Apple announced their TestFlight Beta program, is now LIVE. It allows Developers to release beta builds of their apps to users.Registered Apple Developers now have a new tool that can distribute up to 1,000 copies of their apps to testers. Utilizing the iTunes Connect portal which emails invites. While this is a whole new method for Apple to provide to Developers, takes cues from recent beta releases of OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. Developers and Companies, using TestFlight, now have access to the same methods that Apple used to release their latest incarnations of OS X and iOS.
Speculation has been rumored that TestFlight was acquired by Apple fairly recently in SlashGear, TechCrunch and Re/code. Editor Note: Apple doesn’t release acquisition info. TestFlight was developed to provide app developers with a method to distribute samples and work-in-progress to early testers without having to jail break an iOS device. SlashGear reports using it in their apps before wide release.
Nate Swanner of Slash Gear has a review using TestFlight used intesting. Slash Gear (TinTag). The app accompanying the hardware was beta, and distributed via TestFlight.
Whats the big change with this BETA Program? Early Adopters and Testers don’t have to jump thru all of the former hoops, and Developers no longer need to build beta apps specifically for that users phone.
Before TestFlight, the development process would required a developer to have a tester provide their UDID from their iOS based device, then the Developer would have to create a distributed beta build for them.
This laborious task now is simplified and can send invites for up to 25 internal team members that have been assigned Technical Roles in iTunes Connect. When the Beta is ready for External Testers, another set of invitations can be made for up to 1,000 users who were not part of the organization to Beta Test and provide APP review.
If your like our staff, we like EARLY and NEW things.
As this is more widely adopted, look for more and more beta opportunity’s to appear in the iOS community.
