74

Can anyone please explain in complete details the difference between internal and external testers in iTunes Connect Testflight beta testing? The difference here is just too brief. Does internal testers need to add UDID's of upto 10 devices? Or did apple completely removed UDID requirement now?

Can someone please explain what needs to be done to distribute and test app of upto 1000 users? If I have the clients iTunes Connect credentials, how do I share the app from his own account?

I know that there are too many questions asked in this thread which is against stackoverflow's policy, but i only need do's and don'ts of internal and external testing of this awful itunes connect testflight beta testing.

Deepak Thakur
  • 3,453
  • 2
  • 37
  • 65

4 Answers4

95

Internal Testers must be assigned the Admin, Technical, App Manager, Developer, or Marketer role in iTunes Connect, and you can only have 25 of them. You should review the iTunes Connect Roles. If you don't trust someone with these privileges, they aren't "Internal", they're "External".

You can have many more External users, but apps need to go through the App Store review process before these users can test them:

Apps made available to external testers require a Beta App Review and must comply with the full App Store Review Guidelines before testing can begin. A review is required for new versions of your app that contain significant changes. Up to 10 apps can be tested at a time, internally or externally.

Aaron Brager
  • 65,323
  • 19
  • 161
  • 287
  • Ok. now i have the client's iTunes Connect credentials. I uploaded the app and added him as an internal tester. How do I notify him about the build that is uploaded? None of the internal testers received an email that a new build is uploaded. – Deepak Thakur Mar 02 '15 at 05:10
  • 2
    Go to the "internal testers" tab, check each user you want to invite and click on the "Invite" button on the right. There is a four minute video that explains all the basics in https://developer.apple.com/testflight/update/ (scroll to the bottom of the page for the video). – Christian Garbin Mar 03 '15 at 20:53
  • 1
    Why is iTunes Connect saying that it can be Legal too? works? – Yaro Mar 14 '15 at 01:11
  • 1
    Do we need UDID for External users? – iphonedev23 Apr 23 '15 at 09:37
  • 6
    UDID is no longer needed. Invitations are now sent via apple testflight to email IDs which even don't need to match to apple IDs of testers. – zeeawan Apr 29 '15 at 17:00
  • There is a limit to 10 devices for internal tester, is there a limit for external one? – Ben Sep 25 '15 at 09:40
  • @popei You can have up to 1,000 external testers according to https://www.google.com/search?q=testflight%20external%20tester%20limit – Aaron Brager Sep 25 '15 at 14:47
  • There is no Invite button. – Phil O Mar 04 '16 at 12:42
  • @Aaron-Brager Where does it state from Apple that they have to be a technical or higher to be an internal tester? I thought internal and external referred to inside and outside your organization? – stonedauwg May 10 '16 at 20:42
  • @stonedauwg See "Inviting Internal Testers" on https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/iTunesConnect_Guide/Chapters/BetaTestingTheApp.html – Aaron Brager May 10 '16 at 20:57
  • @Aaron-Brager I just looked and it states: "To be eligible to become an internal tester, a user must be part of your iTunes Connect team with the Admin, Technical, App Manager, Developer, or Marketer role", so you may want to edit your answer to be correct - they only have to at least be Marketer role, not Technical role. So basically anything above the lowest role - Sales, is eligible. I already upvoted you answer - just helping for clarity – stonedauwg May 10 '16 at 21:04
  • @stonedauwg Thanks, I'll edit it. I'm pretty sure that changed. – Aaron Brager May 10 '16 at 23:45
  • @Aaron-Brager not your fault - [Apple's marketing page](https://developer.apple.com/testflight/) itself says only those 2 roles, but then the dev guide you linked to says **more** roles - so Apple contradicts themselves here. I think the dev guide is correct based on actual usage of this feature – stonedauwg May 11 '16 at 13:43
  • 10 device limit for a TestFlight user. **Tip: To remove an unused test device, touch Apple ID displayed at bottom of TestFlight app running on a device belonging to the user.** – Ed of the Mountain Aug 16 '16 at 13:22
  • @Ben Yesterday one of our internal tester exceeded limit (11 devices) How's that possible ? Posted here in this thread http://stackoverflow.com/questions/43084603/testflight-internal-tester-able-to-install-app-in-more-than-maximum-10-devices – byJeevan Mar 29 '17 at 08:49
  • The limit is now 100 internal testers. – CyberMew Aug 05 '20 at 16:55
43

Upload your app to TestFlight

Both internal and external testers will install your app from the TestFlight app. Once invited, they will be sent an email asking them to install the TestFlight app. Once they have done so, they'll be able to install your beta app...

Internal Testers: Think of these users as employees who receive instant updates to your app without approval/review

  • Must be added manually via iTC
  • 25 Max allowed
  • Once your app is uploaded it's available immediately for internal testers (before it has been reviewed)
  • All internal testers must be added as a user in your iTC "Users and Roles" settings, which gives them certain permissions (review other answers and the docs for this). You wouldn't want to give just anyone permissions here.
  • Do not have a 60-day time limit

External Testers

  • Will only be able to use your uploaded build for up to 60 days. If you add additional builds, they can update, and the 60 days starts over again.

  • Will be able to test your app after

    1. You have submitted it for review
    2. It gets approved in TestFlight review and
    3. You set it to be available for testing. The review process us usually instant for new builds with the same version number. If you add a new version number, the review process can take up to 48hrs as of 10/2016.

  • Can be added automatically by importing a csv file or with Fastlane's pilot automation tool.

  • As of now (August 2016), up to 2000 email addresses can be added. Each email address will allow a user to install the app on multiple devices. The email addresses do not need to match their Apple IDs.

  • They receive an invite to install your app once your first build is available for testing. If you add a new user after making a build available for testing, they'll immediately receive an invite. All users will receive notifications to install newer versions of the app if you upload additional builds.

  • Will be disallowed from using your app after you have pushed it to the official app store (which promptly ends the beta) or 60 days have passed since you started the beta, whichever comes first. If you end the beta without launching in the app store, and they try to open it, it will crash. Yay, Apple UX! If you do push a version to the app store with the same bundleName, version, and bundleID (build number doesn't matter), then your beta testers will automatically receive the app-store version of the app when it goes live.

jungledev
  • 4,195
  • 1
  • 37
  • 52
9

Internal Testester

  1. Email id should be used with apple account
  2. Internal tester will be a member of developer account. Roles may be Admin, Technical, Manager, Developer, Marketer
  3. Only 25 internal testers are allowed
  4. Each tester can test on upto 30 devices
  5. Can test 100 apps at a time
  6. Build remains active for 90 days
  7. No app beta review

External Tester

  1. Email id need not to be used with apple account
  2. 10,000 external testers are allowed
  3. Can test 100 apps at a time
  4. Build remains active for 90 days
  5. App required beta review.
John
  • 238
  • 2
  • 11
3

iOS app testing for getting early feedbacks may be done in multiple ways. Enterprise, Adhoc and the new iOS8 Testflight Beta testing

Ad-hoc Provisioning

In this method the focus is on devices rather than the users. The devices UDID need to be registered in member center and the deployment profile MUST have the UDID of the specific device to download the app build. The app may be hosted on testflight or even dropbox (Only https: is supported).

TestFlight Beta Testing for iOS applications:

UDID is no longer required. The focus is on test users rather than device. A single user may have multiple devices on which the beta app may be installed.

For the Test Users of Beta Testing please refer to the "Aaron Brager's" Answer.

Gaurav Singla
  • 2,271
  • 26
  • 43
  • Documentation from `UDID is no longer required`? – jose920405 Aug 16 '16 at 17:24
  • UDIDs are no longer required for testing via TestFlight, We can directly send invitations from the TestFlight to tester's emails. – Gaurav Singla Aug 17 '16 at 19:36
  • Is it possible to enable testing only for internal users but not for external users ? – Sushil Sharma Mar 06 '17 at 04:34
  • Yes, It is possible. There are two separate sections for internal testing and external testing in iTunesConnect and you can manage both differently. To enable internal testing, just add some internal users -> select build and start testing. Same process for external testing but its build should be approved by apple before starting external testing. – Gaurav Singla Mar 06 '17 at 05:34