Setting up Mote for iOS in the Google Admin console

Mote for iOS gives students on iPads and iPhones Read Aloud, Scan Text, Translation, and the Writer without needing a Chromebook. This article is for Google Workspace admins. It explains why students may be unable to sign in to the app with Google, and how to approve it in the Google Admin console.

Mote for iOS is a separate app in Google's eyes from the Mote Chrome Extension and the Mote website. If your school or district approved Mote for students in the past, that approval does not cover the iOS app, so it needs its own.

How to tell if this applies to you

The usual pattern is that staff can sign in to Mote for iOS but students cannot, even though the same students can sign in to Mote on the web. That is because Google Workspace for Education can block users designated as under 18 from signing in to third-party apps that an admin has not configured. Whether it does depends on your domain's setting for unconfigured third-party apps, under Security > Access and data control > API controls > Settings. Some domains let under-18 users sign in to unconfigured apps that only ask for basic sign-in information, and in those domains Mote for iOS works without any setup. If yours does not, follow the steps below. Adult accounts are usually not affected.

When a student taps Continue with Google, recent versions of the app show a screen headed Your school hasn't approved Mote yet, with a Copy details button the student or teacher can use to send the technical details to IT. The message from Google behind that screen is:

You can't access this app until an admin at your institution reviews and configures access for it.

Nothing is wrong with the student's Mote account or your plan when this happens. Google turns the sign-in away before it reaches Mote.

Before you start

You need a Google Workspace admin account that can change API controls. Mote for iOS uses two Google client IDs, and both may need approving:

  • 590219475849-80hkmb14s9b3o254i6pvgejn88jli7tb.apps.googleusercontent.com
  • 590219475849-j2uidhnl0h0hkfh6u8958r6n1r9g95cm.apps.googleusercontent.com

Search by client ID, not by name. Searching for "Mote" is likely to bring up the Mote app you have already approved for the web, which is a different entry.

Step 1: Approve Mote for iOS in App Access Control

  1. In the Admin console, go to Security > Access and data control > API controls, then click Manage App Access. If you are signed in as an admin, this link takes you straight there.
  2. Click Configure new app.
  3. Paste the first client ID from the list above, click Search, and select the app from the results.
  4. Choose the organizational units the setting applies to. Leave the top-level unit selected to cover everyone, or pick the units that contain your students.
  5. Under Access to Google data, select Trusted.
  6. Click Continue, review the summary, then click Finish.
  7. Repeat steps 2 to 6 for the second client ID.

Mote for iOS only asks Google for what it needs to sign a user in: their email address and basic profile information.

Step 2: Get the app onto student devices

Mote for iOS is a free download, listed on the App Store as Mote - Read Aloud & Writer. It needs iOS 17 or later. Students can install it themselves, or you can push it to managed iPads through your MDM in the same way as any other App Store app.

Step 3: Check that it worked

  1. Ask a student, or use a test account in a student organizational unit, to open Mote on an iPad.
  2. Tap Continue with Google and choose the school account.

If the student still sees the "hasn't approved" screen, give it a little time, as Google says changes can take up to 24 hours to apply, though it is usually much quicker. Then check that both client IDs are set to Trusted and that the student's organizational unit is covered.

Do we need a separate license for iOS?

No. Mote for iOS is included in your school or district plan, and it applies as soon as a student or teacher signs in with their school account. See What is free and what needs a plan for how plans work in the app.

Each Mote product is approved separately in the Admin console. If your students also use Mote PDF, see Setting up Mote PDF in the Google Admin console. For Mote on the web and in Chrome, see Help, students can't log in to Mote using Google and How to install the Mote Chrome Extension from the Google Admin console.

For what students see when they sign in, see Signing in to Mote on iPhone or iPad. Our privacy and data protection commitments are at mote.com/privacy.

If students still cannot sign in after this, email support@mote.com with the details copied from the app and we will check our logs.

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