Staged rollout with multiple APKs

Question

I have the following situation. We have two in production APKs:

1. Version 3.0.21 (API Level 7+)
2. Version 2.14.2 (API Level 3+)

I want to publish a staged-rollout update for the 3.0 APK. So I:

1. Opened the dev console in advanced mode
2. Uploaded my new draft APK to Production

Now I have three APKs:

1. 3.0.22 (API Level 7+)
2. 3.0.21 (API Level 7+)
3. 2.14.2 (API Level 3+)

However, this configuration isn't valid. It says "all devices that might receive version 30021 would receive version 30022.". The "Publish staged rollout button" is disabled.

To proceed, I have to deactivate the 3.0.21 version, which results in this:

1. 3.0.22 (API Level 7+)
2. 2.14.2 (API Level 3+)

This feels wrong. What happens to the current users of 3.0.21 when I publish as a staged rollout? Will they get downgraded to the 2.14 app if they aren't part of the staged rollout, or will the 3.0.21 APK still be served?

To me it sounds like 3.0.21 will be completely unpublished. Maybe I'm just misinterpretting the information. See below:

Answer 1

I had the exact same situation as you and the exact same thoughts. However, I dared to go on with publishing the changes.

When I now go to the crashes and anrs I see that it still calls my existing versions (your 2.14.2 and 3.0.21) as "Current production" + it has my new version (your 3.0.22) as "Staged rollout". So from that it all seems to be good.

I also just got confirmed that people see the existing newest version (your 3.0.21) in Play Store (and that some people see the version being rolled out (your 3.0.22)).

So I think it's safe to do a multi APK rollout like this. :)