In the short time since becoming generally available for the Citrix Workspace app for Windows and Mac, service continuity has been enabled by hundreds of customers, with “connection leases” being successfully synced on thousands of devices.

This hardly comes as a surprise, considering its core offering of increased reliability for virtual app and desktop launches. In essence, service continuity ensures users can access business-critical apps even in an unexpected outage of Citrix Workspace, your identity service, cloud broker, .ICA file generation service, and, in some cases, even in an internet outage!

We recently also announced GA for the Citrix Workspace app 2109 for Linux and added support for Workspace for Web when running on Chrome/Edge with the Citrix Workspace app 2109 for Windows.

Citrix is committed to providing the best possible experience across platforms for its wide and varied customer base, and we’re excited to share that service continuity is now available as a preview for the Citrix Workspace app for Android. This preview is available for Citrix Workspace app for Android 21.9.5 onward.

What does service continuity for Android look like?

Service continuity for mobile platforms is similar to what customers are already used to. Let’s dive into the different scenarios a user might encounter:

The user opens the Citrix Workspace app during an outage

In this scenario, the user enters “offline mode,” as shown in the image below.

The screen contains the “offline banner” to ensure that the end user understands the screen they are viewing is expected. In this mode, apps and desktops that can be accessed during this outage are available to the user. All other apps and desktops are greyed out. This includes web and SaaS apps, as well. The user can launch any Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service application and continue their work even during the outage!

The banner also has a link to “Reconnect to Workspace,” which, when clicked, attempts to reconnect. If the outage is persistent, the user will continue to be in “offline mode.”

Launching an app/desktop during an outage

Virtual apps and desktops during an outage are launched via files called “connection leases” instead of .ICA files. This, for the most part, is transparent to the user. However, one key difference is that the user is prompted for authentication before being able to access that app/desktop.

Once the user enters their credentials, they can continue working normally.

An outage occurs while the user is using the Citrix Workspace app

In this scenario, the app first tries an .ICA file-based launch. If that fails, it falls back to a connection lease-based launch to ensure the user can continue working. Since it is now a connection lease-based launch, the user is prompted for credentials, as when launching an app/desktop during an outage.

Get Started Today

Fill out this form to get started today with our service continuity for Android preview. We will add your cloud store to our allowed list, and you will be able to view an additional setting in the menu titled Service Continuity. We recommend that you add your test stores for testing.

Learn more about service continuity today, and if you have any questions, contact the product team at servicecontinuity@citrix.com