If you’re an app developer, you would always want to ensure that your product is fully tested before unleashing it into the market. Live testing is probably the best way for you to see if there are any bugs needed to be fixed or if your app is actually working properly. Amazon Appstore is now introducing Live App Testing for their developers, proof that they are indeed serious in getting through to mobile developers and the app market.
Simply put, Live App Testing is for an app to be distributed to several selected people who will be able to fully use the product as if it were already live. They will be able to use it not just on their Amazon Kindle Fire tablets and Fire Phone, but also on other Android devices. The developers have a portal wherein they need to upload their new app, but instead of directly publishing it, they can choose the live testing option and manually add the email addresses of the selected testers.
The selected testers will then receive an email with instructions on how to download the app. From then on, they will have the capability of using the app and all its features They can then give feedback to the developers as to the feasibility of the app or to spot several things that need fixing. What is not clear at this point is how the feedback mechanism works. Do they just reply through email or is there a link where they just upload their comments and Amazon manages all of these feedback?
Google Play Store launched a similar program last year with its live beta testing and staged rollouts. But instead of adding the names and email addresses manually, developers could simply invite their selected testers to join the G+ group and from there, they will be given access to test the app. You could say the process is much simpler this way, but it’s still early stages for Amazon’s live testing capability so we can expect improvements later on.
SOURCE: Amazon