How to beta test an iPhone app with TestFlight

TestFlight sits inside App Store Connect. To get into App Store Connect you have to join the Apple Developer Program, which Apple says costs 99 USD a year, charged in local currency where it can be. Enrolling as an individual and paying by card? Use your own card, in your own legal name. Pay with your brother's card and Apple delays the enrolment and asks for a copy of your photo ID.¹

Your legal name is also what appears as the seller on the App Store for an individual account. So don't type a nickname or your business name into the name fields.¹

The free Apple account that comes with Xcode lets you put the app on a few of your own devices, and that's it. It won't get the app to anyone else.

Apple has two kinds of tester, and for a small team the difference is big.

Internal testers are people already on your App Store Connect team, with a role such as Admin, Developer or Marketing. You can have up to 100 of them.² They can test every build you upload, and each build stays open to them for 90 days.³

External testers are everyone else. They just need an Apple account and an iPhone, iPad or Mac. You can have up to 10,000 per app.⁴ That's your friends, your cousin in Abuja, the people in your church tech group, early users who signed up on your waitlist.

Two-person team? Put yourselves in internal testing. Everyone else goes external.

Internal builds go out without waiting on Apple. External ones don't. Add your first build to an external group and Apple's App Review team checks it. Nobody outside your team can test until they approve it. Later builds of the same version might not need a full review.⁵

You'll be asked for a line or two about the beta, a feedback email, and notes for the reviewer.² Does your app ask people to log in? Then give the reviewer a test account, and try it yourself first. A login screen they can't get past is an easy reason to be sent back.

Apple also lets you send up to six builds for review in any 24 hours.⁵ You shouldn't need that many. If you do, slow down and test more on your own phone first.

You can bring people in two ways. You can add testers by email, one by one or from a CSV file, and each person gets an invitation in their inbox.⁵

Or you can switch on a public link. Whoever opens it can join, up to a cap you pick between 1 and 10,000. Set a minimum iOS version too.⁵ If you don't, a friend on an old iPhone 7 may join, hit problems nobody else sees, and you lose a weekend chasing them.

Be careful where the public link goes. Anyone can forward it, so a link dropped in a big WhatsApp group can fill your spots with people who will never open the app. Apple suggests turning the link off once you've reached your limit.²

Each tester installs the free TestFlight app from the App Store, then opens your invite or link.⁴ One person can test on up to 30 of their own devices.²

Tell them the build is a real download. On mobile data in Lagos or Ibadan, a large app can eat into someone's bundle, so ask them to install it on Wi-Fi if they can.

Inside TestFlight, testers can take a screenshot, mark it up and send it to you with a note. If the app crashes, you get a crash report.² Ask them to use this. Feedback that arrives with the screen attached is far easier to act on than a voice note that says “it didn't work”.

A TestFlight build stops working for testers 90 days after you upload it.⁴ If your test runs long, or you leave it alone for a few months, people will open the app one morning and find it won't launch. Upload a fresh build before the old one runs out, and tell the group when you do.

Apple has no rule that a set number of people must test for a set number of days before you can publish. Google does, for new personal accounts. If you're building for both stores, our guide to Google Play's 12 testers covers the Android side, and you can run both tests in the same weeks.

Most Nigerian builders will find more Android users than iPhone users among the people they know, so start recruiting iPhone testers early. Ask in each group who has an iPhone before you send any link.

On Prow: Posting your app on Prow is free, even while it's still in TestFlight. Add your public TestFlight link to your project page and it shows up labelled as TestFlight, so iPhone users browsing Prow can join the test. You can say what you want feedback on, and people can leave it on your page and tag it, for example as a bug or as something they'd pay for.

• You have a paid Apple Developer account in your own legal name.
• You and your cofounder test as internal testers. Friends and users join as external ones.
• Your first external build has passed Apple's review, with a working test login if the app needs one.
• The public link has a sensible limit, or you're inviting people by email.
• Testers know to use the screenshot feedback in TestFlight.
• You upload a new build before the 90 days run out.