Beta Testing on Android
Minimum requirements
- Android 8.1 (API level 27) or above
Getting your Android phone ready for Beta Testing
The google account used on your Android phone must have the same email address as the one that was used to sign up to the PetPocketbook beta testing program. If you signed up for beta testing using an email address that does not match the google account that you use for the Google Play Store app, please let us know so we can update your beta testing email address.
How to check your email address: On your Android device that you will use for beta testing, open the Google Play Store app and click on the round user avatar image in the upper right corner to check which google account you are logged into.
Joining the PetPocketbook Beta Testing Program
While viewing this page on your Android phone, click on this activate invitation link to be redirected to the screen where you can accept the invitation.
If you have been accepted to be a beta tester for PetPocketbook on Android, you should see the following screen. Click on "Accept Invite".
⚠ If you do not see this screen, please refer to the Troubleshooting section towards the the bottom of this guide.
You should see a confirmation screen with a green checkmark to indicate you have joined the beta testing. Click on the blue "download it on Google Play" link.
The Google Play Store app will open up to the "PetPocketbook (Internal Early Access)" screen. Click on the "Install" button to download the beta app on your device.
Once the beta app is downloaded and installed on your Android phone, you will see the app as "PetPocketbook" and it will have a two-number badge in the middle of the app icon to indicate this is a beta app.
Example app icon:
Installing App Updates
We will notify you by email each time a new build is available. Clicking on the update link will redirect you to the Google Play Store app "PetPocketbook (Internal Early Access)" screen. Under the "What's new" section, there will be information on what needs to be tested and/or what changes have been made since the last build. Click on the "Update" button to update the app to the latest version.
⚠ If you do not see the "Update" button, it may be due to a delay in the app information on the Google Play Store being updated. First, please try clearing the cache as outlined in the Troubleshooting section towards the the bottom of this guide and see if the update becomes available. If the update is still not available, please wait 1-3 hours then try clearing the cache again before clicking on the update link again. If problems persist, please reach out to us at support!
Troubleshooting
Check that you are using the correct google account
You must be logged in with the google account that has the same email address as the one that was accepted into the beta testing.
Possible screens that you may see with this issue:
How to fix the issue:
- Open the Google Play Store app and make sure you are logged into the correct google account.
- Open the Chrome app and go to www.google.com. Make sure you are logged into the correct google account.
- Open the Chrome app and navigate to gmail.com. Open the email with the download/update link and click on the link to be redirected to the Google Play Store app.
Clear cache on the Google Play Store app
Sometimes, the Google Play Store app will read from cached information and you will see an old build (i.e. no update button is visible) even though a new build has been released and should be available for updating.
- First, fully close the Google Play Store app.
- Go to your phone's Settings → App Info (wording may vary depending on device) → Google Play Store app.
- Click on "Storage & cache" to see more options.
- Tap on "Clear cache".
- Open the email with the download/update link and click on the link to be redirected to the Google Play Store app again.
General Information about Beta Builds
Each version of the beta app you are given access to is referred to as a "build". The app icon has a rectangle that is split in half containing numbers. The build number is shown inside the blue half of the rectangle on the right side. In the example below, you can see the number 1 inside the blue half of the rectangle, indicating this is build number 1.
The build number does not always increment sequentially. For example, the next build might be 2 or it could be 35. This is not by error and you are not missing access to any builds in between.