Install another build in the same session

Why: a bug shows up in the release candidate, and you want to know whether production had it too. Or you need to check that an update from the store version doesn’t lose the user’s cart. Both are one switch away.

What happens

1. Click the app’s name and icon in the session header. Switch version opens.
2. It lists every build with the same application ID that the device runs, from every source, with its branch, uploader and age. Search by version, branch or uploader.
3. Decide about Keep app data:
   • on (the default): the build is installed over the current one, upgrade or downgrade. The app keeps its sign-in and data, so you see how its storage migrates;
   • off: the current build and its data are removed first, as on a fresh device.
4. Click the build you need. The same device installs it, and the header shows the new version.

Good to know

• The device, its settings and your other changes stay: country, network, language, the clipboard. Only the app changes.
• Going down with data kept tests a downgrade, which many apps don’t support: their database may refuse to open. The list marks such builds.
• To compare two builds side by side, launch a second session instead.

If it doesn’t work

• “It is signed with a different key”: Android won’t install a build over one signed by someone else (for example a debug build over a release one). Turn off Keep app data and install it cleanly.
• The install failed: the previous build keeps running, nothing is lost. The message says why.
• The build isn’t in the list: it has another application ID (a .debug suffix, say), so it’s a different app for Android. Launch it from the Apps page.

More details: Sessions and slots.