Product Updates

Revamped ‘Kickoff’

‍We recognize that planning for future releases is a key part of a good release process. That’s why we’ve reimagined the ‘Kickoff’ step to surface more of the important details of an upcoming release, and to give your team more flexibility to make changes as needed.

Check out some of the new features we’ve added to the Kickoff step:

Scheduling: Now, you can easily see target kickoff and release dates for a given version. If you set target dates, Runway will send your team a Slack notification before key dates as a reminder.

Edit release settings: You can also modify the details of your release, like release type (major, minor, point), release pilot, and target dates.

Release description: Add some notes or information to help you plan your release.

Create release branch: If your team uses release branches, you can now create the release branch directly from the Kickoff step. Soon, Runway will be able to automatically cut your release branch on the target kickoff date.

If you’re looking for checklist items, they have a new home up on the top right of each step:

🎉Android 

Our long-awaited launch of support for Android is finally here, bringing together release coordination across platforms. Here’s what that means:

• You can now coordinate releases for both Android and iOS apps within Runway
• We’ve added a Google Play integration which uses Google’s Play Developer API under the hood
• All of Runway’s existing features are now supported for Android apps

‍

Send us a note via Slack or email to schedule a time to get your team set up.

‍
Release notes and ‘What’s New’

‍We’ve heard time and time again that keeping release notes in a spreadsheet and copying and pasting them into App Store Connect or Google Play is a headache. We’ve built a real home for release notes in Runway, where your PM or copywriter can come to add release notes and upload them to the relevant app store, for all localizations.

Oh and of course, it works for updating Release Notes on the Play Console as well!

We also added a helpful “Feature list” button on the Metadata screen, which pulls up all the tickets that are part of the release. We think it could come in handy as inspiration when drafting release notes.

Redesigned releases timeline

‍We’re spending time improving how releases are displayed in the timeline. You’ll now see releases separated into “Upcoming”, “Active” and “Completed” buckets, helping call attention to your imminent release. 

Release-type-specific checklist items

‍Create checklist items that only appear for specific release types. When creating or editing a checklist item, select the release types that you’d like the checklist item to apply to. It will only show up on releases of that type.

‍

Takeoff step

Runway now shows you the connection between your selected App Store Connect build, and the corresponding RC build on CI. If the build selected on App Store Connect is older than the most recent CI build, we’ll show a helpful message to call that out. Mostly likely, you’ll want to make sure the most recent CI build is also the build selected on App Store Connect.

‍

Plus a few more little things:

• If you’ve opted into a phased release, we now display the status of your phased release rollout, including what day of the rollout you’re currently on
• If you’ve opted into a scheduled release, we now display your scheduled release date
• Improved messaging on the App Store Connect status of your submitted build
  

And in case you missed it, we launched Slack notifications and automatic tagging over the holidays. For Slack notifications, make sure to connect the Runway Slack app to your workspace from the integrations screen on Runway. To enable automatic tagging, a GitHub repo admin must accept the updated GitHub permissions, and then you should be all set!

Slack notifications

‍This one’s pretty simple. Connect the Runway Slack app and choose a channel, and we’ll send you updates about the progress of your release. Some things Runway will notify you about:

• When all tasks slated for the release have been completed
• When your app has been submitted for review
• When a new Release Candidate is available
• … and more!

Want to try it out? You can find the Slack integration at the bottom of the integrations page. Once you connect the Runway Slack app to your workspace, you’re all set!

Automatic tagging

‍We know remembering to tag your release on GitHub can feel like a chore, but we also know it’s a super important part of the release process. Tagging means you always know exactly which commit was released for which version, so you can always check out the codebase exactly as it was when you released it – for all of your past releases. That’s why we’re excited to bring automatic tagging into Runway. 

Here’s how it works:

• Runway will automatically tag the commit associated with your App Store Connect build as soon as its App Store status reaches “Processing for App Store” 
• Runway will generate a description of your release based on all the commits and associated tickets that were part of your release
• You’ll see automatically created tags and releases under the “Releases” section on your GitHub project
• If for any reason, Runway was unable to tag your release, we created a nice interface within Runway for you to choose a commit to tag (you can find it in the “Ready for takeoff” step on your release)
• You can always edit any of the tags automatically created by Runway

Please note, to enable automatic tagging, we’ll request updated GitHub permissions which can be approved by any repo admin.