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Beta Version Apps doesn’t expire any more, new release of Dev Center app

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According to Rushmi Malaviarachchi recent posts, there is some updates that I’d like to share with you: beta apps no longer have an expiration date, and the Windows Phone Dev Center app has a new “markets” view.

 

Beta apps no longer have an expiration date

As many of you know, you can submit a beta app to Windows Phone Dev Center to help you test before you submit your app to the public catalog in the Windows Phone Store. Beta apps have a few special properties:

  • Access is limited to a set of users (between 1 and 10,000) selected by the developer
  • Access is available only via a link; the beta app doesn’t appear when users search or browse the Store
  • Certification is not required; developers can rapidly iterate on the app
  • Before today’s announcement, expiration for beta apps was 90 days after their creation date

Many developers indicate that they want to maintain multiple “update trains” for their apps: one for the public app that’s available to everyone in the Store, and another for the beta app that’s frequently updated and tested by a community of specific users. Developers use the beta app (or in some cases multiple beta apps) to test out their latest and greatest version, discover bugs, and determine when an updated app is ready for the general public. When they have a version that’s ready, they release it by submitting it as an update to their public app.

With this usage pattern, 90-day expiration for beta app is a great hassle. Every 90 days developers would need to submit a new beta app and send the new link out to all of their beta testers. But, no longer. Here’s what you’ll see on the app info page when you create a new beta app:

 

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Existing beta apps that have already been created in Dev Center will still expire after 90 days, even if they are updated. However, from this point forward, newly created beta apps will not expire and developers can keep updating them as frequently as they like. I guess, this change makes the beta app feature more useful for developers. For more thoughts about how to test your apps, please see a very useful blog post by  Bernardo Zamora’s, that addresses the different Options for testing and publishing Windows Phone apps.

 

The “markets” page in the Dev Center app

The Dev Center app makes it easier than ever to see how your app is doing in each of the markets where it’s offered. Now, when you tap one of your apps to see how it’s doing, you’ll find a new “markets” page that provides a per-market breakdown of downloads, ratings, and reviews. You can sort by any of these statistics to learn more about how your app is doing around the world.

 

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If you didn’t yet have the Dev Center app, you could download it here. The Dev Center is continuing to evolve and add valuable changes. As always, please keep sharing your feedback to help improve the Dev Center; the Windows Phone Dev Center UserVoice forum is the best way to do that.