You can use release groups to stagger rollouts, pilot features to a subset of approved merchants, and A/B test a feature across two or more groups of merchants.

Before you begin

Be aware that when you publish your APK, you are making it available to all merchants, even if the APK is part of a Release Group.

For your approved Android apps, you can release new app versions to a release group of merchants. Their existing subscription tiers continue to be used for billing unless they select a different tier after upgrading their APK.

Any merchants in the release group are upgraded to the APK in the group that has the highest version code. As long as this beta override APK has a higher version code than the APK they currently have installed, the Clover app updater installs the beta APK on their system.

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TIPS

1. As with any release, allow time for your merchants' devices to sync and download new versions.
2. If you're asking merchants to test an older version of your APK, have them first uninstall the app, and then install the version of the app you want them to test.

Prerequisites

1. Create and upload your APK, then submit the APK for approval.
2. After the APK is approved, create and manage your release group.

1. Create release groups

You can create and manage release groups from the Release Groups page on your Developer Dashboard. You can view the list of created release groups along with the list of APKs associated with each group.

To create a release group:

1. Log in to the Developer Dashboard.
2. From the left navigation, click Release Groups. The Release Groups page appears.
3. Click New Release Group. The New Release Group page appears.
4. Enter a release group name and select APKs for apps that you want to associate with this group. The list of APKs is auto-generated based on the approved and published APKs you have for each app.
5. Click Save. The Release Group details page appears. On this page, you can add and manage APKs. An APK installs on merchant devices that already have a lower version of that APK.

2. Add APKs to release groups

1. Log in to the Developer Dashboard.
2. From the left navigation, click Release Groups. The Release Groups page appears.
3. Click the release group for which you want to add merchants. The Release Groups details page appears.
4. Click Add APKs. The Add APKs page appears.
5. Select APKs for apps that you want to associate with this group.
6. Click Save. The added APKs display in the list of APKs on the Release Group details page.

3. Remove APKs from a release group

Removing an APK from a release group prevents the APK from installing for any merchants you subsequently add to the release group. However, this does not remove the APK from merchant devices that already have that version installed.

To remove an APK from a release group, click the delete icon for that APK on the Release Group details page.

4. Add merchants to release groups

On the Release Group details page, you can add and manage merchants either by percentage or by specific merchant identifiers (merchantId). Merchants must have your app installed to be eligible to be part of a release group. The merchant list is available on the Installs page on the Developer Dashboard.

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NOTE

To add merchants to a release group:

1. Log in to the Developer Dashboard.
2. From the left navigation, click Release Groups. The Release Groups page appears.
3. Click the release group for which you want to add merchants. The Release Groups details page appears.
4. Click Add Merchants. The Add Merchants page appears.

You can add merchants using random segments or by specific merchant identifiers (merchantId).

4.1 Add random segments for staged rollouts

You can add merchants to your release group randomly based on the APK version either for a number or a percentage of merchants. This feature is useful when you want to perform staged rollouts.

1. On the Add Merchants page, under Add Random Segment, select A number of merchants or A percentage of merchants from the list.
2. Enter a number or percentage in the field.
3. Select the APK version from the Select Version list. This list is generated from the list of APKs associated with this release group.
4. Select the Billable Merchants Only option to limit the list of merchants to only those that are billable.
5. To add more conditions based on the Clover devices that merchants have, click Add Condition and then select a condition from the Select Condition list. To add more conditions, click Add Condition again and then repeat step 5.
6. Click Save. The list of selected merchants appears on the release group details page.

For example, create a release group containing 10% of your app's subscribers. After confirming that no issues are detected within the group, add 50% of your subscribers to the group. Once you feel confident about the new version, publish the app and delete the release group.

4.2 Add specific merchants

You can add merchants to your release group based on the APK version either for a number or a percentage of merchants. This feature is useful when you want to push a version of your APK to a specific list of merchants.

1. On the Add Merchants page, under Add Specific Merchants, search for merchants by name or the merchantId.
   Note: The merchantId is listed under the merchant's name on the Installs page on the Developer Dashboard.
2. To add merchants in bulk, click Upload CSV and then upload a .csv file of Clover merchantIds. The added merchants are listed on the Add Merchants page.
3. Click Save. The list of selected merchants appears on the release group details page.

5. Delete a release group

To delete a release group, you must first disassociate all of the APKs associated with that group.

1. If you have associated APKs with the release group, click Disassociate all APKS on the Release Group details page.
2. Once you disassociate all the APKs in the group, click the delete icon at the top of the page.
3. Confirm whether you want to delete the release group.