Apple Raises TestFlight Beta Tester Limit to 2,000, Extends Build Expiration to 60 Days

[MacRumors]

Apple today announced it is now allowing developers to invite up to 2,000 individuals to beta test iOS and tvOS apps using the TestFlight beta testing platform, an increase from the former 1,000 participant limit.

Since its 2014 launch, Apple has capped TestFlight beta testers at 1,000, but announced plans to expand that number at the June Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple has now made good on that promise, boosting the number of people who can install a beta app.

Apple has also increased the period of time before a TestFlight beta expires from 30 days to 60 days, another change that was first announced at WWDC.

Article Link: Apple Raises TestFlight Beta Tester Limit to 2,000, Extends Build Expiration to 60 Days

 

[SBlue1]

2000? Wow. This might be helpfull though.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Great news for developers.

 

[Baxpin]

This is great news, especially the 60 day part. Now if we could only bypass that beta app review for new versions...

 

[leuchtturm]

This is great news, especially the 60 day part. Now if we could only bypass that beta app review for new versions...

you can for new builds if you click the option that this build doesn't contain major changes.

 

[PowerBook-G5]

Hell yes! I know of a lot of folks over on Reddit that have been wistful for this.

 

[/dev/toaster]

Now only if they would remove the long review process for beta builds for established developers.

 

[brandoneggar]

This is great news, but honestly there are 3 issues that stop our team from using TestFlight for development:

1. Every build that gets uploaded sits in a "Processing..." state forever.

- You can't do anything (ie mark for internal/external testing) with an uploaded build until it finishes processing. I've seen it finish processing in less than an hour and other times it takes more than 3 hours. I even reached out to Apple Support to see why it takes so long to process builds and gotten the answer that processing can take up to 24 hours. I guess I should count myself lucky that it only takes 3 hours... <sigh>.

2. Waiting on review process before being able to externally test.

- Our development team doesn't have hours, much less days, to wait for someone to review our build.

3. No way to easily group testers.

- Sometimes I just want allow group access to specific builds. In it's current state I have to figure out which emails to allow access to builds. It would be so much better to be able to setup groups like: ios-devs, product, design, qa, etc...

I've gotten around these issues by creating an Enterprise build which is automatically uploaded to Crashlytics. Using the Enterprise developer account, with Crashlytics, allows the build to be IMMEDIATELY available to any of our testers (internal/external it just doesn't matter).

Apple I hope your listening here... Please fix iTunesConnect and TestFlight integration. It's seriously lacking at the moment.

 

[/dev/toaster]

This is great news, but honestly there are 3 issues that stop our team from using TestFlight for development:

1. Every build that gets uploaded sits in a "Processing..." state forever.

- You can't do anything (ie mark for internal/external testing) with an uploaded build until it finishes processing. I've seen it finish processing in less than an hour and other times it takes more than 3 hours. I even reached out to Apple Support to see why it takes so long to process builds and gotten the answer that processing can take up to 24 hours. I guess I should count myself lucky that it only takes 3 hours... <sigh>.

2. Waiting on review process before being able to externally test.

- Our development team doesn't have hours, much less days, to wait for someone to review our build.

3. No way to easily group testers.

- Sometimes I just want allow group access to specific builds. In it's current state I have to figure out which emails to allow access to builds. It would be so much better to be able to setup groups like: ios-devs, product, design, qa, etc...

I've gotten around these issues by creating an Enterprise build which is automatically uploaded to Crashlytics. Using the Enterprise developer account, with Crashlytics, allows the build to be IMMEDIATELY available to any of our testers (internal/external it just doesn't matter).

Apple I hope your listening here... Please fix iTunesConnect and TestFlight integration. It's seriously lacking at the moment.

What drives me crazy is that Test Flight was founded as a company to FIX these problems. Sure, dealing with UUID was a pain but once past that it was a breeze to work with. Test Flight *USED* to have a lot of these features.

Apple bought them, gutted Android support and all the features a giant leap backward.

 

[brandoneggar]

I'd love to use TestFlight, but unfortunately they need to fix the following issues before it's a viable option for our development team: https://medium.com/@brandoneggar/invite-more-testers-in-testflight-9a3450ba2e76

 

[Baxpin]

you can for new builds if you click the option that this build doesn't contain major changes.

For new builds yes, but it's still a pain when you're trying to update versions. I don't understand why reviews are necessary for beta builds.

 

[BrettMurphy]

This is great news, especially the 60 day part. Now if we could only bypass that beta app review for new versions...

I had my app approved by Apple for beta test in less than 1 hour today.