

TestFlight Beta Testing - npollock
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/testflight/

======
div
I'm using both Apple TestFlight and the original TestFlight, and the original
is just such a smoother experience, even with having to add UDID's to
provisioning profiles.

Things that are annoying about Apple TestFlight compared to the original:

\- itunesconnect, while better than before, pales in comparison to the
simplicity of testflightapp

\- builds submitted to Apple "take a while" before they're available,
testflightapp is instant once you've uploaded.

\- managing users in groups seems to be absent

~~~
colinbartlett
Last week I tested 7 builds with my team in the span of an hour. This all
worked great because I was using original TestFlight which allows me to
distribute immediately.

Waiting on Apple for each one of those builds? No, thank you.

------
chrisBob
Does anyone have experience yet with the timeline for the beta app review
required for external testers? This is significant because I feel like I would
just have internal users bring their device over, or install it themselves
from Xcode. Its the external users that seem the most important with this.

My regular submissions have ranged from 7 days to 20 hours, but I would hope
they will keep the beta review to the shorter end of that.

~~~
Scorponok
I'm very curious too! If it takes anything more than a day to get an app
review, this tool is going to be pretty useless for us. :(

I've submitted an update to our app to external app review, so hopefully I'll
have more information soon. [Update: Now "In Review", for what that's worth.]

~~~
Scorponok
And we just got approved! Took ~2 hours.

~~~
mrborgen
Took about half a day for me. The waiting time is well worth the 900 extra
beta testers you can add. At least for us.

------
Someone1234
> Apps made available to external testers require a Beta App Review and must
> comply with the full App Store Review Guidelines before testing can begin. A
> review is required for new versions of your app that contain significant
> changes. Up to 10 apps can be tested at a time, internally or externally.

Eww. Still doesn't hold a candle to an APK.

~~~
jc4p
Or using an enterprise certificate.

~~~
chimeracoder
> Or using an enterprise certificate.

Be careful with this!

I see a lot of companies using this as a way to avoid the pains of obtaining
UUIDs (for testing) or of distribution on the App Store, if their production
product is not intended for public use.

But if you read the fine print for enterprise certificates on iOS, they're not
actually supposed to be used for distributing applications for test-use on-
site, or non-test use off-site ("site" in this case referring to your physical
office), or for use by non-employees (this _includes contractors_!).

It's completely ridiculous, and I was shocked to discover this, but as far as
I can tell, it's true (I even had a phone call with an Apple rep who explained
the various certificates to me).

Of course, if you're operating on a small scale they're unlikely to find out
if you're using the enterprise certs in this way. But it's still a risk to be
aware of.

~~~
eropple
One of my prior employers was using an enterprise certificate to deploy an
application to clients, themselves in an enterprise environment. Our Apple rep
told us, in no uncertain terms, that we were fine. So maybe not everybody's on
the same page...?

~~~
christoph
I think the rule of thumb here is common sense. I know for certain a large
number of med comms agencies in the pharmaceutical industry use enterprise
certs for "internal" app distribution (think one off events, internal meetings
etc. maybe needing to be run on 500 devices for 1 day only), where content may
not be legally signed off/approved until 2am for an 8am start the next day.
There's simply no way (other than jailbreaking) to get around this at the
moment.

If Apple were to start enforcing this with an iron fist, a lot of this
industry (which is, believe it or not, responsible for a lot of device sales)
would quickly migrate over to Android, now the devices look and function as
well as their iOS counterparts.

This doesn't hurt Apple's ecosystem - everyone is running Macbooks, iPads,
iPhones, paying enterprise fees, etc. Most of these apps have no place
clogging up the Appstore or consuming Apple reviewers time.

They just don't want you buying an enterprise cert to push out your emulator
bundled with illegal ROMs or illegal movie streaming app, easily downloaded by
all & sundry off a public web server.

This is why they put up the barriers of DUNS numbers, brief phone interviews,
etc., before they will issue you an enterprise account.

~~~
eropple
Ha, yeah--we were making medical dictation software. Our software was
definitely part of keeping iPhone and iPod Touch devices in doctors' hands.

------
iheart2code
It's disappointing seeing how TestFlight has been integrated into iTunes
Connect. What mostly upsets me is the seemingly arbitrary review before the
app is released to testers. It's exactly this kind of a delay ("several
hours") that keeps me from using Google Play for Android app beta & alpha
testing.

I end up with tight deadlines and my testers include clients & superiors. I
can't afford a variable chunk of time between app compilation and release to
testers. I've had really good experiences with Crashlytics and have heard good
things about Hockeyapp. I'll stick with 3rd party distribution for the
forseeable future.

------
drewcrawford
Tester? Seeking tester? I'm running a list to connect developers to people who
want to test their apps.

All feedback appreciated.

[http://sealedabstract.com/betalist](http://sealedabstract.com/betalist)

~~~
chrisBob
>This list connects people who want testers, with people who need them.

I get what you mean, but this doesn't quite make sense.

~~~
drewcrawford
Good point. Better now?

------
nixarn
It's about time! It's been such a hassle always needing the device id,
creating the provisioning profiles, having to recreate the profiles and
rebuild the project for every user you add. And also being limited to only 100
devices.

~~~
soup10
Testflight has been around for a while. was using them for beta tests a couple
years ago. looks like apple acquired them and made it official.

~~~
dblacc
Yeah I think it was apparent that was the plan when they acquired them. It
just took them soo long to get it integrated. Using testflight as it was, was
good but it was a little painful. This in comparison should be a lot more
simplified and smooth.

------
mcmatterson
I'm going to do a bit of shameless self-promotion for my CLI tool for ad-hoc
deployments, hawk:

[https://github.com/mtrudel/hawk](https://github.com/mtrudel/hawk)

Using a bit of XML glue, it uses simple building blocks of xcodebuild, S3, and
email to give you one command building and distribution of your app, all
driven by a plaintext Hawkfile. I (and a few colleagues) have been using it
for a couple of years now, and it's been a real boon. Would love feedback.

------
Rafert
Sorry to see that the older TestFlight seems to be losing functionality.
Sessions show up as anonymous and remote logging doesn't work for me anymore.
I'm thinking of switching to [http://hockeyapp.net/](http://hockeyapp.net/)

------
mrborgen
I read that the beta app review only applies for the 1.0 version, or if you
make significant changes. Not sure about the time frame though.

------
atlbeer
Kudo's to them on branding. The name was so good even Apple decided to keep
it!

------
marpalmin
Is it only for ios8?

~~~
Scorponok
Yep.

