Apple Acquires 'TestFlight' iOS Beta Testing Platform With Burstly Purchase

[MacRumors]

Apple has purchased Burstly, the company behind the popular iOS beta testing platform TestFlight, according to TechCrunch. The site says its sources have "pointed in Apple's direction" and that though it's just a rumor at this point, it would make a good fit.

TestFlight said on Wednesday that it would be discontinuing its Android product and it will no longer take new customers for its beta testing SDK -- existing customers can continue using TestFlight, however.

Odder still is how these product announcements - which greatly impact the company's mobile developer user base - have been handled so far. There's been no mention of them on the TestFlight changelog, for example, no company blog post, no emails, and no mention of them on social media channels - that is, unless you count the replies to confused developers from @testflightapp, the company's main Twitter account. Developers are being asked to reach out directly to the company via an email form instead of being given a more useful public reply.

There are a number of different beta testing iOS platforms, including TestFlight and HockeyApp, though a number of larger developers have created their own testing platforms through Apple's Enterprise distribution program.

Update: Apple confirmed the purchase to Re/code, but did not disclose pricing.

Article Link: Apple Acquires 'TestFlight' iOS Beta Testing Platform With Burstly Purchase

 

[MikhailT]

That explains why TestFlight've stopped supporting Android recently.

 

[Rudy69]

This could be great, hopefully Apple will use their product to make a top notch first party solution for iOS testing

 

[Gudi]

Great. How much did they pay? More or less than $19bn.

 

[Jessica Lares]

TestFlight is amazing. I've been beta testing things for developers with it for years and years now. I think every developer could benefit from it, so am all for Apple acquiring it.

 

[AMDeeb]

Where's the: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." ?

 

[greenl1ght]

Oh god no... I hope this isn't true... TestFlight is the only thing that made deploying beta versions of iOS apps bearable. Now I expect them to ruin it by adding pointless restrictions.

My company is suffering REALLY BAD from the 110 devices/developer restriction for developer accounts (try testing In-App purchases, iCloud, Keychain, push notifications etc for a top-50 app with any of the workarounds people usually propose). If TestFlight added the same restriction, it would make our lives even worse.

I love Objective-C and the Cocoa Touch APIs, but Apple's dev tools (does anyone use the built-in git support in Xcode?) and dev infrastructure (provisioning.profiles.need.to.die.) are really developer-hostile. Their restrictions are strangling us.

 

[lincolntran]

Oh god no... TestFlight is the only thing that made deploying beta test of iOS apps bearable. Now I expect them to ruin it by adding pointless restrictions.

My company is suffering REALLY BAD from the 110 devices/developer restriction for developer accounts (try testing In-App purchases, iCloud, Keychain, push notifications etc for a top-50 app with any of the workarounds people usually propose). If TestFlight added the same restriction, it would make our lives even worse.

I love Objective-C and the Cocoa Touch APIs, but Apple's dev tools (does anyone use the built-in git support in Xcode?) and dev infrastructure (provisioning.profiles.need.to.die.) are really developer-hostile. Their restrictions are strangling us.

A company should use enterprise account to distribute beta apps. It has unlimited amount of device, no restriction at all. Was there any specific reason your company don't use it?

 

[greenl1ght]

A company should use enterprise account to distribute beta apps. It has unlimited amount of device, no restriction at all. Was there any specific reason your company don't use it?

Just to begin with, you can't test in-app purchases.

And an Enterprise account can't also sell software on the App Store. And you need a unique DUNS number for the Enterprise account. So we'd have to create a whole new company just to get a second DUNS number for the testing account. Apple's policies make NO sense.

 

[starnox]

Apple doesn't have a good track record of turning their purchases into useful products for quite a while. Shame I enjoyed test flight.

 

[automachete]

Yeah, this is pretty nuts. TestFlight has also deprecated its own iOS SDK, too.

http://help.testflightapp.com/customer/portal/articles/1452760

If your team has never uploaded a build with an SDK or you are a new TestFlight user then you will not be able to incorporate any version of the TestFlight SDK. You will be asked to remove the SDK from your build and re-upload.

If you've used their SDK before, they'll allow you to continue using it as long as you update to v3, which is a rather neutered version, if you ask me.

https://www.testflightapp.com/sdk/ios/release_notes/3.0.0/

Remove checkpoints, feedback, and logs from production apps.

 

[czeluff]

Oh god no... I hope this isn't true... TestFlight is the only thing that made deploying beta versions of iOS apps bearable. Now I expect them to ruin it by adding pointless restrictions.

My company is suffering REALLY BAD from the 110 devices/developer restriction for developer accounts (try testing In-App purchases, iCloud, Keychain, push notifications etc for a top-50 app with any of the workarounds people usually propose). If TestFlight added the same restriction, it would make our lives even worse.

I love Objective-C and the Cocoa Touch APIs, but Apple's dev tools (does anyone use the built-in git support in Xcode?) and dev infrastructure (provisioning.profiles.need.to.die.) are really developer-hostile. Their restrictions are strangling us.

I think this is the whole reason they purchased them?

 

[JohnSep7]

It seems that TestFlight might be going down with this: there is definitely no use for Apple to maintain it as a service...

We have already switched to diawi for our test deployments some months ago.

 

[MacVault]

Bummer - I saw that pic and was hoping Apple was going to transform general aviation with user-friendly, crash-proof, pilot-less aircraft... Seriously, aviation is in the stone age. We need the "Apple" of aviation / air travel!

 

[sza]

less than 19B

 

[firewood]

And an Enterprise account can't also sell software on the App Store. And you need a unique DUNS number for the Enterprise account. So we'd have to create a whole new company just to get a second DUNS number for the testing account. Apple's policies make NO sense.

A corporation can have both a standard iOS company developer account and an Enterprise account under the same DUNS number. Lots do.

 

[foobarbaz]

I don't get it. The only reason TestFlight exists is to conveniently work around the restrictions in Apple's tools. Why in the world would Apple want their knowledge? They could just lift the restrictions or build in beta testing directly into their tools. Neither is helped by TestFlight's outside knowledge of Apple's APIs.

I suspect they are more interested in Burstly and implementing app analytics. TestFlight will probably just bycatch that will needlessly die.

 

[MarioG]

Apple confirms acquisition of something what might actually be useful, nothing happens, the stock continues traditional friday selloff. Fb disgustingly overpays an app that no one sane ever needed and the whole WallStreet applauds.

 

[crossifixio]

Apparently it went for 23 billion dollars!

 

[flash84x]

A company should use enterprise account to distribute beta apps. It has unlimited amount of device, no restriction at all. Was there any specific reason your company don't use it?

You are not allowed to distribute outside of your organization using Enterprise certificates/profiles. We manage an Enterprise account for all of our pre-release with internal employees but also a standard Team Developer account to do ad-hoc distribution to beta customers. Oh, and you can't distribute to the AppStore with the Enterprise account either.

 

[greenl1ght]

A corporation can have both a standard iOS company developer account and an Enterprise account under the same DUNS number. Lots do.

OK add "clueless reps and useless support docs" to the deficiencies in Apple's developer support then

 

[Luke Redpath]

Well this explains the SDK policy changes, which were confusing me earlier. I only just started using TestFlight again after using HockeyApp for a previous client. I guess its back to HockeyApp in the near future then (unless Apple does something good with TestFlight and announces it at WWDC).

 

[charlituna]

Where's the: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." ?

They confirmed yes they bought it. After they bought it. They didn't talk about their interest in perhaps buying it, they didn't allow the company to talk about it either. They haven't said why they want it or how much they paid. Although the why seems a tad obvious.

----------

Just to begin with, you can't test in-app purchases.

And an Enterprise account can't also sell software on the App Store. And you need a unique DUNS number for the Enterprise account. So we'd have to create a whole new company just to get a second DUNS number for the testing account. Apple's policies make NO sense.

Did you not know these policies when you started. And yet continued rather than going to say Android.

 

[seecoolguy]

Where's the: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." ?

Re/Code has a quote from the Apple rep just like that

 

[chasemac]

Apparently it went for 23 billion dollars!

No, it went for.