Notability for Organizations

All organizations managing devices will have free and unlimited access to Notability for Organizations. If you an institution representative and have any questions or would like to open a channel for priority support, contact us here. 

Apple School Manager & Apple Business Manager

You can search for "Notability" and generate as many licenses as needed. Notability is listed for macOS but the license works across both iOS and macOS. 

Don't use ASM/ABM but have a mobile device manager? Check out the License Key. 

Configuring Notability

Mobile device managers (MDM) can send XML files that configure apps to managed devices. An app's developer must add support for reading these files. Once a config file is received by a device, iOS notifies the app that its settings have changed, and the app changes accordingly. To learn more, see this guide from Apple.

For steps on sending a configuration file to managed devices, please see your MDM platform's documentation.

What features can I disable?

  • iCloud Sync
  • Access to certain cloud services
  • Giphy and Web Clip browsers
  • Camera and Photo Library access
  • Link Sharing
  • Note Gallery
  • Notability Account*

*Disabling both Link Sharing and Note Gallery will remove access to the Notability Account. See sample configurations below. 

What is a "License Key"?

You can now force Notability for Organizations on managed devices. This also prevents the issue where users can revert or deploy to the "Starter" tier and is recommended for all organizations utilizing a MDM. The License Key is required to deploy Notability for Organizations without ASM/ABM. The License Key string is EDU. 

<key>License Key</key>
<string>EDU</string>

Sample Configuration File

Enables all supported features:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Giphy Allowed</key>
<true/>
<key>iCloud Allowed</key>
<true/>
<key>Link Sharing Allowed</key>
<true/>
<key>Locked Subjects Allowed</key>
<true/>
<key>Photo Library Allowed</key>
<true/>
<key>Web Clip Allowed</key>
<true/>
<key>Note Gallery Allowed</key>
<true/>
<key>License Key</key>
<string>EDU</string>
<key>Allowed Cloud Services</key>
<array>
<string>GoogleDrive</string>
<string>DropBox</string>
<string>OneDrive</string>
<string>Box</string>
<string>WebDAV</string>
<string>Email</string>
<string>Twitter</string>
<string>OpenIn</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>

Sample Configuration File

Disables Link Sharing and Note Gallery. License Key added. 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Link Sharing Allowed</key>
<false/>
<key>Note Gallery Allowed</key>
<false/>
<key>License Key</key>
<string>EDU</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Sample JAMF Configuration File

License Key added. 

<dict>
<key>License Key</key>
<string>EDU</string>
</dict>

Data Privacy

By default, Notability stores all notes on a user's device. If they like, though, users may sync their notes to iCloud or back up notes to services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box. Regardless of whether a cloud service is used with Notability, our team doesn't have access to users' notes. For local data storage, Notability uses the standard encryption that an iPad, iPhone, or Mac provides. Similarly, if Notability sends notes to a cloud service, the app uses the service's standard transfer and storage methods. Notability doesn't provide encryption of its own at the moment. For services that Notability can interact with, the teams that provide those services are the best source of information about their security. If you'd like to learn more about iCloud's security, for example, Apple has a great article on that subject here.

We use third party services, Firebase and Mixpanel, to aggregate anonymous analytics about which features of the app are used and how frequently they are used. We use this information strictly to improve the features in Notability. We do not sell, rent or give away the data. And most crucially, no content created by users is tracked with analytics, only feature usage information such as which input tools are used most frequently. Please see our privacy policy here for more information. 

With the above options, you can configure Notability to effectively be local-only. If you still need to send a data privacy agreement, contact us here.

 

Managing Licenses Safely (Prevent Data Loss)

Licenses obtained through Apple School Manager can be assigned to students’ Apple ID or to your school’s iPads. If you start the school year with one option and decide to switch, please proceed with caution.

  • Reassigning an app from an Apple ID to an iPad will delete and reinstall the app, and notes that are not synced to iCloud will be deleted. 

  • Certain MDM may delete and reinstall Notability instead of updating the app for devices. Deleting and reinstalling Notability will delete all notes that stored locally on the device. If this is the case for your MDM provider, please have your users enable iCloud Syncing and/or Auto-Backup (we recommend both).