Use pre-launch reports to identify issues

To generate a pre-launch report when you upload an APK to the alpha or beta channel, follow the steps below. To opt in, you'll need the "manage alpha & beta APKs" permission.

1. Sign in to your Google Play Developer Console.
2. Select an app.
3. On the left menu, select Pre-launch report.
4. At the bottom of the page, select Opt in.

Once you have opted in, upload and publish an alpha or beta APK to generate your pre-launch report.

All your future published alpha or beta APKs will automatically be tested for device compatibility, display issues, and security vulnerabilities.

Notes:

• You'll usually receive test results shortly after uploading your APK. In some cases, you'll receive results several hours after upload.
• You can test APKs for multiple apps at the same time.
• If you uploaded your alpha or beta APK with the Publishing API, you won't receive a pre-launch report.
• Currently, the pre-launch report devices can't bypass sign-in screens or run scripted tests on your app(s). To run scripted tests, follow the instructions under "Create a custom test with Firebase Test Lab for Android."

With Firebase Test Lab, you can pay to select your device type and testing method to create custom tests. Custom test results will be available in your Firebase console.

To run a custom test:

1. Sign in to your Google Play Developer Console.
2. Select an app.
3. Select Pre-launch report.
4. At the top of your screen, you'll see "Run Custom Tests" if you're able to run a custom test. To begin, select Get started.

Each test summary includes the number of:

• Devices with issues
• Devices without issues
• Devices tested

Compare to other builds

The chart on your app's Crashes tab shows your APK's compatibility compared to previous builds.

Each bar represents a recent tested build of your alpha/beta APK, along with the number of successful and failed launches found during testing.

View individual reports

Near the bottom half of your app's Crashes tab, you can view individual reports from devices running different versions of Android.

On each line, you'll see the name of the testing device, the device's Android version, and an icon showing whether your app had any testing issues.

• If a device had issues during testing, you'll see a red icon.
• If there weren't any issues during testing, you'll see a green check mark.

Select a test to see more details, like the device's name, operating system, test duration, a screenshot and video from testing, and stack traces (if available).

Each test summary includes:

• Images that show how your app appears across test devices in different languages (to see more images for a device, select the arrows )
• Metadata about the tested devices (including the model name, Android version, language, screen resolution, & DPI)
• The number of devices with screenshots
• The number of devices that couldn't be tested with your APK
  • Devices unavailable: Your APK is compatible with these devices but there was an issue during testing. If your test had any unavailable devices, you might want to upload another alpha or beta APK and test again.
  • Devices incompatible with your APK: Your APK is incompatible with certain test devices. If you test again, you won't receive results for any incompatible devices.

Each test summary includes the name and description of any security vulnerabilities found in your APK.

Note: We recommend you take action on any security vulnerabilities that are listed before publishing your APK to production.

If your app opens directly to a sign-in screen with required credentials (app-specific, social media), you may get limited results since test devices can't skip these screens during testing.

To run more complete tests of your app, you can publish an alpha or beta APK with a sign-in button that allows a test device to continue testing your app with a single click.

For example, you could publish an alpha APK with a "Sign in using test account" button that loads your app with preloaded account information.

Test devices are located in the United States. If your app uses geolocation or has content restrictions based on country, test devices can only show what's available in their location.

If your app requires a particular geolocation outside of where test devices are located, you can publish an alpha or beta APK that removes location requirements for testing purposes.

Test devices aren't able to make purchases during testing. If your app offers subscriptions or in-app products to access some parts of your app, testing scenarios may be limited.

Test devices aren't able to run tests on apps without a main launch activity, including launchers, widgets, keyboards, and watch faces.

For details on how to mitigate fraudulent ad revenue with automated app testing, review the Google Developers site.

Our device set is limited to ARM devices. An x86 APK will be shown as incompatible with all test devices.

Our device set is limited to phones and tablets, so it's not possible to test apps directly on Android Wear, Auto, or TV. Our device set also doesn't include devices with Android versions older than 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean).

Our automated crawler can't identify UI elements on apps using OpenGL/Unity3D. The test results would be limited to a test launching the app and closing it after a few seconds.

The test platform doesn't support pre-loading devices with media or pre-installed apps.

If you want to run tests on an app with pre-loaded data, you can publish an alpha or beta version of your app with your media files embedded in its APK.

If your app uses Google Play licensing services, your app won't properly identify the users on our devices and you will get limited results.

To run tests on those apps, you can publish an alpha or beta version of your app with licensing services disabled for testing purposes.

The test devices are predefined to run tests on fixed portrait page orientation by default, which may force apps using landscape orientation into portrait mode.

The test platform doesn't support apps with a total OBB size (core + patch) larger than 1GB.

The test platform doesn't support apps that check whether a device has privileged control (root access) on Android.