Testing your iOS apps with Testflight

When you need to release iOS code fast, especially to new customers with unregistered iPhones, it is a good idea to use one of these over the air testing platforms such as TestFlight or HockeyApp.

One of the issues with writing native code is that your customers will need an Apple Developer account to test out your code. Applying for an account takes about 1 week and it costs about $100. Some customers are not willing to wait for that and are keen to see their work progress in action soon.

With just the udid of the tester's phone and a few simple registration steps, TestFlight.com will allow for your build to be tested out right away.

And it gets even better: using TestFlight is free of charges!

The way the app testing process works is very simple: as a developer you basically create your team, get their phones udids, provison their profiles, build the app for those udids then distribute the .ipa through TestFlight for testing. As a tester all you have to do is to join the team created by your developer, connect your device and then, when the build is ready, to follow the e-mailed links for app installation.

Here are a little more details about how this process works:

http://help.testflightapp.com/customer/portal/articles/829537-how-does-it-work-

TestFlight also provides an SDK to be integrated for more advanced reports such as sessions (which essentially tell the developers how the testers are using their app), crash reports, in-app updates, in-app feed-back etc.

Please find more details about TestFlight's SDK here:

https://testflightapp.com/sdk

I totally recommend TestFlight to all the iOS app developers who are under time constraints for deliverables and to all the agile teams out there.

Make it a great day!

Adrian Corbuleanu
Miami Beach, FL
http://wittywebnow.com