Preview sessions
A preview session is the real app running in a real Android emulator, streamed live to your browser. Every session is private and fresh: a new VM boots from the baked snapshot for you, and it is destroyed when you leave.
Opening a session
Reviewers get there two ways:
- From GitHub — the Ramus comment's Open Android preview link.
- From Ramus — the Open preview button on the repository or PR page.
Either way, you must be signed in with GitHub and have access to the repository. The link opens a connecting screen and the device appears in a few seconds.
Interacting with the device
The session page gives you the full device, not a video:
- Touch — click, drag, and scroll map to taps and swipes.
- Type and paste — your keyboard goes to the device; paste works too. On touch devices, a Keys button raises the soft keyboard.
- Screenshot — saves a PNG of the current screen.
- Restart — tears the VM down and boots a fresh one from the same build.
- Device log — live log stream with per-app filtering, copy, and download.
- Fullscreen — edge-to-edge on displays that support it.
Session lifecycle
| Boot | Seconds — devices restore from a pre-baked snapshot |
| Idle timeout | Sessions end after ~30 minutes without interaction |
| Leaving the page | Frees the device slot immediately |
| Preview expiry | The ready build remains available until the PR closes or merges |
Sessions are never shared: two reviewers opening the same preview get two separate devices. State does not persist between sessions — every open is a clean boot of the reviewed build.