Different behaviour when running the same app version from Android Studio than when running from Google Play

This is the strangest question I will ever ask: I'm getting different behaviour for an Android App I developed when running from Android Studio than when running the released version from Google Play.

I know this sound crazy, but is is true.

Example:

• I run version X from Android Studio on any cell phone or emulator (I tryied in maybe 10 different)
• A Picasso loaded image is shown to perfection, loaded from Drawable
• A JSON string that is sent to a WS is created and sent to the server
• Now I build version X and release to Google Play, wait for release and install in all same phisical devices (no emulators here)
• The picasso image is not shown
• The JSON string is not created and sent as empty "{}" to the server

This is absolute madness.

Android Studio is up to date. I try devices and emulators from Android 6 up to 9. LogCat shows no errors or warnings. I have added tons of debug lines but nothing helps. Gradle is up to date. MinSDK is 23, TargetSDK is 29.

What can it be? Has anyone ever faced a situation like this one before?

This app was in production and working fine until two weeks ago when all this started.

Công Hải was rigth.

The problem was the minify=true. Turning it to false solved the issue.

Will work on proguard rules in order to be able to keep the minify enabled.

Still I wonder why it stopped working from one version to another.

Thanks Công Hải!