Extended sessions for Smart TV tests

Run Smart TV test sessions beyond the 2-hour default, up to 10 hours across Android TV, Apple TV, and Roku TV on BrowserStack App Automate.

BrowserStack App Automate supports extended test sessions on Smart TV platforms, letting sessions run up to 10 hours instead of the standard 2-hour limit. Use it for long-running scenarios such as video playback, soak tests, and overnight QA runs that don’t fit in a standard session.

Prerequisites

Extended sessions require a one-time setup by the BrowserStack support team. Your account group’s session-duration limit must be raised before the capability in your script takes effect.

If your test scripts include long idle stretches, ask the BrowserStack support team to raise the idle timeout for your group at the same time.

Enable extended sessions

Once the BrowserStack support team has raised your group’s session-duration limit, pass extendedTimeLimit inside bstack:options in your test script:

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
capabilities.setCapability("platformName", "<platform-name>");
capabilities.setCapability("platformVersion", "<version>");
capabilities.setCapability("deviceName", "<device-name>");
capabilities.setCapability("app", "<app-url>");
capabilities.setCapability("automationName", "<automation-name>");

HashMap<String, Object> bstackOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
bstackOptions.put("extendedTimeLimit", "true");
bstackOptions.put("projectName", "<project-name>");
bstackOptions.put("buildName", "<build-name>");
bstackOptions.put("sessionName", "<session-name>");
bstackOptions.put("dedicatedDevice", "true");
bstackOptions.put("deviceId", "<device-id>");
capabilities.setCapability("bstack:options", bstackOptions);

let capabilities = {
  platformName: "<platform-name>",
  platformVersion: "<version>",
  deviceName: "<device-name>",
  app: "<app-url>",
  automationName: "<automation-name>",
  "bstack:options": {
    extendedTimeLimit: "true",
    projectName: "<project-name>",
    buildName: "<build-name>",
    sessionName: "<session-name>",
    dedicatedDevice: "true",
    deviceId: "<device-id>",
  },
};

desired_cap = {
    'platformName': '<platform-name>',
    'platformVersion': '<version>',
    'deviceName': '<device-name>',
    'app': '<app-url>',
    'automationName': '<automation-name>',
    'bstack:options': {
        'extendedTimeLimit': 'true',
        'projectName': '<project-name>',
        'buildName': '<build-name>',
        'sessionName': '<session-name>',
        'dedicatedDevice': 'true'
    },
}

caps = {
  "platformName" => "<platform-name>",
  "platformVersion" => "<version>",
  "deviceName" => "<device-name>",
  "app" => "<app-url>",
  "automationName" => "<automation-name>",
  "bstack:options" => {
    "extendedTimeLimit" => "true",
    "projectName" => "<project-name>",
    "buildName" => "<build-name>",
    "sessionName" => "<session-name>",
    "dedicatedDevice" => "true",
    "deviceId" => "<device-id>",
  },
}

Platform support

The following table shows the maximum validated session duration for each Smart TV platform:

Limitations

• 10-hour ceiling across all platforms. Sessions can’t be configured beyond 10 hours on any Smart TV platform.
• Apple TV DRM video issues near 8 hours. For DRM-protected Apple TV apps, sessions running close to 8 hours may experience video issues. All other scenarios are unaffected.
• Idle timeout. Sessions with long quiet periods will be terminated unless your script sends periodic keep-alive interactions.
• BrowserStack support team activation required. Every account group needs a BrowserStack support team request before the capability takes effect.

Frequently asked questions