Sam Oliver
Developers can now invite up to a thousand people to test their beta applications for iOS via its TestFlight tool with just an email address, Apple announced on Thursday.
In a post to Apple's developer blog, the company said that up to 1,000 testers can now beta test iOS apps by simply sending an email invitation through iTunes Connect. Apple acquired TestFlight in February, gaining an easy way for developers to create and manage public app beta programs.
With TestFlight, developers can add beta testers using only their email address, and beta versions can be managed within the TestFlight app itself, without the cumbersome UDID-based provisioning processes used previously. Beta testers are notified as new app versions are released through the TestFlight app, and can perform in-place upgrades.
The TestFlight app also allows beta testers to provide feedback, while developers can deploy multiple builds of their app simultaneously.
Before Thursday's change, developers were limited to 100 devices per account. But now, developers can invite 1,000 testers per application, with different testers for separate apps.
Amber Neely
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
6 Comments
Hope they add it "public" where they can simply make it an open beta, to first ___ amount set by place.
Wow - that's really nice
TestFlight solves the problem (that Apple created with its restrictions on distributing Apps) of HOW to distribute your app to Beta testers, but it doesn't solve the problem of how to find beta testers or get them to actually test. While your most passionate users may be dying to get their hands on the latest version, they're usually not that interested in reporting bugs. What's in it for them?
But offer a few bucks a bug and lots of people will be willing to test your app and spend time filling out detailed bug reports that actually give you and your devs the info you need to fix it. That's where services like Pay4Bugs come in. We've got TestFlight integration in the works, so sign up to get notified when it launches! https://blog.pay4bugs.com/2014/09/16...t-coming-soon/
It's good but unfortunately this is only for apps intended for the public app-store submission and the first version of the app has to be reviewed by Apple first. Minor subsequent revisions don't need Apple review. Those developing enterprise apps can't use this so I'm waiting and wondering what will happen to the testFlightapp.com service. Might have to move to hockeyapp.net.
Apple has to review and approve the TestFlight apps? I don't want to deal with that bottleneck to get my app out to testers. Unless Apple can promise a <12 hour turnaround time for approvals. We'll see what the average wait time for approving apps is.