Android Studio: Build another instance of application for testing

Question

I have my android application (created in Android Studio) installed on my mobile device. I need to install another instance of this application (for testing on staging server, not production) with a few small fixes - such as url paths.

I know that two applications on a device cannot have the same java package, so what is the best way to solve it?

Answer 1

For use product flavors for this.

Each product flavor can have different applicationId:

android {
    …
    productFlavors {
        prod {
            applicationId "com.example.myapp"
        }
        stage {
            applicationId "com.example.myapp.stage"
        }
    }
}

Or you can add applicationIdSuffix to a flavor:

android {
    …
    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.example.myapp"
    }
    productFlavors {
        prod {
        }
        stage {
            applicationIdSuffix ".stage"
        }
    }
}

It's also useful if you want to be able to install both release and debug:

android {
    buildTypes {
        debug {
            applicationIdSuffix ".debug"
        }
    }
}

If you use it in both product flavor and build type, it will be chained, product flavor goes before build type. In this example suffix for fullDebug variant would be ".stage.debug".