# Support multiple simultaneous sessions in Android and iOS

**URL:** <https://discuss.appium.io/t/support-multiple-simultaneous-sessions-in-android-and-ios/18999>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [October 3, 2017, 5:24am UTC](https://discuss.appium.io/t/support-multiple-simultaneous-sessions-in-android-and-ios/18999 "2017-10-03T05:24:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mathewkuruvila](https://discuss.appium.io/user_avatar/discuss.appium.io/mathewkuruvila/32/9827_2.png) [@mathewkuruvila](https://discuss.appium.io/u/mathewkuruvila)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 5:24am UTC](https://discuss.appium.io/t/support-multiple-simultaneous-sessions-in-android-and-ios/18999/1 "2017-10-03T05:24:04Z")

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As per the release notes : [Appium 1.7.0 Released](https://discuss.appium.io/t/appium-1-7-0-released/18760)  
appium supports, “Support multiple simultaneous sessions in Android and iOS (9+)” and “Multiple device support”. Can someone elaborate more it. Is it like in the same device multiple browser/app automation is possible like for Desktop browser. And multiple IOS devices can be connected to the same MAC machine.

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**Author:** ![mathewkuruvila](https://discuss.appium.io/user_avatar/discuss.appium.io/mathewkuruvila/32/9827_2.png) [@mathewkuruvila](https://discuss.appium.io/u/mathewkuruvila)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 11:25pm UTC](https://discuss.appium.io/t/support-multiple-simultaneous-sessions-in-android-and-ios/18999/2 "2017-10-04T23:25:50Z")

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Also does this mean in IOS, i can switch between apps? Settings \> App to be Tested \> Browser

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**Author:** ![Telmo\_Cardoso](https://discuss.appium.io/user_avatar/discuss.appium.io/telmo_cardoso/32/1435_2.png) [@Telmo\_Cardoso](https://discuss.appium.io/u/Telmo_Cardoso)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 5:20am UTC](https://discuss.appium.io/t/support-multiple-simultaneous-sessions-in-android-and-ios/18999/3 "2017-10-05T05:20:29Z")

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I think it means appium now supports multiple simultaneous sessions 🙂

So, same appium server can manage more than 1 device. I never tested it, because for me its easier just to have several appium servers running in each port 🙂

But I think the iOS simultaneous sessions just works for simulators and not real devices (And I only test on real devices).

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**Author:** ![clai](https://discuss.appium.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@clai](https://discuss.appium.io/u/clai)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 1:59am UTC](https://discuss.appium.io/t/support-multiple-simultaneous-sessions-in-android-and-ios/18999/4 "2018-01-10T01:59:29Z")

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This does not appear to be working on Android at least programmatically for Appium 1.7.0. I have two actual devices connected, each with a separate deviceName, different ip, port, and bootstrap port numbers. The appium server gets created for one device and then a second, but all appium commands get executed for one device only. It appears it executes on the most recent device connected to the computer regardless of the deviceName. I can also see from the log file that the first session gets removed from master session list once the 2nd appium server instance is started.

[Appium] Welcome to Appium v1.7.2  
[Appium] Non-default server args:  
[Appium] address: 127.0.0.1  
[Appium] port: 4733  
[Appium] bootstrapPort: 4743  
[Appium] loglevel: info  
[Appium] Appium REST http interface listener started on 127.0.0.1:4733  
[HTTP] --\> GET /wd/hub/status {}  
[HTTP] \<-- GET /wd/hub/status 200 48 ms - 72  
[HTTP] --\> POST /wd/hub/session {“desiredCapabilities”:{“appPackage”:“org.vom8x8.sipua”,“appActivity”:“com.vom8x8.vom.login.loginUI.LoginActivity”,“noReset”:true,“platformName”:“Android”,“deviceName”:“056ea79a”},“requiredCapabilities”:{},“capabilities”:{“desiredCapabilities”:{“appPackage”:“org.vom8x8.sipua”,“appActivity”:“com.vom8x8.vom.login.loginUI.LoginActivity”,“noReset”:true,“platformName”:“Android”,“deviceName”:“056ea79a”},“requiredCapabilities”:{},“alwaysMatch”:{“platformName”:“Android”},“firstMatch”:[]}}  
[Appium] Merged W3C capabilities {“desiredCapabilities”:{“appPackage”:"org.vom8x… into desiredCapabilities object {“appPackage”:“org.vom8x8.sipua”,“appActivity”:…  
[Appium] Creating new AndroidDriver (v1.37.0) session  
[Appium] Capabilities:  
[Appium] appPackage: org.vom8x8.sipua  
[Appium] appActivity: com.vom8x8.vom.login.loginUI.LoginActivity  
[Appium] noReset: true  
[Appium] platformName: Android  
[Appium] deviceName: **056ea79a**  
[BaseDriver] Session created with session id: 8525f030-17c5-4cb2-bfdc-685b252f9ea1  
[AndroidDriver] Java version is: 1.8.0\_152

[ADB] Checking whether adb is present  
[ADB] Using adb.exe from C:\Users\clai\AppData\Local\platform-tools\adb.exe  
[AndroidDriver] Retrieving device list  
[AndroidDriver] Using device: **1215fc33292e3904**  
[ADB] Checking whether adb is present  
[AndroidDriver] App file was not listed, instead we’re going to run org.vom8x8.sipua directly on the device  
[AndroidDriver] Starting Android session  
[AndroidDriver] setDeviceLanguageCountry requires language or country.  
[AndroidDriver] Got language: ‘null’ and country: ‘null’  
[ADB] Checking whether aapt is present  
[ADB] Using aapt.exe from C:\Users\clai\AppData\Local\build-tools\27.0.2\aapt.exe  
[ADB] Checking whether aapt is present  
[ADB] Getting device platform version  
[AndroidDriver] No app sent in, not parsing package/activity  
[ADB] No uiautomator process found to kill, continuing…  
[AndroidBootstrap] Android bootstrap socket is now connected  
[AndroidDriver] Screen already unlocked, doing nothing  
[Appium] New AndroidDriver session created successfully, session 8525f030-17c5-4cb2-bfdc-685b252f9ea1 added to master session list  
[HTTP] \<-- POST /wd/hub/session 200 17801 ms - 742  
Jan 09, 2018 5:52:38 PM org.openqa.selenium.remote.ProtocolHandshake createSession  
INFO: Detected dialect: OSS  
[main] INFO AppiumController - Android appium server started at: [http://127.0.0.1:4733/wd/hub](http://127.0.0.1:4733/wd/hub)  
[HTTP] --\> POST /wd/hub/session/8525f030-17c5-4cb2-bfdc-685b252f9ea1/timeouts {“type”:“implicit”,“ms”:5000}  
[HTTP] \<-- POST /wd/hub/session/8525f030-17c5-4cb2-bfdc-685b252f9ea1/timeouts 200 4 ms - 76  
[main] INFO AppiumController - System OS: Windows 10  
[Appium] Welcome to Appium v1.7.2  
[Appium] Non-default server args:  
[Appium] address: 127.0.0.11  
[Appium] port: 4743  
[Appium] bootstrapPort: 4753  
[Appium] loglevel: info  
[Appium] Appium REST http interface listener started on 127.0.0.11:4743  
[HTTP] --\> GET /wd/hub/status {}  
[HTTP] \<-- GET /wd/hub/status 200 31 ms - 72  
[HTTP] --\> POST /wd/hub/session {“desiredCapabilities”:{“appPackage”:“org.vom8x8.sipua”,“appActivity”:“com.vom8x8.vom.login.loginUI.LoginActivity”,“noReset”:true,“platformName”:“Android”,“deviceName”:“1215fc33292e3904”},“requiredCapabilities”:{},“capabilities”:{“desiredCapabilities”:{“appPackage”:“org.vom8x8.sipua”,“appActivity”:“com.vom8x8.vom.login.loginUI.LoginActivity”,“noReset”:true,“platformName”:“Android”,“deviceName”:“1215fc33292e3904”},“requiredCapabilities”:{},“alwaysMatch”:{“platformName”:“Android”},“firstMatch”:[]}}  
[Appium] Merged W3C capabilities {“desiredCapabilities”:{“appPackage”:"org.vom8x… into desiredCapabilities object {“appPackage”:“org.vom8x8.sipua”,“appActivity”:…  
[Appium] Creating new AndroidDriver (v1.37.0) session  
[Appium] Capabilities:  
[Appium] appPackage: org.vom8x8.sipua  
[Appium] appActivity: com.vom8x8.vom.login.loginUI.LoginActivity  
[Appium] noReset: true  
[Appium] platformName: Android  
[Appium] deviceName: **1215fc33292e3904**  
[BaseDriver] Session created with session id: 5afc5446-d890-4753-9487-4d345f9d2f48  
[AndroidDriver] Java version is: 1.8.0\_152

[ADB] Checking whether adb is present  
[ADB] Using adb.exe from C:\Users\clai\AppData\Local\platform-tools\adb.exe  
[AndroidDriver] Retrieving device list  
[AndroidDriver] Using device: **1215fc33292e3904**  
[ADB] Checking whether adb is present  
[AndroidDriver] App file was not listed, instead we’re going to run org.vom8x8.sipua directly on the device  
[AndroidDriver] Starting Android session  
[AndroidDriver] setDeviceLanguageCountry requires language or country.  
[AndroidDriver] Got language: ‘null’ and country: ‘null’  
[ADB] Checking whether aapt is present  
[ADB] Using aapt.exe from C:\Users\clai\AppData\Local\build-tools\27.0.2\aapt.exe  
[ADB] Checking whether aapt is present  
[ADB] Getting device platform version  
[AndroidDriver] No app sent in, not parsing package/activity  
[UiAutomator] UiAutomator exited unexpectedly with code 0, signal null  
[Appium] Closing session, cause was ‘UiAUtomator shut down unexpectedly’  
[Appium] **Removing session 8525f030-17c5-4cb2-bfdc-685b252f9ea1 from our master session list**  
[ADB] Cannot kill process 6881 in 1000 ms. Trying to force kill…  
[AndroidBootstrap] Cannot shut down Android bootstrap; it has already shut down  
[AndroidBootstrap] Android bootstrap socket is now connected  
[AndroidDriver] Screen already unlocked, doing nothing  
[Appium] New AndroidDriver session created successfully, session 5afc5446-d890-4753-9487-4d345f9d2f48 added to master session list  
[HTTP] \<-- POST /wd/hub/session 200 18109 ms - 750