Overview

Automated mobile testing with Rapise and Appium relies on matching the version of chromedriver to the version of Google Chrome installed on the target device. Android system images provided by the Android SDK frequently bundle older browser versions.

On modern Android OS versions (Android 10+), Chrome is distributed as Split APKs and relies on a shared background engine called the Trichrome Library. You no longer need to root the device or delete system files—you can update Chrome directly via the Google Play Store or manually using ADB.

Method 1: Using the Google Play Store (Easiest)

If your Android Virtual Device (AVD) was created using a system image with the Google Play icon:

  1. Launch your emulator from Android Studio or the command line.

  2. Open the Google Play Store on the emulator and sign in with a Google account.

  3. Search for Google Chrome and click Update (or Install).

  4. Chrome and its required background libraries will update automatically to the latest version.

Method 2: Manual Installation via ADB (For Non-Play System Images)

If your emulator uses standard Google APIs or AOSP images without the Play Store, you must install the x86_64 package bundles manually.

Step 1: Download Required Packages

Because your emulator runs on a Windows/macOS PC (Intel/AMD architecture), you must download the x86 + x86_64 builds to avoid architecture mismatch errors (INSTALL_FAILED_NO_MATCHING_ABIS).

From a reputable source (such as APKMirror):

  1. Trichrome Library: Download the x86 + x86_64 bundle for your target version.

  2. Google Chrome: Download the matching x86 + x86_64 bundle for the same version.

(Note: If the files download with a .apkm or .xapk extension, simply rename the extension to .zip and extract them into separate folders).

Step 2: Install the Trichrome Library

The rendering engine must be installed first.

  1. Open your Command Prompt / Terminal in the extracted Trichrome Library folder.

  2. Run the install-multiple command:

    adb install-multiple base.apk split_config.x86_64.apk split_config.en.apk

    (Ensure you see Success before proceeding).

Step 3: Install Google Chrome

  1. Open your Command Prompt / Terminal in the extracted Chrome folder.

  2. Run the install-multiple command:

    adb install-multiple base.apk split_chrome.apk split_on_demand.apk split_config.en.apk

(Note: If you have multiple devices connected, specify the target emulator using the -s flag, e.g., adb -s emulator-5554 install-multiple ...).

Configuring Appium for Automated Chromedriver Management

In Appium 2.x and 3.x, you can allow Appium to automatically detect the emulator's Chrome version and download the corresponding chromedriver binary on the fly.

Start the Appium server using the following flag:

codeBash

# Standard Command Prompt / Bash
appium --allow-insecure *:chromedriver_autodownload

# PowerShell (requires quotes around the wildcard)
appium --allow-insecure "*:chromedriver_autodownload"

Once Chrome is updated and this flag is enabled, Rapise will be able to launch mobile browser test sessions seamlessly.