Dev Panel: Debug Build Widget

A home-screen widget for Android developers and QA testers who run debug, staging and release builds of the same app. Each build gets its own row, and each row takes you straight to that build's settings.

One row per build

Type a package pattern like com.acme.app* and every matching build shows up as its own row, so you always open the build you meant.

• Each row shows the version, build number and when it was last updated

• Debuggable builds are marked DEBUG

• Icons of .debug and .dev packages carry a d, and .staging an s, so look-alike icons are easy to tell apart

• Rows survive a reinstall: uninstall a build and its row stays, greyed out, until you install it again

Jumps for each build

Tap a row's ⋮ for screens of exactly that build:

• App info: force stop, clear storage, permissions

• Notifications, Open by default and App language

• Uninstall, through Android's own confirmation

• Copy repro info: the build and device details, ready to paste into a bug report

Saved links, opened in the right build

Save your deep links once per panel. A row's ⋮ lists the links that build can open, and opens them in that build only, with no app chooser. Dev Panel also suggests links read from your apps, and tells you which apps open each saved link.

The same setup on every test phone

Share a panel as a QR code or a link. Scan it with another device's camera and that phone gets the same patterns, actions and saved links. Each device finds its own installed builds.

Link to QR shows any link as a QR code, so you can open it on another phone without typing it. It keeps your last 50 links.

Device screens in one tap

Choose which actions each panel shows:

• Developer options (or how to turn them on, if they're off)

• Display settings

• Google Password Manager, for your test accounts

• Android's Internet controls, shown over the app you're testing

• On-device AI: check Gemini Nano, download it and time a prompt, on phones that support it

These need no permissions at all.

Optional: one-tap system toggles

Three of the six toggles need one ADB command from your computer, run once: No animations, USB debugging and Demo mode (a clean status bar for screenshots). The app shows the exact command, lets you copy it, and checks that it worked.

Largest font, 30-minute screen timeout and max brightness need only Android's "Modify system settings" switch, which the app takes you to. Switching a toggle off puts back your own settings, not the factory defaults.

Nothing here is required. The widget is fully useful before you grant anything.

Private by design

• No internet permission: the app cannot send anything anywhere

• No ads, no analytics, no accounts

• It sees only apps that have a launcher icon, and only on your device

• If Dev Panel crashes, it shows you the report to copy, or to email from your own mail app

• Gemini Nano is downloaded by Google's AICore service, not by Dev Panel

Good to know

• Several widgets, each with its own patterns, actions and links

• Android 12 or newer

• In 15 languages

• On Android 16 and newer, on-device assistants that support Android app functions can open your builds and saved links, get repro info and switch toggles

• Demo mode is unavailable on Samsung phones, whose status bar ignores it

• Android doesn't let any app force-stop another app, clear its data or toggle airplane mode, so Dev Panel takes you to the screen where you can

With thanks to DevDrawer by Tony Owen, which inspired this app: github.com/tunitowen/DevDrawer