Having others test beta apps for iPhone

Unity Engine
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1

For development purposes, it would be handy if a friend or associate could test a beta app on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, without needing a license to Unity iPhone. Are there roadblocks to doing this? For example, does it require jail-breaking the device?

2

no roadblocks. all you need to do is pay apple the dev fee and add his device to your lists, then you can create adhoc provisions and adhoc builds which you can send to him for installation through itunes.

3

I was wondering about this too. I think what I’ll do is just test it as best as i can, then put it in the itunes store. That way i can have my friends simply buy it and then tell me if they find any bugs or problems and then later add updates to my app in the store.

4

I was thinking of just buying iPhones for all my friends and handing them out with my apps on them. :wink:

Seriously though, it really is alot simpler than Apple would lead you to believe. I put off testing on friend’s phones for weeks because I thought it was going to be a pain. It’s incredibly easy.

  1. Get the UUID from each person’s phone. I wrote up a templated email that explains how (‘Click on the device’s serial number in iTunes, then copy and email it back to me… etc.’)

  2. Add their device to your list in the Dev Portal.

  3. Associate their device with your specific app in the Provisioning section of the Portal.

  4. Refresh the site and download the updated Provisioning Profile.

  5. Email this to your beta testers and tell them to drop onto the itunes icon in the dock (simplest).

  6. Now find your latest .app file in your Builds folder for your Xcode project.

  7. Zip and mail that to your beta testers, with instructions to drop it onto iTunes and then sync their device.

Done!

After the first time, you only need to repeat the last step with each new build. You will need to repeat all the steps if they change phones, or you start a new app project.

5

As a next step beyond ad hoc deployment, there is an informal way many app devs “beta” their apps to a larger audience: They release to the Canada iTunes store only, and direct Facebook friends and website visitors to it there. The Canada store represents ~5% of the global iTunes market, so it ends up being something like an informal closed beta when you have a good release candidate.