Release to a share of users first

How to do it

Apple's phased release reaches all users over 7 days, from 1% on day one to 100% on day seven. You can pause it for up to 30 days in total. Anyone can still download the update by hand, so phased release lowers risk but does not hide the update. On Google Play, set the release to inProgress with a userFraction, such as 0.05, and raise it in steps. Setting the status to halted stops new installs. The general method is in release to a small share first. The rates that stop a rollout come from stay under the store's crash and freeze limits.

Examples

Python example

edit = service.edits().insert(packageName=PACKAGE, body={}).execute()
service.edits().tracks().update(
    packageName=PACKAGE, editId=edit["id"], track="production",
    body={"releases": [{"versionCodes": [VERSION_CODE], "status": "halted", "userFraction": 0.05}]},
).execute()
service.edits().commit(packageName=PACKAGE, editId=edit["id"]).execute()

TypeScript example

const edit = await play.edits.insert({ packageName: PACKAGE });
await play.edits.tracks.update({
  packageName: PACKAGE, editId: edit.data.id, track: 'production',
  requestBody: { releases: [{ versionCodes: [VERSION_CODE], status: 'halted', userFraction: 0.05 }] },
});
await play.edits.commit({ packageName: PACKAGE, editId: edit.data.id });

How to check

Every production release in the last 90 days started below 100% of users on both stores. A script can halt the Play rollout and is tried once a quarter on an internal app.

Sources

• Apple, Release a version update in phases
• Google Play Developer API, tracks

Related rules

• Release to a small share first in Engineering
• Stay under the store's crash and freeze limits in Mobile apps