The Beginner's Guide for Beta Testing Your App!

When an Android or iOS application is being developed, it becomes a good practice to beta test the mobile application before it is released. The objective of performing the test is to get the product to undergo the testing in a real-time environment and thus assess its value in the marketplace.

Understanding the feedback provided by beta testers will help a great deal in improving the quality of the product. In this article, you will get to know about the overall basics of beta testing.

What is beta testing?

It is a testing method where users (known as beta testers) will test the beta version (80% to 95% completed) of a software product or application in a real-time production environment.

The need for beta testing:

In the initial stages of the software development process, developers and testers will perform alpha testing on the specific application in order to find technical glitches and bugs and then fix them.

The issue is that it is difficult to replicate test query, every possible configuration and bug that could possibly occur when many users will use an application. For this purpose, the application will be taken to the next level, which is beta testing.

Beta testers will take the responsibility to test the application for a specified timeframe and then report back if there are any bugs, issues or feedback about the specific application.

This will help in validating the ideas quickly, making sure that the progress of the application is moving in the right direction and see if it can meet user needs.

Develop a strategy to find the right beta testers:

Selecting the right beta tester depends upon the aims and objectives of beta testing app phase. Selecting testers should be based upon key factors such as conducting PR, building a group of early users, getting feature requests or discovering corner case bugs.

The outcome and quality of the beta testing activity will greatly depend upon the skill and expertise of beta testers. The intended testers should be divided into different groups so that the proper bug reports and the right feedback can be expected.

The number of testers needs to be considered:

It’s generally considered that one out of three or five users will genuinely test the specific application. For example, if there are 1000 testers then 200 testers will ensure that valuable, insightful and in-depth feedback is received. But, for testing an application, the approximate number of testers can be around 100-300 testers.

The necessary tactics to obtain the right beta testers:

Following is an important list from where quality beta testers can be recruited:

1. Quora: There are many influencers and early adopters that can be found answering in the beta testing platform. The team can reach out to them and then encourage them to get engaged and provide valuable feedback about the application.

2. Twitter: Find common hashtags such as #Testmyapp #Betatesters #Betatesting etc., and from there initiate the process of finding those testers who are in line with your project specific requirements

3. Beta family: It is a crowd-testing platform for beta testing Android and iOS applications.

The duration of the beta testing process:

The time taken for conducting beta tests and evaluating should be worked out by the concerned teams. Key factors such as tester limitations and available resources should be taken into consideration.

Consider the platforms for distributing the application:

Following are a few app distributing platforms:

1. Appaloosa: It is a secure and simple enterprise app store

2. TestFlight: It is an easy to use tool where applications are distributed to external testers

3. Crashyltics Beta: A streamlined solution is provided for distributing applications, with a single toolset for Android and iOS.

Conclusion: If you are looking forward to implementing beta testing for your specific project, then do get connected with a globally renowned software testing services company that will provide professional consultation and support along with a tactical testing strategy.

About the author: I am a technical content writer focused on writing technology specific articles. I strive to provide well-researched information on the leading market savvy technologies.