How to have both Debug and Release apk on same device?

Question

While continuing to develop my application and test it on a real phone, I need to have the release version of it on the same phone, for demonstration purposes (the release version is much more responsive, thanks to no-logs).

The problem is that the only way to make two applications co-exist on the same device in Android is by having different package names.

But package names require re-factoring and lots of propagating manual fixes... not to mention that this confuses version control...

Ideally, Eclipse+ADT would allow appending a modifier variable that would automatically generate a different package name for debug/release and would allow such co-existence, but I couldn't find any mechanism that allows doing that.

Do you know of any way to workaround this?

Creative solutions and ideas are welcome.

Marian Paździoch · Answer 1 · 2018-02-07T11:25:21.603

24

Use Android Studio because gradle make your life a lot easier - just use applicationIdSuffix

android {  
   ...  
   buildTypes {  
     release {...}  
     debug {  
       applicationIdSuffix '.debug' 
     }  
   }  
}

For more go here.

edited Feb 07 '18 at 11:25

answered Feb 27 '15 at 08:38

Marian Paździoch

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How to automatically update "package_name" in the google-services.json file? – Divyang M Jun 29 '22 at 20:07
This however breaks any third party services checking for the app bundle identifier, like Google Sign In – Paranoid Android Jul 31 '23 at 15:07
@ParanoidAndroid please be more specific - how it breaks it? – Marian Paździoch Aug 14 '23 at 06:00
@MarianPaździoch For example with Google Sign-In, the OAuth2 client ID created can only be associated with a single bundle ID. Adding .debug will break that. – Paranoid Android Aug 14 '23 at 09:36

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 07 '11 at 14:43

2

The only way I know is to change the package name in your applications manifest file. Eclipse should handle all the code renaming for you.

answered Sep 07 '11 at 14:43

Caner

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Wow! That almost worked. I appended a 'd' at the end of the package name in the manifest file, cleaned the project to rebuild and Eclipse didn't complain at all. I happily proceeded to running it but then it "force-closed". It turns out that my application uses reflection (class factory) and Android didn't like the discrepancy between the manifest's package name and the .java package name at all. +1 for getting so close. – an00b Sep 07 '11 at 17:49
if your release build has proguard obfuscation activated, and if you added some custom _rules_ to proguard.cfg, those might contain package name too. Also if you created custom View widgets and added them in some XML layout, they also are named with package. – superjos Dec 16 '11 at 17:32

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 07 '11 at 14:51

2

Could you put all your code in a Library Project and then just have two normal projects, that have different package names and just include the library project in both?

This should keep all your code in one place. The normal projects would most likely only need a valid manifest file that points to the activities in the library project.

answered Sep 07 '11 at 14:51

mcnicholls

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The Library Project has debug logging, too... (IOW, a Library Project requires conditional building just like the application). This solution doesn't work for me but +1 for the creative suggestion. – an00b Sep 07 '11 at 17:39

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 14 '15 at 11:44

0

In Android Studio, Adding build variants using Product Flavours which can be easily customized for various environments and to test side by side multiple app variants of same app. Check out this link for more information - Configuring Gradle

answered Aug 14 '15 at 11:44

Fenil

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score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

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You may want to try this technique using ant, Jenkins and perhaps other tools to automate package renames as suggested by @LAS_VEGAS.

Although not what you asked for, this cool code snippet can help you find out at runtime whether your code is debug or release.

Another interesting such attempt can be found in this thread. I am not sure though if it works on Android.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

Community

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answered Jan 26 '12 at 22:59

Bill The Ape

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How to have both Debug and Release apk on same device?

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