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Getting Started with App Center Test

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Important

Visual Studio App Center is scheduled for retirement on March 31, 2025. While you can continue to use Visual Studio App Center until it is fully retired, there are several recommended alternatives that you may consider migrating to.

Learn more about support timelines and alternatives.

These steps must be completed before a project can be used with App Center Test.

1. Create an App Center account

Create an App Center account at appcenter.ms.

2. Install the App Center CLI

Test runs are executed using the App Center CLI. If not already installed, follow these instructions to install. After installation, run appcenter login to link an App Center account with the tool.

3. Create an app in App Center

All test assets and operations are within the context of an app. Create the app project to be tested.

4. Review the core concepts

Understanding the core concepts of the test service improve ease of use, navigation, and communications with support. See Test core concepts before running your first tests.

5. Make sure your tests run locally on a physical device

App Center Test only uses physical devices for testing, not emulators or simulators. For Android developers, this might not make a difference, since an APK targeting an emulator is usually valid for targeting an equivalent real Android device.

For iOS developers, however, it can be more challenging:

  • Apps built for iOS devices and simulators aren't cross-compatible because of different processor architectures.
  • Apps built for iOS devices MUST be provisioned using Apple's signing process. iOS provisioning can be difficult to setup initially, and update later when profiles expire or require modification.
  • Some testing frameworks, like Xamarin.UITest & Calabash, are explicitly incompatible with publishing iOS apps to the App Store. These frameworks add assemblies to the IPA that should only be present during development.
  • The first time you test on a physical iOS device, you must Enable UIAutomation in the device settings.

Skipping local testing is possible, but not recommended. It's much more difficult to diagnose issues running in App Center if the app has unresolved local testing issues.

6. Prepare the project for upload

Each test framework has different requirements for uploading to App Center Test. Follow the appropriate test framework instructions: