Converting Chromeboxes Using Kiosk app to a PWA (Progressive Web App) player

In January 2020, Google announced a phased approach for ending support of Chrome Apps. Support for Chrome Apps will end in the first half of 2022. This includes the application used to drive digital signage applications and the management console that is used to provision your players for a signage network. In response, Korbyt is announcing the end-of-life support for Google Chrome players, effective February 2022.

In order to avoid potential disruption in service, all customers who use Korbyt on digital signage players using Chrome OS will need to migrate to a new player. To get started, customers should contact Customer Support to discuss the resolution and being the migration process.

Steps in Provisioning Chrome OS Replacement Players

To begin the process the first step is to convert the affected devices from a Kiosk player to a PWA player. This will require the help of a Korbyt support agent as the players will need to be rebooted from the Google Administration Console behind the scenes (which only Korbyt can do for you) to display a new provisioning token.

All players to be converted must have an Active status in the Korbyt CMS’s player’s tab. A physical reboot may be necessary to reconnect the player on the network to become Active.
The new PWA players will need to be provisioned into the player’s tab in the Korbyt Anywhere CMS.
1. The players will need to be renamed if you are using a previous naming convention.
2. Since there cannot be 2 players with the same name the original (Chrome OS enabled) players need to be renamed. A simple ‘-old’ can be added at the end of the player’s name.
Once the new PWA players have been provisioned and renamed the content from the original players will need to be scheduled.
1. Any metadata and tagging if used on the original players will need to be added to the new PWA player
Once the conversion has been completed the original players need to be deleted from the player’s tab in the Korbyt CMS.