What Google asks for
New personal developer accounts on Google Play must run a closed test before their app can reach production. In Google's words, the test needs:
a minimum of 12 testers who have been opted in continuously for at least 14 days.
Source: App testing requirements for new personal developer accounts, Play Console Help. Testers who opt in and then opt out before 14 days do not count. After the 14 days you apply for production access, and the form asks about your closed test, your app and its production readiness: how testers used the app, what feedback you received and what you changed. Google can ask you to keep testing if engagement was insufficient. The 12 testers guide covers the rule in detail.
Google closed testing testers are easy to count and hard to keep. TestBuddy is built to keep them, and to measure what they did.
The 14 days at a glance
- Before the wave: you describe your app, add the SDK, upload the build to your closed test and add TestBuddy's tester group.
- Wave start: 16 developers are ready, or it is Monday 09:00 Paris time and 13 or more are.
- Day 1 (your next day after the start): your list of apps appears. You join each test, install each app from its link and open it for 2 minutes.
- Days 1 to 14: about 30 minutes a day. Your own testers do the same with your app.
- From day 3: each tester writes first impressions of each app.
- From day 10: each tester writes a fuller review.
- Day 14: your Play counter reaches 14 days with 12 or more testers. You get an email, open your production access report and apply.
Before the wave: set up your campaign
You sign in with Google and describe your app: its name, one line about it, its package name, your closed test's opt-in link and what testers should try. You also choose how many testers you want, from 12 to 30, 15 by default.
In Play Console, add TestBuddy's tester group to your closed test. It is a Google Group, the format Play documents for tester lists (see Set up an open, closed, or internal test). The closed testing setup guide walks through the screens. You also join that group yourself, in one click, with the Google account of your Android phone: it is how you opt in to the 15 other tests of your wave.
Then add the SDK to your app, upload that build to your closed test track, and open it once on any phone. The SDK says hello to TestBuddy, the setup step completes, and the "Join the next wave" button unlocks. Until then your campaign shows "SDK not detected".
Waves: 16 developers who start together
A wave starts as soon as 16 developers are ready. If it is not full by its date, the next Monday at 09:00 Paris time, it starts anyway with 13 or more. With fewer than 13 it waits one more week. Every campaign in the wave becomes active at the same moment, so everyone tests and is tested over the same 14 days.
In a full wave, each developer tests the 15 other apps and gets the 15 other developers as testers. That is 15 places held against a rule of 12, a margin of three for drops. A wave that starts with 13 developers gives each app 12 testers.
Your daily routine: about 30 minutes
Your Today screen is a queue. It lists the apps to test today, a ring that closes one notch per app, and a countdown to the deadline. Apps move from To do to Done as their minutes add up; the ones not installed yet show their links at the top of their own group. On a phone, one button opens the next app.
- 15 apps, at least 2 minutes each. Each app shows its minimum session, 2 minutes by default. Several short sessions on the same day add up.
- The day runs to 06:00 local. A test day goes from 06:00 to 06:00 the next morning in your time zone, so opening an app at 00:30 still counts for the evening before.
- Minutes count when you leave the app. The SDK sends a session when the app goes to the background; your queue updates when you come back to TestBuddy.
- A reminder from 18:00. If apps are left in your day, you get one email in the evening.
Fifteen apps at 2 minutes is 30 minutes a day, a bit more if you actually dig into the apps, which is the point.
Installing and linking each app
Each place in your list comes with the app's opt-in link and an install link. You join the test on Google Play, then install from TestBuddy's install link. That link is a Play Store link with a referrer that carries your place code, so the first time the app opens, the SDK reads the code through Google's Play Install Referrer library and links the install to your place. Nothing to type.
If the app was installed another way, the referrer carries no code. On
Android, tap "Link it" in TestBuddy: it opens a
testbuddy:// link that the app's SDK handles, and the
install is linked in one tap. The 6-character code also shows as text
for the rare manual case. After a reinstall, the same code links the
install again.
A place has to be linked within 48 hours. After that it is given up, and its credits go back to the app's developer.
What the SDK measures
The TestBuddy SDK is a Kotlin library with one dependency and no AndroidX. It counts the time the app spends in the foreground, links the install to a tester's place, and records the objectives the developer chose. A day counts for an app once that app has been in the foreground for its minimum on a phone linked to a tester. Installs, screenshots and promises count for nothing. On phones that are not linked to a tester, it sends nothing but a hello with the app key and package name.
Credits: how your testing pays for your testers
Credits count the testing you give and receive.
- 1 credit per validated tester day. Each time you validate a day on an app, you earn one credit, at once.
- 14 credits per place. A tester place for your app costs 14 credits, reserved from your balance when the place opens and paid out to the tester day by day.
- The start advance. Your first campaign's whole group is lent to you when the wave starts: your number of testers times 14, so 210 credits for 15 testers. Your own validated days repay it first. Test your 15 apps for 14 days and you have repaid all 210.
- Missed days come back. When a tester misses a day on your app, that day's credit goes back to you once the miss is final, 48 hours after the deadline.
- No money value. Credits cannot be bought, sold or transferred, and disappear with your account (terms).
A campaign with fewer than 14 credits available cannot pay for a new tester, so it stops recruiting until it earns more.
Missing a day
When the 06:00 deadline passes and an app in your list has not reached its minimum, that day is missed for that app, and you get an email.
- Your recruiting pauses until you complete a full day, every app on that day's list. Your current testers keep testing your app; you just stop gaining new ones, including replacements.
- 3 missed days on the same app end that place. The credits left on it go back to its developer, who gets a replacement tester if one is available.
- Offline is fine. Sessions recorded without a network still count when the phone sends them within 48 hours.
Replacements
When one of your places ends, its remaining credits come back to you and TestBuddy hands the slot to a developer who is still receiving places: developers keep receiving them for 72 hours after their wave starts. Groups under 12 testers are always filled first.
When an app does not work
If an app crashes, its link is wrong, or your phone cannot run it, report it from your Today screen. The place ends without blame, its credits go back to the developer, and you get another app to test. Each tester can report 2 apps per 14 days.
If an app gets 3 reports within 24 hours, its recruiting pauses as a broken build. It resumes when the developer confirms a fixed build in TestBuddy.
Feedback at day 3 and day 10
Each tester reviews each app twice. From day 3 of a place, they give first impressions; from day 10, a fuller review of what works, what breaks and what would make them keep the app. Each review is a rating from 1 to 5 and a few lines. The developer reads it under a tester number, never a name or an email.
This is the feedback the production access form asks about. Twelve friends who install and forget cannot give it; fifteen developers who opened your app every day for two weeks can.
The Play counter
Your closed test page shows a 14-segment track, like "Day 9 of 14 with 12+ testers". It starts on the day your 12th tester linked their install and shows, for each day since, how many testers were linked by then. TestBuddy builds it from linked installs; Play Console remains the reference for what Google counts. When the counter reaches 14, you get an email telling you to apply.
The production access report
On day 14, your report gathers what Google asks about:
- testers and linked testers, and the days with 12 or more testers;
- for each day, the testers who validated it and their minutes of use;
- sessions, total minutes and the completion rate;
- the average rating and every written review, by tester number.
Every developer gets the report. The questionnaire guide explains each question. Google says review usually takes seven days or less, and can occasionally take longer.