Create to start the deployment process.
Sync Intune Policies
The device check-in process might not begin immediately. If you’re testing this policy on a test device, you can manually kickstart Intune sync from the device itself or remotely through the Intune admin center.
Alternatively, you can use PowerShell to force the Intune sync on Windows devices. Restarting the device is another way to trigger the Intune device check-in process.
Monitor Deployment Progress
You can monitor the application deployment from the Intune admin center by navigating to Apps > macOS > selecting the specific application. The Overview page will display the installation status, similar to what is shown in the screenshot below.
If you face any issues or experience deployment failures, you can click on “Device install status” or “User install status” to access more detailed information about the error description and error code, helping you troubleshoot and resolve the problem.
End-user Experience
To check if the deployment is completed successfully, follow the below steps:
- Go to Finder > Go > Applications
- Look for the WhatsApp Application icon to confirm the deployment.
macOS Intune deployment troubleshooting
If you encounter problems deploying the application, check the IntuneMDMDaemon*.log and IntuneMDMAgent*.log files for more information. For guidance on locating these files on a macOS device, refer to my previous blog post titled How To Collect Intune Logs From a MacOS Device.
Uninstall WhatsApp from MacOS using Intune
After following the steps to deploy the WhatsApp application on macOS devices using Intune, you might also need to uninstall it.
There could be various reasons, such as the application no longer being used in your organization or specific users opting not to have it on their devices. Let’s check the steps:
- Sign in to the Intune admin center.
- Click on Apps > macOS > macOS apps.
- Click on the Application deployment for WhatsApp.
- Click on Properties under Manage.
- Click on Edit next to Assignments.
In the Assignments tab, you can include an Entra security group that contains users or devices in the Uninstall assignment section. However, ensuring that the same user or device is not included in the Required section is essential. Failure to do so could result in the application going into a loop of automatic installation and uninstallation.
More Information
1. About Ignore App version setting
If you’re interested in understanding the “Ignore App Version” setting, you can follow the guidance below:
- Select Ignore app version = Yes if you want the app installed when it’s not found on the target device. If the app is already there but the version number is different, it will be ignored, and the app will not be deployed.
- Select Ignore app version = No if you want the app to be Installed when it is not found on the target device or the app version you are deploying differs from the one already installed on the target device.
In general, when deploying a self-updating application such as Google Chrome or Zoom, you should set Ignore the app version to Yes.
Please note that If you have disable AutoUpdate setting for self-updating apps, then can set Ignore app version to No. I have provided more detail about it in my other blog post: How to deploy Zoom using Intune.
Note
2. Steps to Retrieve CFBundleIdentifier and CFBundleShortVersionString
To retrieve these details, you can install WhatsApp (the same one you intend to deploy through Intune) on a test Mac device and then use the following commands in the macOS terminal to obtain this information:
defaults read /Applications/WhatsApp.app/Contents/Info CFBundleIdentifier
defaults read /Applications/WhatsApp.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionString
If you do not prefer a macOS terminal to find this info, you can also use the Finder app to locate the Info.plist file for WhatsApp. You can use the below steps to locate this file:
- Go to Finder > Go > Go to Folder…
- Search for /Applications/WhatsApp.app/Contents/ path.
- Double-click on the searched path to find Info.plist file in Contents folder.
- Double-click on the file and search for
CFBundleIdentifierandCFBundleShortVersionStringvalues in the file.
- Search for
CFBundleIdentifierandCFBundleShortVersionStringand Find their values. For the WhatsApp application, CFBundleIdentifier is WhatsApp, and CFBundleShortVersionString is 2.2333.11. - Please note that these values could differ depending on the WhatsApp version you are deploying. Please check these values (CFBundleIdentifier and CFBundleShortVersionString) and provide them in the detection rules.
Conclusion
In this blog post, we’ve covered deploying the WhatsApp application on macOS devices using Intune. If your organization decides to discontinue using this application, you can efficiently uninstall it by targeting the devices through the “Uninstall assignment” section of the application. Installation of WhatsApp on the target device typically took a couple of minutes after forcing the device check-in from the Company Portal app.
