Hotpatch lets you push fixes to users without releasing a new app version. Use this feature for emergency production fixes only.
Limits
Hotpatch is not supported on the following devices and configurations:
x86 devices running Dalvik
OPPO devices running Android 11
Samsung 5.0.x devices
Devices running API level 21 to 23 with Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation enabled
Lemur virtual machines and the Android Runtime (ART) mode of Dalvik
An Android system upgrade may invalidate previously published patches.
On phones with later Android versions, dex2oat may not work correctly and can cause tasks to time out. Use the Instant Run instrumentation hotpatch solution instead. For more information, see Instant Run instrumentation.
Workflow
The hotpatch workflow has three steps:
Integrate the hotpatch feature into the client — add the hotpatch SDK to your app and configure the initialization parameters.
Generate a hotpatch package — modify the buggy code and build a diff patch package from the fixed and original builds.
Publish the hotpatch package — upload the patch package and configure the rollout target to push the fix to affected users.