Amazon Introduces 'Live App Testing' Tool for Developers

Amazon has introduced a new tool dubbed 'Live App Testing' for app developers. The new tool lets developers test their apps on a customised set of testers before submitting them to app stores such as Amazon Appstore for Android and Google Play.

"We're excited to announce a new tool for mobile developers called Live App Testing. Live App Testing allows you to quickly distribute your apps in the Amazon Appstore to a pre-defined set of testers before you go live," stated Amazon's Paul Cutsinger on the company's official blog post.

Using Live App Testing, the developers can also make use of Amazon's 'full suite' of services, which also includes in-app purchasing, in a production environment.

The developers can select who can test their apps by adding the tester's email address and send an invite. The invited app testers, after receiving the email for the invite, can download and test the app. Amazon says developers won't have to keep track of who they have invited to test their app, elaborating that it will "take care of the complexity of ensuring that only the set of testers" defined by the developers are the ones testing the app.

Developers can choose to test their app against all Android and Amazon devices, including the Fire TV and Fire phone. The step-by-step process of using the Live App Testing tool for developers can be followed from the blog post.

The main aim behind the new Live App Testing tool is to give developers a chance to correct some bugs, errors or unexpected crashing of apps before making it available app stores. "This allows you (developers) to gather feedback, improve quality, increase stability and optimize the experience before you push your app live for all customers to download," states Cutsinger.

Notably, as a part of the live testing, the developers can test their apps on any of the Android and Amazon devices, including Fire TV and Fire Phone.

The developers can start using the tool by logging in to the dedicated Live App Testing webpage via their developer accounts. First time developers can sign up free of cost.

As Techcrunch notes, the new Live App Testing service by Amazon competes with Google's own app testing service for developers via the Google Play Developer Console. Apple in February bought Testflight, and unveiled an app testing tool by the same name at WWDC 2014. The Live App Testing tool will be especially useful for those developers that intend to release their apps on both Amazon Appstore for Android and Google Play. Notably, Amazon provides testing tools for mobile web apps, as well as PC and Mac.