What is TestFlight?

Apple describes TestFlight as a way to distribute beta builds of your app, manage beta testers and collect feedback. It covers iPhone and iPad apps, Apple TV apps and Apple’s other platforms.

A build reaches TestFlight once you upload it to App Store Connect and Apple has processed it. You then add it to groups. Internal groups hold up to 100 people per app from your App Store Connect team. An external group can reach up to 10,000 people per app, invited by email or a public link, and its first build goes through Beta App Review. Testers install the free TestFlight app on their own iPhone, iPad or Apple TV, accept the invitation and get each build you send to their group. Apple keeps a build available for testing for 90 days; after that its status is Expired.

TestFlight is not the App Store. When testing is done, you add the build to an App Store version and submit it for App Review, which happens in App Store Connect.

A TestFlight build installs on testers’ own devices, not on a simulator. To try the app in a browser first, run a simulator build of it on a live iOS or Apple TV simulator in VibeView.

In VibeView. vibeview submit --platform ios --latest (or --platform tvos) uploads a signed production build to TestFlight, and VibeView then follows it until your testers have it: Apple’s processing, export compliance, What to Test notes, your internal groups, Beta App Review and your external groups. Each step shows on the build’s card. See TestFlight distribution.