Mobile apps face strong pressure for fast and reliable updates. Continuous Integration (CI) helps automate builds, tests, and releases, but its impact on mobile development remains underexplored. Despite the widespread use of CI, little is known about how it affects development activity, release speed, and user-facing outcomes in mobile projects. Existing studies mostly focus on CI adoption in general-purpose software, providing limited insight into mobile-specific dynamics, such as app store visibility and user engagement. In this paper, we analyze open-source Android apps to (1) compare CI adopters and non-adopters, (2) characterize adoption patterns using activity and bug metrics, and (3) assess pre/post adoption changes and user-facing outcomes. We observe that CI adopters are larger and more active, with faster and more regular releases. CI adoption is concentrated in integration- and reliability-intensive categories (e.g., finance and productivity) and is associated with higher Google Play Store engagement (more downloads and reviews) without lower ratings. Overall, CI adoption aligns with practices that support sustained delivery, higher project visibility, and stronger user engagement in mobile ecosystems.

翻译：移动应用面临着快速可靠更新的巨大压力。持续集成（CI）有助于自动化构建、测试和发布流程，但其对移动开发的影响仍未得到充分探索。尽管CI已被广泛采用，但人们对其如何影响移动项目的开发活动、发布速度及面向用户的成果知之甚少。现有研究主要关注通用软件中的CI采用情况，对移动领域特有动态（如应用商店可见性和用户参与度）的洞察有限。本文通过分析开源Android应用，旨在（1）比较CI采用者与未采用者，（2）利用活动指标和缺陷指标描述采用模式特征，（3）评估采用前后的变化及面向用户的成果。研究发现：CI采用者规模更大、活动更频繁，发布速度更快且更规律；CI采用主要集中在集成密集型和可靠性要求高的应用类别（如金融与效率工具），且与更高的Google Play商店参与度（更多下载量与评论量）相关，同时未降低应用评分。总体而言，CI的采用与移动生态系统中支持持续交付、提升项目可见性及增强用户参与度的实践具有协同效应。