Can I Install Different Google Play Tracks On The Same Device At The Same Time?

We want to manage different environments for our app on the Google Play Store. The developer console provides the option to setup different tracks. (Internal, Open...) Now i was wo

Solution 1:

You can't do this, unfortunately. Android identifies apps using the package name. Different package names mean the apps are installed separately, whereas the same name means the app will (try to) install over the existing one. On the play store, each track (internal, etc.) has the same package name so you can't install these apps side by side.

One possible solution is to set up another app with a different name (probably using productFlavors and the applicationIdSuffix setting in build.gradle). You could then distribute that app either through a different non-public app in the play store, or using something like app centre that's designed for this kind of app delivery for QA purposes.