Shipping and Launch

Overview

"Ship with confidence. Deploy safely, with monitoring, rollback plan ready." Shipping isn't just uploading an AAB — it's verifying that everything is production-ready, staging the rollout, monitoring for issues, and having a rollback plan if things go wrong.

When to Use

• Before any release to Play Store (internal, alpha, beta, production)
• Before any release via Firebase App Distribution
• When promoting from one release track to another
• After a hotfix that needs expedited release

Skip when: Not releasing (local development only).

Core Process

Step 1: Pre-Launch Checklist

1. Code Quality:

# All tests pass
./gradlew test
./gradlew connectedAndroidTest

# Build succeeds
./gradlew bundleRelease

# No lint errors
./gradlew lint

# Formatting is consistent
./gradlew spotlessCheck

# Static analysis passes
./gradlew detekt

2. Manual code checks:
   • No TODO or FIXME without issue references
   • No Log.d() or Log.v() calls in production code (use ProGuard to strip)
   • No hardcoded strings in UI (use stringResource)
   • No BuildConfig.DEBUG-gated features shipping to production
   • Feature flags for incomplete features are OFF
3. Security (see security-and-hardening):
   • No secrets in source code
   • Network Security Config enforces HTTPS
   • Certificate pinning configured
   • ProGuard/R8 enabled for release build
   • android:debuggable not set in release manifest
   • Dependency vulnerability scan clean
4. Performance (see performance-optimization):
   • Android Vitals targets met (startup < 500ms, jank < 5%)
   • APK/AAB size within budget
   • Baseline Profiles included
   • No ANR-prone patterns (main thread blocking)
   • Images optimized (WebP, proper sizing)
5. Accessibility (see android-accessibility):
   • TalkBack tested on all screens
   • Accessibility Scanner reports zero critical issues
   • Touch targets >= 48dp
   • Color contrast meets standards
   • Content descriptions on all meaningful elements
6. Infrastructure:
   • Signing configuration correct (release keystore)
   • Environment-specific configs correct (API URLs, feature flags)
   • Crashlytics/error monitoring configured
   • Firebase Performance Monitoring enabled
   • Analytics events verified
7. Documentation:
   • Release notes written
   • Play Store listing updated (screenshots, description)
   • ADRs written for significant changes
   • Internal changelog updated

Step 2: Staged Rollout

8. Rollout progression:

Internal Testing (Play Store internal track)
  → Verified by team
    ↓
Closed Alpha (Play Store alpha track)
  → Verified by internal testers + QA
    ↓
Open Beta (Play Store beta track)
  → Verified by beta users (wider audience)
    ↓
Production (staged rollout)
  → 1% → 5% → 25% → 50% → 100%

9. Staged rollout with Play Store:

Day 0: Release to 1% of users
  → Monitor Crashlytics, ANR rate, user feedback
Day 1: If clean → expand to 5%
  → Check Play Console Android Vitals
Day 3: If clean → expand to 25%
  → Review user reviews and ratings
Day 5: If clean → expand to 50%
Day 7: If clean → expand to 100%

10. Decision thresholds:

Error Budget Release Gate

The thresholds above decide whether this rollout continues; the error budget decides whether you should be starting a rollout at all. Set a stability SLO — typically crash-free users (e.g. 99.5%) plus user-perceived crash and ANR rates below the Play bad-behavior thresholds (1.09% / 0.47%, see observability-and-instrumentation). The budget is the gap between the SLO and reality over a 28-day window, the same window Play Vitals uses:

// SLO 99.5% crash-free users → 0.5% of users may crash in 28 days
fun budgetRemaining(sloCrashFree: Double, actualCrashFree28d: Double): Double {
    val allowed = 1.0 - sloCrashFree          // 0.005
    val consumed = 1.0 - actualCrashFree28d   // e.g. 0.003 at 99.7% crash-free
    return ((allowed - consumed) / allowed).coerceAtLeast(0.0)  // 0.4 → 40% left
}

Use it as an objective gate, not a negotiation:

Budget remaining > 20%   →  Normal staged rollout (1% → 5% → 25% → 50% → 100%)
Budget remaining 0–20%   →  Slow rollouts only: smaller steps, longer bake per step,
                            no high-risk changes (migrations, SDK upgrades, rewrites)
Budget exhausted         →  Freeze feature releases; ship only stability fixes
Play Vitals threshold    →  Treat as exhausted — Play may already be reducing
  breached                  store visibility, so every release must lower the rate
Budget recovers          →  Resume normal pace; keep the fix that recovered it

Burn rate during rollout: a crash or ANR rate on the newest version that is rising faster than the previous version's baseline is a halt signal (Play Console → Halt rollout), even while every row in the thresholds table is still green. The mobile twist makes the gate stricter than on a server: you cannot roll back an installed binary. Remediation is halt plus hotfix forward, or a Remote Config kill switch (see Step 4) — so budget spent at 25% rollout stays spent until users take the next update.

Step 3: Feature Flag Management

11. Feature flag lifecycle:

Created (disabled) → Enabled (internal) → Canary (5%) →
Expanded (25%) → Full (100%) → Removed (cleanup)

12. Before shipping:
    • Verify all feature flags are in expected state
    • Remove flags for fully-rolled-out features (tech debt)
    • Document flag state in release notes

Step 4: Rollback Plan

13. Always have a rollback strategy:

## Rollback Plan

### Option 1: Halt Staged Rollout
- In Play Console → Release → Production → Halt rollout
- Users who haven't updated keep the old version
- Already-updated users keep the new version (no downgrade)

### Option 2: Emergency Hotfix
- Create `hotfix/1.2.1` branch from `release/1.2.0`
- Apply minimal fix
- Fast-track through CI → Internal → Production (100%)

### Option 3: Feature Flag Kill Switch
- Disable the problematic feature via Firebase Remote Config
- Users get the update but broken feature is hidden
- Fastest response time (no new build needed)

Step 5: Post-Launch Monitoring

14. First 24 hours after launch:
    • Crashlytics — new crash types?
    • ANR rate — within threshold?
    • Firebase Performance — startup time, network latency?
    • Play Console — user reviews, ratings?
    • Error monitoring — new error patterns?
    • Critical user flows — working end-to-end?
15. First 7 days:
    • Android Vitals in Play Console — all green?
    • Staged rollout expanded on schedule?
    • Feature flag cleanup scheduled?
    • Retro/post-mortem if issues occurred

Step 6: Play Store Requirements

16. Play Store checklist:
    • Target SDK meets Play Store requirements (the latest stable API level — new apps and updates must target API 36+ from Aug 31, 2026; check the current deadline at developer.android.com/google/play/requirements/target-sdk)
    • 16 KB page-size compliance verified if the app ships native libraries (required since Nov 2025 for apps targeting Android 15+; needs NDK r28+ / AGP 8.5.1+)
    • Edge-to-edge rendering verified (enforced for apps targeting Android 15+; no statusBarColor/navigationBarColor reliance)
    • Privacy policy URL set
    • Data safety form completed
    • Content rating questionnaire completed
    • App signing by Google Play enabled
    • AAB format (not APK) for new apps
    • Deobfuscation mapping file uploaded (R8/ProGuard)
    • Release notes in all supported languages

Common Rationalizations

Red Flags

• No staged rollout (0% to 100% in one step)
• No rollback plan documented
• No monitoring configured before launch
• Log.d calls in release builds
• Hardcoded debug URLs shipping to production
• Feature flags in unknown state
• No Play Store compliance check
• Missing deobfuscation mapping file upload
• Launching on Friday (no monitoring over weekend)
• Error budget exhausted (or a Vitals threshold breached) but feature releases continue unchanged
• No stability SLO defined, so "is it safe to ship?" is decided by mood

Verification

• Pre-launch checklist complete (quality, security, performance, accessibility)
• Release build signed with production keystore
• Staged rollout plan defined
• Error budget checked against the 28-day stability SLO, and the rollout pace matches the gate (normal / slow / stability-fixes-only)
• Rollback strategy documented
• Monitoring configured (Crashlytics, Performance, Analytics)
• Play Store requirements met
• Release notes written
• Team aware of launch timeline
• Post-launch monitoring plan in place