Where do alpha testers download Google Play Androi

问题:

I have developed my app and have published it through Google Play for alpha testing. As one of the testers I get an opt-in link, where I signed in as a tester. After that I was hoping to download the app directly with my phone by going to the Play Store on my phone. But as it seems to turn out, I have to got to the app's web profile and then from there click download; only then does the Play Store download the app to my phone.

I want to get other alpha testers involved and I was hoping to make the process easier for them. Is there an easier way? As in, once they opt-in, I would like them to just use their Android phone to download the app the way they would any other app. Is there a way?

Clarifications:

• I am not looking for an alternative to Google Play

• I have already gone through the Google Group creation process. My question is concerning what happens after a group member opts-in. Can they use their phone directly (play-app on phone) or must they download from the website? So far I have not been successful using the play-app.

回答1:

You need to publish the app before it becomes availible for testing.

if you publish the app and the apk is only in "alpha testing" section then it is NOT availible to general public, only for activated testers in the alpha section.

EDIT: One additional note: "normal" uses will not find your app on Google Play, but also the activated tester can not find the application by using the search box.

Only the direct link to the application package will work. (only for the activated testers).

回答2:

Here is a check list for you:

1) Is your app published? (Production APK is not required for publishing)

2) Did your alpha/beta testers "Accept invitation" to Google+ community or Google group?

3) Are your alpha/beta testers logged in their Google+ account?

4) Are your alpha/beta testers using your link from Google Play developer console? It has format like this: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.yourdomain.package

回答3:

1. Publish your alpha apk by pressing the submit button.

2. Wait until it's published.
   (e.g.: CURRENT APK published on Apr 28, 2015, 2:20:13AM)

3. Select Alpha testers - click Manage list of testers.

4. Share the link with your testers (by email).
   (e.g.: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/uk.co.xxxxx.xxxxx)

回答4:

Under APK/ALPHA TESTING/MANAGE TESTERS you find:

Choose the method you want. Then you need to first upload your Apk. Before it can be published you need to go to the usual steps in publishing which means: you need icons, the FSK ratings, screenshots etc.

After you added it you click on publish.

You find the link for your testers at:

回答5:

It should be noted that releasing an alpha app for the first time may take up to a few hours before an opt-in link is available and invitations are sent out to the email addresses in your testers list.

From Google support:

After publishing an alpha/beta app for the first time, it may take a few hours for your test link to be available to testers. If you publish additional changes, they may take several hours to be available for testers. [source]

You may want to wait until you have an initial opt-in link before publishing more changes to the app because doing so is likely to increase your wait time for receiving your tester link; or, may lead to your testers testing with the incorrect version.

Hope that clears things up for anyone confused about why they don't have an opt-in link as depicted in screenshots in this SO thread!

回答6:

In my experience the flow is:

• you publish the app as beta in Google Play and create the Google+ community
• invite the tester to the community
• once he has joined, send him the link of the test app in Google Play
• the tester opens the link in the browser (not google play app)
• registers as tester
• in the browser, install the apps to the device (the app will be magically pushed to the device)

回答7:

Another issue of that page if you use multiple playstore accounts:

In some cases you still get a 404, even if you are currently logged in with the right account, the one you joined the beta community with. As a workaround, you can clear the browser cache, use another browser for the beta signup, or just use the incognito mode of your browser.

回答8:

You can use a Google Group and have your alpha testers just join the group. Everything else should just be handled through the Google Play Store App.