Manage Chrome kiosk app settings

This article is for Chrome administrators and developers with experience developing Chrome apps.

As an administrator, you can use the Admin console to customize Chrome kiosk apps. For example, you might want your app to control the version of Chrome that's running on a kiosk. Or, you can automatically launch a kiosk app on a digital sign.

Autolaunch a kiosk app on ChromeOS devices

Setting a kiosk app to launch automatically turns devices running ChromeOS into single-purpose devices. You can deploy multiple kiosk apps to devices, but you can only configure one app to automatically launch when devices start. For example, you might automatically launch an app on devices where user interaction isn't controlled with a keyboard and mouse.

  2. From the Admin console Home page, go to Devices and then Chrome.

  3. Click Apps & extensions and then Kiosks.
  4. To apply the setting to everyone, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
  5. Next toAuto-launch app, choose the app that you want to automatically launch on ChromeOS devices.
  6. Click Save.

Let a kiosk app control the Chrome version

Supported on Chrome 52 and later.

You can let a kiosk app control the Chrome version on a device running ChromeOS to improve device stability if the app, or certain app features, aren't compatible with the latest Chrome release.

We recommend that you only let a kiosk app control the Chrome version if:

  • Your testing process doesn't align with the standard 6-week cycle for ChromeOS updates.
  • There is significant risk associated with any potential stability issues.

Step 1: Set the OS version in the kiosk app's manifest file

  1. Identify the ChromeOS version that you want to specify.
    1. Go to CrOS-OmahaProxy CSV Viewer.
    2. For the most common device in your organization, take note of the chrome_version value.
  2. In the app's manifest.json file, set required_platform_version to the value you noted.
    For example: "required_platform_version": "8350".
  3. To automatically update the app to the latest version, even if the ChromeOS version isn't compliant, set always_update to true.

This sample configuration sets the required_platform_version to8350 and always lets the app update automatically.

Step 2: Let the kiosk app control the Chrome version

Step 3 : Verify policies are applied

After you apply any Chrome policies, users need to restart Chrome devices for the settings to take effect. You can check the devices to make sure the policy was applied correctly.

  1. On a managed ChromeOS device, browse to chrome://policy.
  2. Click Reload policies.
  3. For an autolaunched kiosk app:
    • For AllowKioskAppControlChromeVersion, make sure that Status is set to OK and Policy value is true.
    • For DeviceAutoUpdateDisable, make sure that Status is OK and Policy value is true.
  4. For specified kiosk apps:
    • For DeviceTargetVersionPrefix, make sure that Status is set to OK.
    • For DeviceTargetVersionPrefix, make sure that Policy value is the same as the value set for required_platform_version in the app's manifest file.

Common scenarios

This table describes different scenarios where kiosk apps are configured to control the ChromeOS version on a device.

Scenario Result

The app's manifest file does not have the required_platform_version manifest key.

Devices autoupdate to the latest ChromeOS version when it becomes available.

The app's manifest file has an invalid required_platform_version setting.

The app developer sees an error message in chrome://extensions when they try to load the app. The required_platform_version must be valid for the app to get installed or updated from the Chrome Web Store.

The required_platform_version value is lower than the device's current platform version.

The app is installed but the device's OS will not get updated unless the required_platform_version value is updated to a version higher than the current device OS version.

Note: The first time an app is installed from the Chrome Web Store, the required_platform_version value is verified, but not compared to the device's current platform version.

The required_platform_version is updated to a lower value than the device's current platform version.

The app is not installed and the client device continues to run the older version of the app.

Specify URLs kiosk apps can access

You can block and allow up to 1,000 URLs so that kiosk apps can only access certain websites.

  2. From the Admin console Home page, go to Devices and then Chrome.

  3. Click Settings and then Device.
  4. To apply the setting to everyone, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select a child organizational unit.
  5. Under Kiosk settings, scroll to URL Blocking and enter URLs as needed:
    • Blocked URLs—URLs that you want to prevent kiosk apps from accessing.
      For syntax and examples, see Devices > Blocked URLs.
    • Blocked URLs exceptions—URLs that you want to allow kiosk apps to access (URLAllowlist). Access is allowed even if the URLs are also defined in Blocked URLs.
      For syntax and examples, see Devices > Blocked URLs exceptions.
  6. Click Save.

Related topics

  • Create and deploy Chrome kiosk apps
  • Kiosk apps
  • Kiosk settings

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