Last updated: Sep 11, 2026, 4:44 PM
See what Toast Guardian does to protect your Toast devices, manage apps, and keep software current.
Toast Guardian is a system app that comes installed on every Toast device. It works in the background as Toast's light-weight Mobile Device Management (MDM) tool, keeping devices secure, up to date, and running only approved software. Toast Guardian requires no setup from anyone at the restaurant — it starts working automatically once a device is set up for the first time.
Toast Guardian protects and manages every device it runs on in four ways.
Toast Guardian helps keep Toast devices compliant with Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. It blocks apps that Toast has not approved from installing on the device, which protects your restaurant, your team, and your guests from harmful or malicious software that could put payment data or daily operations at risk.
Toast Guardian installs Toast POS automatically during device setup and supports updates to it over time. It enforces a minimum required version of the apps on the device and supports removal of any app that is not approved by Toast.
Toast Guardian supports the remote visibility of device-level information such as model and software version, so you can see these fields in Device Hub and leverage them if a device needs troubleshooting.
Toast Guardian supports device profiles that enable features such as Lock Task mode, which locks a device to a single app for guest-facing or kiosk use.
You can have Toast relax Toast Guardian's restrictions so you can install your own third-party Android applications on your Toast devices. Devices set up this way are called self-managed devices (SMD).
To relax Toast Guardian restrictions on your devices review Self-Managed Devices Overview for device eligibility and your full responsibilities before requesting the change.