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Getting started for testers

  • Straipsnis

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.

Navigating through any new tool can be overwhelming as a tester. There are many different elements and hurdles for getting builds on your devices, which can ultimately make testing apps a frustrating experience. To help you, we created a simple workflow in App Center for testers. In addition, we've created this guide to aid in any parts of testing in App Center that may seem unclear. We know that testing is an important part of the app development process, so we aim to ensure a smooth and successful experience.

What's App Center?

App Center is a continuous integration, delivery, and testing solution for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows apps. App Center enables developers to ship apps faster and with more confidence by automating the development life cycle.

App Center offers many different services, but the most relevant for testing is our Distribution service. App Center allows developers to release application binaries to you, a tester, via download link, or the App Center install portal.

This document assumes that you're attempting to get started as a tester, and have been invited to test an App Center app.

First Steps

When you're invited to test an app by a developer, you should receive an email notifying you of the assignment. This email includes a button that enables you to create an App Center account if you don't currently have one. If you have an account, login and view your apps. After logging in, the steps for installing your apps are slightly different depending on the OS you're testing on.

You can create an account before a developer officially invites you to test an application, you can sign up on the App Center website

To get started with installing the app you've been invited to test, select one of:

Stop Testing

You can stop testing an app and remove yourself from all distribution groups for that app. When you do this, you'll no longer receive notifications for that app, and will no longer have access to the app in the App Center developer and install portals. To remove yourself from an app, the following conditions must be true:

  • You're not an app collaborator for the app
  • You're not part of a shared group for the app
  • You're not part of an AAD group for the app

If all the listed conditions apply to you, you can remove yourself as a tester for an app. To do so, complete the following steps:

  1. Navigate to the App Center Install Portal on your mobile device.
  2. Select the Application project you want to stop testing.
  3. Located on the top right of the screen, click the three dots menu item.
  4. Click the Stop testing app button.

After completing these steps, you'll no longer be a tester of the app.