Beta testing: the application does not appear on the Beta Play tab of the Market

Question

I’ve been trying for several weeks to get Google Alpha / Beta testing functionality on the Play Store to work without success. As far as I can tell, I followed this process, but obviously something is not working on my part. Hope someone from SO can tell me what I'm doing wrong.

I created the Apha and Beta testing community.

I have added the beta testing community to the beta testing section, which is related to using Google+ communities for testing. Members have been added to my beta testing community.

Although I have an Alpha testing community, none of the Alpha testing methods are currently enabled.

On my test device, using a Google account that is a member of my beta testing community, I only see the version of my application that is currently in Prod. I spent days waiting just in case it would take a few days to show (at least the week that I suppose should be long enough).

I need to test the release version because I am trying to check out some inapp billing features that I had to change due to Google security warnings regarding my current version of Prod.

BUT: if I download the version of the application version directly (instead of downloading from the Play Store), I see that it sees this account as a “test account” because when I test inapp billing, I get the correct message that The subscription will be renewed every day, but I will not pay. However, the beta version of the application never appears on the "BETA" tab in the Play Store.

I noticed something “strange” (possibly) in the developer's console: when I click on the Beta tab, it displays 10,399 supported devices and 0 excluded devices for the beta application. However, if I click on the Beta application line where you can promote the application, etc., then the data that is then displayed indicates 0 supported Android devices. Why should it be? This is like conflicting information on the console.

Note. The current version of Prod for my application was developed using Eclipse. I recently converted to Android Studio, and this is my first download using Android Studio.

Where else should I look for my app to appear on the Play Store

thanks

Answer 1

In my case, I published a beta and created testers, but did not bundle them together. What I needed to do:

• Go to Release Management

• Choose Test Method - Closed Beta Testing

• Then, when the list of testers appears, activate the group of testers that you want to test.

• Save

• Get a link to the URL and paste it into a new tab (you must be logged in to Google)

• Then click the "Become a Tester" button.

You should now be a tester and ready to go.

@Important If you still cannot find the application by searching the Play Store, simply copy the “URL for selection” to your tester’s browser browser and you will see the application.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

I just set up the beta release for the first time and couldn’t make the application visible on the Play Store. Found a reason in the Play Console Help :

After publishing the alpha / beta application for the first time, it may take several hours for your test link to be available to testers. If you post additional changes, it may take several hours for testers.

After 35 minutes, the application was published.

As this may not be the problem mentioned in the original question, this may help someone.

Answer 3

An offer from @Edgehog to use Open Testing solved my problem regarding the ability to see my application on the Beta tab in the Play Store.

I have not yet found a reason why closed beta testing (using email or groups / communities) will not work.

Answer 4

There are several reasons why this could happen, but admittedly we have not 100% confirmed this.

1) One of the reasons is that you are viewing Google Play under a different account that is not on the beta testers list.

2) Another may be a problem (or function) with release management. The user has been added to the list of closed beta versions. Changing the list does not activate or force Save for the Managed Testers section. After we edited another field (for example, a feedback channel), the "Save" button became active, and we clicked "Save". It can only then spread the changes. We cannot 100% confirm that this was a problem that we encountered, but our experience points to this.

Answer 5

Make sure you also check this answer.

• browser cache
• current active "test track"