TestFlight
Original author(s)Benjamin Satterfield
Trystan Kosmynka
Developer(s)Apple Inc.
Stable release
3.3.0 / March 9, 2023; 12 months ago (2023-03-09)[1]
Operating system
Available in33 languages[1]
List of languages
English, Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
TypeApplication testing service
LicenseFreeware
Websitedeveloper.apple.com/testflight/

TestFlight is an online service for over-the-air installation and testing of mobile applications, currently owned by Apple Inc. and only offered to developers within the iOS Developer Program.[2][3][4] Developers sign up with the service to distribute applications to internal or external beta testers, who can subsequently send feedback about the application to developers.[4][5][6] The TestFlight SDK additionally allows developers to receive remote logs, crash reports and tester feedback.[7]

TestFlight initially supported testing of Android and iOS applications, but since March 2014, Apple has retracted support for Android.[8][9] As of 2015, applications must be published for TestFlight using Xcode, and testers must be invited using iTunes Connect.[4]

Developers can also provide a TestFlight invitation code to testers via email or a web page.[10] When the link is opened on an iPhone with the TestFlight app installed, a tester can directly install the beta app on their device. Developers can build beta tester groups directly using the App Store and Xcode integration and publicize these invitation links.

After invitation, up to 25 internal testers (with up to 10 devices each) and 10,000[11] external beta testers can download and test the application build. Up to 100 apps can be tested at a time, internally or externally. Testers may be grouped and separate builds created for each group. The TestFlight application for iOS notifies testers when new builds are available, features to focus on, and enables sending of feedback.[4]

History

TestFlight was founded by Benjamin Satterfield and Trystan Kosmynka on December 23, 2010, and was designed as a single platform to test mobile applications on Android and iOS devices.[12] It was acquired by Burstly in March 2012, and thereby gained the resources necessary to launch TestFlight Live.[12]

In 2011, Burstly raised $7.3 million from Upfront Ventures, Rincon Venture Partners, Softbank Capital and others.[9] Apple Inc. acquired Burstly in February 2014, and terminated support for Android as of March 2014.[8][9] Apple also shut down FlightPath (a mobile analytics solution and a replacement to TestFlight Live) and SkyRocket (a mobile application monetization platform) the same month.[9][13]

On 17 December 2023, several terabytes of pre-release iOS apps were discovered on the Wayback Machine, having been mirrored from 2012 to 2015 when TestFlight's servers had mistakenly made them publicly accessible. It was dubbed the "Teraleak" or "Terascrape", similar to Nintendo's Gigaleak from 3 years prior.[14] This content was later removed from the Internet Archive on January 4, 2024.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b "TestFlight on the App Store". App Store. March 9, 2023. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  2. ^ Turner, James (December 12, 2011). Developing Enterprise iOS Applications: iPhone and iPad Apps for Companies and Organizations. "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". ISBN 978-1-4493-2583-1.
  3. ^ Yeung, Ken (February 21, 2014). "Apple confirms that it has acquired TestFlight creator Burstly". The Next Web.
  4. ^ a b c d "TestFlight". Apple Developer. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  5. ^ Esposito, Dino (May 14, 2012). Architecting Mobile Solutions for the Enterprise. Microsoft Press. ISBN 978-0-7356-7336-6.
  6. ^ Manning, Jonathon; Buttfield-Addison, Paris; Nugent, Tim (December 10, 2014). Swift Development with Cocoa: Developing for the Mac and IOS App Stores. "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". ISBN 978-1-4919-0970-6.
  7. ^ Murray, Jeff W. (July 26, 2012). Game Development for iOS with Unity3D. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4398-9220-6.
  8. ^ a b Garun, Natt (January 26, 2015). "Apple to close the old standalone TestFlight beta testing service next month". The Next Web.
  9. ^ a b c d Perez, Sarah; Lawler, Ryan; Etherington, Darrell (February 21, 2014). "TestFlight Owner Burstly Acquired By Apple". TechCrunch. AOL.
  10. ^ Jain, Ashutosh (June 27, 2019). "TestFlight App | 65+ Redeem Invitation Codes [2022 List]". Tiny Quip. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
  11. ^ Miller, Chance (July 31, 2017). "Apple expands TestFlight tester limit to 10,000 users". 9to5Mac. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
  12. ^ a b Constine, Josh (March 5, 2012). "Why Did TestFlight Sell To Burstly? "We Couldn't Change The App Ecosystem Alone"". TechCrunch. AOL.
  13. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (March 13, 2014). "After Apple Acquisition, Burstly's SkyRocket Users Get 90-Day Notice". TechCrunch. AOL.
  14. ^ "Apple TestFlight servers from 2012 to 2015 leak, containing terabytes of data". Eurogamer.net. December 18, 2023.
  15. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/https://d193ln56du8muy.cloudfront.net/ipas/

See also

Categories