On ManageXR, apps are updated in 2 phases:

Let's dive into how these 2 phases operate on your device:

On the device, ManageXR will begin downloading an app update in the background as soon as it recognizes that there is an update available. If a device is offline when an update has been queued, ManageXR will push the update to it as soon as it comes online. If a device is online when the update is made available, the device will usually recognize this and begin downloading within seconds. Downloading the update will not interrupt any user experience currently running on the device. If a download is interrupted for any reason (e.g., the internet connection was lost or the device was turned off), ManageXR will attempt to restart the download from its last point when it comes back online.

You can find a device’s download and link speed on the device detail page.

The three bars on the Wi-Fi icon also indicate the strength of the network to which the device is connected. If only one bar is illuminated on the icon, the network strength is weak; if two bars are illuminated, the network strength is okay; if three bars are illuminated, the strength is strong. You can also hover over the icon to see for a tooltip that displays the network strength.

Once the update is downloaded, the app update is ready for installation.

If the app that needs to be updated is not currently open, the update will be installed immediately. However, if the app that needs to be updated is open, ManageXR will wait until that app is closed before installing the update. (This is because if the app is open while the update is installed, it will force close that app, which can interrupt the user mid-session and lead to a bad user experience.)

ManageXR determines that an app is not actively running if a) the app is not in the foreground or b) the headset has been taken off and gone into an idle state. Thus, if an app update has been downloaded and is waiting for installation, it will immediately install that app update as soon as the app is closed or the headset is taken off. If your app includes additional files deployed via the files feature files or bundled files, it takes about 0.1s to install each file. So, if the has 700 files, it will take at least 70 seconds to get through the INSTALL phase.

It's important to note that if Force Install is on, the update will happen no matter what (even if the app is open). To learn more about Force Install, check out our Deploying Applications documentation.

ManageXR uses a sophisticated App Patching system to ensure your apps update as fast and efficiently as possible! Updating an app from version X to version Y usually requires re-downloading the entire new app file. This can be a huge waste because so much of the application data already exists on the device from the previously installed version. Instead of downloading the entire new app file, ManageXR generates and installs a patch file. A patch file is typically about 20% the size of the original app file, meaning app updates with ManageXR happen 5x as fast and take up only 20% of the bandwidth!