---
title: "Test an Android app"
description: "What the Android template does, and why it cannot run yet."
---

<Warning>
**Android environments are Beta and have no backend in this build.** No Android emulator hosts are configured, allocation fails closed with a reason, and no run can start. Nothing on this page describes something you can run today. Desktop is in the same position; iOS is on the waitlist.
</Warning>

## What it is for

`android-app-qa` installs your APK on an Android environment, walks the flow you describe, screenshots every screen, and reports where it stopped working. Its output contract requires `flow_completed`, a `screens` array and `stopped_at`, plus a screenshot per screen and a recording of the walkthrough.

The template ships and is returned by the gallery with its gate attached rather than hidden:

```json
{
  "template": { "template_id": "android-app-qa", "environment_class": "android", "...": "…" },
  "availability": {
    "status": "beta",
    "reason": "Android environments are in Beta. This template cannot be started until your workspace has Android Beta access — request it from Environments and we will tell you when it is on.",
    "gated_by_environment_classes": ["android"]
  }
}
```

Hiding it would make the roadmap invisible. Rendering a start button on it would be a lie. So the gallery returns it with its gate, and a surface renders the gate.

## What happens if you try

Allocation refuses before anything starts:

```json 409
{
  "detail": {
    "code": "environment_class_unavailable",
    "reason": "environment_class_unavailable",
    "what": "This run needs a android environment, which cannot start here.",
    "why": "Android environments are in Beta and are not running in this deployment yet, so runs cannot start.",
    "suggested_fix": "Run this Worker in a code or browser environment.",
    "fix_action": { "action": "request_capacity", "environment_class": "android" },
    "environment_class": "android",
    "set_by": "control"
  }
}
```

Check before you offer the option:

```ts
const { classes } = await obol.workers.environments();
if (!classes.android.runnable) {
  classes.android.availability;   // "beta"
  classes.android.reason;         // the sentence to show a person
  classes.android.waitlist_joined // whether this workspace has asked
}
```

`runnable` is the conjunction of availability, backend readiness and entitlement. Reading `availability` alone and treating `beta` as usable is the mistake this field exists to prevent.

## Until then

A mobile web flow can be exercised in a browser environment today — see [Run browser QA](/workers/browser-qa). A native build cannot; there is no substitute for the emulator, and Obol does not offer one dressed up as something else.