Setup guide: from sign-up to ten protected phones

Before you start

You need three things:

• A business Google account. Personal Gmail addresses are not accepted by Google for device management. See which Google account do I need?
• Company-owned Android phones or tablets, Android 8 or newer, factory reset. See supported devices.
• Wi-Fi the phones can join during setup.

Step 1: Sign up and name your company

Go to Start free. Enter your email and your company name. That is your organization in NounDesk; everything else lives inside it.

If you want to look around first, choose Start demo mode on the Organization page. A sample fleet of ten devices appears and every feature works on it.

Step 2: Connect to Google, once

NounDesk runs on Android Enterprise, Google’s own management framework. Click Connect Google and finish on Google’s screen. It takes about two minutes and you never do it again. If your business uses Google Workspace, the super admin does this step.

Step 3: Create an enrollment profile

An enrollment profile is a saved combination of group, security policy and naming pattern. For a first setup, use the Standard Business policy, a group called “Team”, and names like “Phone-01”. NounDesk shows a QR code.

Step 4: Enroll each phone

On a factory-reset phone at the welcome screen, tap the screen six times. A QR scanner opens. Scan the code. The phone connects to Wi-Fi, joins your organization and shows progress: Waiting for device → Enrolling → Applying policy → Installing apps → Ready. Repeat for each phone with the same code.

Step 5: Assign employees

Open each device and assign an employee, or choose the employee while enrolling so it is done already. Add a note if it helps (“Van 3”, “screen replaced”).

Step 6: Add your apps

Open Apps, search Google Play, and add what your team needs. In your policy, mark each app Required so it installs automatically, or Available so employees can install it themselves. Phones pick up the change on their next check-in.

Step 7: Check the dashboard

Ten devices, ten online, ten compliant. If any device needs attention, the reason is written next to it in plain English. Set up alerts so you are emailed when something changes.

When a phone goes missing

Open the device, tap Lost mode. The screen locks and shows your message. See where it last reported. Erase it if it does not come back. Details on the lost-device recovery page.

Every step in more detail

Each step above has its own page in the NounDesk docs: getting started, connecting Google, adding devices, employees, security policies, apps and lost devices. If a phone won’t enroll, see enrollment troubleshooting.