We’ve put some effort into improving the self-service experience around notifications, so you can fine-tune exactly which messages go where (even to release-specific channels!). Here’s what that entails:
You can now enable or disable each type of notification Runway sends on a granular level. And, specific notification types can be directed to any channel of your choosing, overriding your overall, “Primary channel” selection.
We know many teams create release-specific channels for each release, and Runway now supports – and helps automate – that! If a channel setting in Runway includes the “{version}” pattern, Runway will resolve that to a channel name for each release, using the appropriate release version. Additionally, Runway can now automatically create those release-specific channels in Slack if they don’t already exist.
All channel selections, both “Primary channel” and any notification-specific overrides, now support multiple channels each. If you need certain updates surfaced in more than one place, enter multiple channels and Runway will send messages to all.
Custom Android staged rollouts
Many of our Android teams rely on Runway to automate their staged rollouts, and a common ask has been for customization of the default 7-day rollout schedule.
Now, you can customize your staged Android rollouts to suit your team’s needs! In “Release defaults” in your app’s settings, just specify the number of days in your rollout and define the rollout percentage for each day, and Runway will do the rest.
Now, new team members can create their own accounts on Runway! And, as long as their email domain matches one of the allowed domains associated with your organization, they’ll automatically be added to your Runway org. Sign in with Google and GitHub are also now available, helping you onboard even more smoothly. Note that if you have SSO/SAML configured, your new team members should continue signing up via that flow.
Firebase stability monitoring integration
We know many teams are using Firebase for crash reporting (RIP Crashlytics), so we’re excited to announce that we’ve finally added it as another one of our stability monitoring integrations in Runway! Google certainly doesn’t make things easy, since there’s no API, but it turns out a combination of BigQuery exports and Firebase Analytics data makes an integration possible. To guide you through setup, we've created detailed Firebase setup documentation.
Automatic dSYM download & upload
Say goodbye to the annoying dSYM download/upload dance! Runway can now automatically download dSYMs for all builds sent to App Store Connect and then upload those dSYMs to your stability monitoring platform. Currently available for our Sentry and Bugsnag integrations – we hope to add Firebase support soon.
Invite your team via email
To make the process of adding new team members even easier, you can now invite any number of people to join your organization in Runway. Each person will receive an email invite and will be immediately added to your org.
Docs
Although we do truly love interacting directly with you all and talking through questions and answers over Slack, we finally put together some documentation which should help address the most common questions and areas of confusion. Head to https://docs.runway.team and keep an eye out as we update and add to the content there!
We’ve made the stakeholder approval process a first class citizen within Runway – simply add items to your approvals list, optionally assign ownership roles, and let your team take it from there. Stakeholders can easily pop into Runway to flag or approve items for the release, and they can also leave comments on items if needed.
If an approval item does have an ownership role associated with it, only users with the appropriate role will be able to update its status. As your team works its way through approvals, everyone can stay on the same page thanks to real-time updates sent to your Slack channel.
Regression test cases
We know some of our teams have been using checklist items as a lightweight regression test scripting tool, so we expanded and formalized this usage by adding the ability to create and run through dedicated regression test cases. They have more relevant statuses (In Progress, Blocked, Failed, and Passed) and can also now be commented on.
Improved schedule rollover logic
We’ve loved seeing our teams using Runway’s release schedule feature to keep their release train moving and on-time. But we also know that off-schedule releases occasionally need to be slotted in, and that that can sometimes throw off the schedule on upcoming releases.
Now, if an unplanned release enters the picture, Runway will automatically shift scheduled dates for upcoming releases, however the situation demands. For example, if a hotfix release is slotted in and delays the next scheduled release, Runway will shift that release’s dates over to the next cycle. If a regular release is slotted in, Runway will automatically apply appropriate target dates to that new release according to your cadence, and shift the following release’s dates.
As a reminder, you can view your release’s target dates in the schedule module accessible at the top of any step.
Automation retries
Previously, Runway would attempt to perform your kickoff, submission and release automations only once; if Runway was unable to execute the automation for any reason, things would end there, and you’d have to proceed manually. Now, Runway will retry these key automations up to five times, and will notify you if things still ended in failure at the end of the retry cycle. You’ll notice a ‘Retrying...’ status on the automations tab if Runway is in the process of retrying your automation.
Runway can now monitor the stability of your releases and automatically pause a phased release or staged rollout if the stability of the update falls below your defined threshold.
Just define an acceptable delta value relative to your app’s average session stability, and rest easy knowing that if anything goes wrong, Runway will notify you and pause the rollout before any more of your users receive the buggy update.
Automatically accelerate stable phased releases
We know how important it is to get updates out to all of your users as quickly as possible – but only once your team is confident that the update is stable. Now, Runway can automatically accelerate your rollouts to 100% of users if the stability of the update stays above your app’s average session stability, and only once adoption hits a minimum percentage you define.
Improved hotfix flow
We know everyone’s goal is to avoid hotfixes entirely. But when you do need to do one, you want it to happen fast. We designed a quicker flow for preparing hotfix releases so you can get critical fixes out the door faster and with more confidence.
You can start a hotfix using the "Prepare new" dropdown on the main releases timeline. Runway will create the new release and immediately kick it off by cutting a hotfix branch from your live release’s tag and bumping the version on that branch.
Past releases on app Overview
Previously, the app Overview screen only displayed your live, next, and upcoming releases. Now, you can see a complete list of your past releases, along with reviews, stability information and key dates associated with each release.
Put your releases on a schedule, and let Runway take it from there. Choose your cadence frequency (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly), and configure your kickoff, submission, and release settings. Runway will automatically set target dates for upcoming releases as they approach and, with automated kickoff, submission and release enabled, you can finally run a fully automated release train with Runway as your copilot.
To help you keep track of target dates that were automatically set by Runway according to your scheduled cadence, we include a small cadence icon in the schedule module, which you can access from any release step.
If at any point during your release cycle you need to pause upcoming scheduled automations, you can do that easily. Head to the schedule module and hit the “Pause schedule” button. Pausing your schedule means Runway will not perform any more scheduled automations until you resume. Once you resume, upcoming automations will proceed on their target dates as normal.
Regression testing integration (TestRail)
If your team uses TestRail for QA and regression testing, you can now view test run status and results within Runway. After connecting TestRail, Runway will automatically pull in test runs associated with your release by name and present details within the “Regression testing” step.
Stability monitoring integration (Bugsnag)
Another new and exciting capability – Runway can now pull in and surface Bugsnag stability metrics like session stability, user stability, and adoption percentage. Right now these are displayed on each completed release’s “Release” step, and soon you’ll be able to see all stability metrics in App Home as well. More providers are also coming soon - Sentry is next up!
