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TestFlight appears in App Store as Apple readies launch of its beta testing service

Screenshot 2014-09-05 10.41.23

TestFlight is now appearing in the App Store, ahead of an expected launch later this month. The service will allow developers to easily share betas of upcoming apps with public testers. It was discovered Apple had bought TestFlight earlier this year and the company subsequently announced the integration of the service into its developer portal at WWDC.

Before Apple’s acquisition, TestFlight was not in the App Store itself as it violated app review guidelines. Being part of the App Store makes it much more accessible to the general public and should incentivize more beta testers to participate in general.

TestFlight is available for download, but offers little functionality until Apple unlocks everything on the developer portal side so that app builds can be submitted. Therefore, users are merely faced with a blank ‘No invites’ screen, shown below.

When the service is fully operational, developers will send an invitation to your email address. Builds will then show in the app’s main list. Notifications will inform participants when developers have pushed new versions. The advantage to developers of this new TestFlight system is that they can invite users with only an email address. Developers do not have to worry about managing a set of registered UDID’s anymore. Apple published the rules for TestFlight a couple of days ago. Builds may have to be reviewed by Apple before they can be made available to testers, in some circumstances.

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Thanks Paul!

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Comments

  1. Did they pull it? I don’t see it when I search for it (iOS 7 or 8’s stores).

  2. border1ine - 10 years ago

    They really shouldn’t have pulled it. I needed TestFlight a few months ago, but since it wasn’t there I had to switch to something else. I tried out Crashlytics and it has been working really well for me.

  3. coinaphrase - 10 years ago

    I don’t see it either. Hope it’s back in a few days. :)

  4. aeronperyton - 10 years ago

    That is a really cool icon, totally Apple’s style. Can they give whomever made that icon carte blanche over all the stock iOS icons… please?

  5. PMZanetti - 10 years ago

    “Before Apple’s acquisition, TestFlight was not in the App Store itself as it violated app review guidelines. ”

    Yea….like….for instance…..allowing Deployment of Android Apps…..it was a great MULTI platform solution for distributing and organizing beta builds. I’ve been using it for 3 years.

    Now I’ll have to go another route, or use more than one solution, as will every developer that has no choice but support more than just iOS.

  6. Its in the app store if you click the link at the beginning of this article, but I’m getting a popup saying it’s only available for iOS8.

  7. fluhartyml - 10 years ago

    Looks like it was a unicorn app. . . here to talk about but after you look for it its already gone. . .

Author

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.