Best way to share ap for beta testers?

[WaveLightGames]

Hi,

I've had some offers from members of this forum to test my upcoming windows phone game on various hardware. Is there a safe and easy way for me to share the ap?

Raj

 

[anon(7900571)]

Hey you can use this forum to invite members for your game. Developers Beta Testing - Windows Phone Central Forums

 

[0vZ]

Hi,

I've had some offers from members of this forum to test my upcoming windows phone game on various hardware. Is there a safe and easy way for me to share the ap?

Raj

If you're interested in "how to do" this, here's my advice:
1) You can upload your app (or game) to marketplace in "hidden" beta-state.
Beta versions doesn't pass through certification proccess and can be downloaded only by people, that you have included in beta-testers list in dev.center (by microsoft ID).
2) You'll get a link to the app and your beta-testers would be able to download your app from market, using that link.

As for safety: your app would not be available through search, xap would be encoded and DRMed. So it's like posting your app on a real market.
And, one more thing: don't repeat my fault. There is no way to convert "beta" version to normal public app in dev center.
Because you can't use the same name for beta and normal version, when uploading beta, just add word "beta" or "test" or something like that to your normal app name in devcenter when reserving a name for it.

 

[Catholic Tech Geek]

Yes, uploading a test version of your app to the marketplace as a beta is an option. Make sure that you have the windows live ids of all of your beta testers before you start (you will be asked to provide them for access to the beta). Two mentions of fine print if you do go this route:
1. The beta version of your app expires after 3 months (but you can always recreate the beta if you need to).
2. Important: If you upload your app as a beta, only upload the phone version. If you upload a Windows 8.1 version of the same app, your app will be publicly available in the marketplace (even though the app might be marked as a beta).