How to debug app without uninstall release app

Question

Is there a way to debug my app on my smartphone without uninstall the play Store release? I want to use my app, but the debug should not edit the preferences. I would like to use two different apps. Naturally without changing a lot of code each time I want to export as release apk.

Am I asking too much?

Answer 1

The solution is changing the applicationId in the app build.gradle file as suggested by the official documentation:

android {
    ...
    buildTypes {
        debug {
            applicationIdSuffix ".debug"
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

The only thing you could do is change the package name in your AndroidManifest.xml.

The preferences would not be the only problem to face: You also won't be able to install the debug version over the release version due to the different certificates.