Impact of Google Voice and several other SMS related applications on Android Phones that use Junos Pulse

This article describes the Impact of Google Voice and several other SMS related applications on Android Phones that use Junos Pulse.

Google Voice and several other SMS related applications on Android phones prevent the Interception of Mobile Device Management (MDM) Commands by Junos Pulse, which is sent from the Mobile Security Gateway (MSG). As a result, the SMS Monitoring feature will also stop working.

Google Voice and several other SMS related applications prevent the Interception of MDM commands, which are sent from the MSG to the Junos Pulse application. The MDM commands, which normally get processed as soon as they reach the inbox, stay in the Inbox as SMSes (format: SMOBILE:40 Alphanumeric Characters:6-10 digit number. For example: SMOBILE:73bcec60af032d6925a43530dd442a6346f5031e:1338188047).

Note: Sprint (Service Provider) has enabled Google Voice for all their Android Phones. For more information, refer to the following link:

Sprint + Google Voice Integration Officially Goes Live For The Masses

Also, as Junos Pulse does not have access to the Inbox, the SMS Monitoring functionality, which is a part of the Monitor and Control feature, will stop working.

Presently, there are two ways to resolve this issue:

• Disable Google voice – By doing this, the SMS(es) can be intercepted by Junos Pulse and the corresponding command(s) will be executed. Note that this is the only solution for Android Phones that have Junos Pulse Versions below 4.x.
• On Junos Pulse Versions 4.x or later, you can configure C2DM (Cloud to Device Messaging) to send the Push Commands, as opposed to sending MDM commands as SMSes. This way, the Push commands will be intercepted and processed by the Junos Pulse application (you do not have to disable Google Voice).