TestFlight Beta Testing
developer.apple.com
developer.apple.com
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
Waiting on Apple for each one of those builds? No, thank you.
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.
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.]
Eww. Still doesn't hold a candle to an APK.
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.
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.
Apple does a very brief phone interview when you setup an enterprise account. I explained exactly what we were using the enterprise account for and they said it was fine.
As eropple said, maybe everyone's not on the same page.
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.
All feedback appreciated.
I get what you mean, but this doesn't quite make sense.
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.