What Channels Are

Channels are named update streams inside a project.

When your app checks for updates, it checks a specific channel. When you upload a bundle, you upload it to a specific channel. That is how Bundle Drop lets you separate production, beta, QA, internal testing, or staged release flows inside the same project.

Default Channel

Every new project starts with a General channel.

You can keep using General if it matches your workflow, or delete it later and replace it with your own channels.

Common Channel Setup

Typical teams use channels like:

• General for the main release path
• Beta for internal or early-access testing
• QA for validation before moving changes wider

The important part is consistency. Your app should check the channel that matches the audience you want that build to follow.

How Channel-Based Workflow Works

At a high level:

1. Your app is configured to target a channel.
2. You upload a new OTA bundle to that channel.
3. Devices checking that same channel can receive the update if it is compatible.
4. Other channels stay unaffected until you publish there too.

This makes it easy to test changes on one track without pushing them to everyone else.

If you want to release gradually inside a single channel instead of creating a separate channel, see Staged Rollouts.

Managing Channels

Inside a project, you can create additional channels, use the default General channel, or remove channels you no longer need.

Channels hold bundles, so think of them as release tracks for that project rather than as one-off update labels.

In the dashboard, channels are managed from the project page. When you open a channel, you can then manage its bundles, rollouts, managed publishing, and rollback flow from that channel's Bundles page.

Promoting Bundles to Another Channel

Bundle Drop lets you promote a bundle from one channel to another without re-uploading it.

This is useful when a bundle has been validated on one channel and you want to move it to a wider audience. For example, you might upload a bundle to a QA channel, verify it works, and then promote it to Production.

How Promotion Works

From a channel's Bundles page in the dashboard:

1. Open the three-dot menu on the bundle you want to promote.
2. Select Promote to another channel.
3. Choose the target channel from the dropdown.
4. Confirm the promotion.

The bundle is added to the target channel as-is. It keeps its hash, platform, runtime version, and bundle version. No new upload or artifact is created.

Version Ordering on the Target Channel

When you promote a bundle, Bundle Drop checks the target channel for existing bundles with the same platform and runtime version.

• If the promoted bundle has a higher bundle version than anything on the target channel, it becomes the active bundle and devices will receive it.
• If the target channel already has a bundle with a higher version, the promoted bundle is still added but will not be automatically served. You will see a warning in the dashboard when this happens.

This means promotion works best when you are moving a bundle forward in your release pipeline, for example from a testing channel to a production channel where the version is expected to be higher.

Shared Bundles Across Channels

After promotion, the bundle exists on both the source and target channels. The dashboard shows which other channels a bundle is available on with a channel badge on each bundle item.

Because the bundle is shared:

• Rolling back the bundle on one channel does not affect other channels.
• Deleting the bundle from one channel only removes it from that channel. The bundle stays available on any other channels it belongs to. A full deletion only happens when the bundle is removed from its last remaining channel.

When Teams Use It

Promotion is useful when:

• you want to move a tested bundle from a QA or staging channel to production
• you manage multiple channels and want to avoid re-uploading the same artifact
• you want a clear audit trail of which bundle was promoted and where

Related Docs

• For long-lived real-user release tracks, see Production Channels.
• For project setup, see Project Creation.
• For connecting your app, see Installation.
• For gradual releases, see Staged Rollouts.
• For reverting a bad release, see Rollback.
• For uploading bundles to a channel, see Uploading.