Will the downloads number of beta-testers dissapear after publishing the release version on Google Play and App Store? If I have, for instance, 1000 downloads from testers, will it positively affect the rating in these markets?
No, the primary purpose of alpha/beta testing is for you to be able to get feedback and improve the quality of your app before releasing the actual production version. It is clearly stated here that whatever stats you gain during testing phase will never affect your app's public reviews and rating.
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I have made an Ionic Framework 4 app and have tested on my laptop and own phone using localhost but now want to get a few users to test it on their devices. I don't want to put it on any app stores as it's for my uni final project so isn't good enough for that. From what I have read there is no way to test on iOS devices without uploading to the App Store, but I have read testing on Android is easier.
Please could you advise me on how to go about deploying the app for users to test?
Thanks!
I can see some discussion in the comments above about just sideloading this.
That's a good, simple option, but it does require your testers to reduce their security settings to allow loading of apps from non-Google sources.
This depends on your users if this is a responsible thing to ask them. If you are dealing with technically minded people this is ok, but if it's for casual users you need to be sure that you revert this setting afterwards, otherwise they could fall prey to a phishing scam in the future because of what you have asked them to do.
If you do choose to do it via the Google Play app store then you have options for distributing to a select group of people without ever putting it live in the public app store.
Its a $25 lifetime fee to join the app store. Then you can release on the internal testing track for up to 100 users. You just invite them via email, they enroll in your testing channel, and then they can install it safely via the app store.
We're trying to decide between these two services for an upcoming beta. The new TestFlight looks much improved but we are still concerned about 3 things:
The user experience for testers (iTunes reviews of the TestFlight app imply this can be confusing)
The possibility of rejection or delay by apple when reviewing our beta releases.
Limited to IOS8
Hockey, on the other hand, seems to have a better tester UX. It supports multiple OS versions. And of course, no review is required.
The downside with Hockey seems to be a limit of 100 devices: http://support.hockeyapp.net/kb/client-integration-ios-mac-os-x/adding-new-devices-to-your-provisioning-profile
Here's our comparison grid: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CuYlsLsZPW-79hEre7jLppfwQpG4WmW3fDvHvIJ86wY/edit#gid=0
Would appreciate any feedback.
We've been beta testing our App via both HockeyApp and Apple's new Testflight within the last few weeks as well. I would recommend using both in parallel and seeing the pros and cons for yourself and from there you can choose one over the other. Here are our insights from the last few weeks:
HockeyApp Pros:
no need for an approval process
quick upload of new versions while maintaining access to old versions
HockeyApp Cons:
requires a bit more work to initially set up each beta tester (need
to have their device registered with HockeyApp so that you can
register their UDID with a provisioning profile and then a new
archived build needs to be uploaded to HockeyApp containing that
updated provisioning profile)
Only 100 tester slots (although unless you're really close to app store submission, you probably don't even need 100 spots)
TestFlight Pros:
Don't have to deal with UDID or provisioning profiles, strictly
emails only
1000 10000 slots
Now includes sharing of public links, so that other testers outside your organisation can use to download your beta builds.
Beta Approval process is pretty short (1.5 days for us)
TestFlight Cons:
Need iOS 8 to install TestFlight
Only 25 internal tester slots
Only can have one active build at a time Now supports having multiple active builds
Imagine that we have bought other application, then transfer it to our accounts in application stores. Seems like it's possible for all 3 major smartphone platforms.
Imagine then that we bought app for great community, not for app features. Could we publish our own app as an update for bought app?
P.S.: we don't consider possible negative reaction from community, only tech and legal possibility. Also we don't consider that at least in Apple App Store publishing absolutely the same app with different bundle id counts like spamming.
For Google Play techincally it is possible to transfer a app from one account to another and yes you can publish other app as the update for the existing one as long as your app has the same package name as the existing one.
http://phandroid.com/2012/06/21/getting-acquired-how-to-transfer-ownership-of-your-android-app-or-game/
I'm working on an iPhone game and have just added some Game Center features. Testers find Game Center annoying to test because they have to log out of GC with their real accounts and then log in with a sandbox account.
I've been considering submitting it to the App Store but setting the release date far in the future so I can distribute to my testers with promo codes. That would allow them to test my game using their live Game Center accounts.
Besides the fact that new beta releases would take a week to reach testers because of the review process, are there any other problems with using the live App Store to distribute to testers?
In my opinion the minor inconvenience of having to log out of a regular game centre account into a sandbox one is trivial compared to that of being dependant on Apple's approval process to test features on the fly. This accompanied by the fact that if any bugs are found the app won't be approved outright make this a pretty unviable option.
Your game has to not look like beta test or demo, but appear fully functional, for Apple to approve it. So you will have to remove (hide) all game elements and UI that aren't working or finished yet, including any in the game instructions.
You can't prevent anyone from downloading or buying it after it is approved and you release it for sale. So your app may get 1-star ratings from random-drive-by downloaders. (Maybe you can limit your exposure by setting the price really high, making the app available for sale in only 1 country starting at midnight, and removing it from sale as soon as your testers download it using redeem codes.)
My company bosses want to create a native version of a currently web-based app that will be available to their existing customers (currently a few thousand).
They say it is imperative that the application be available for downloading from the app store.
However the app would only be of any use to customer who already have an account (and would be useless to anybody else who downloaded the app).
Is this actually possible to submit such a thing to the app store?
There are dozens of Apps in the App Store that where they are only usable if you are an existing customer. Look at all the banking related ones for example.
AFAIK, you cannot restrict the intended users when distributing through the AppStore.
What you can do is apply for an iOS Developer Enterprise Program, though you'd be installing the app directly to the devices (requires physical presence of the devices).
You could also use a service like TestFlight, though their terms probably just allow deployment for testing purposes.
What I'd go for is getting the app to the AppStore anyway, as long as your app doesn't include confidential content. You could advise in the description not to install the app unless they're your company's clients.