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Back in 2014, game developer Red Winter had to pull the sequel to its hit game Dungelot from the app store, mere days after first releasing it. The reason? The game was riddled with bugs, and it had switched from a pay-once-play-forever model to a freemium model.
Many of these issues could have been avoided had Red Winter followed a more thorough beta testing strategy. And this is something that doesn't only apply to mobile games, but all mobile apps.
When launching an app that is too buggy, or includes features that are unpopular with many users, you risk permanently damaging the reputation of your app. Red Winter was able to fix Dungelot 2 and relaunched it more successfully three months later, but there is no guarantee that your app will recover as easily.
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Beta testing your app is a very important step in the pre-launch stage of your app development since it could highlight any problems with the following:
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Quality: You may be sure that you have built a quality app, but only with proper beta testing will you be able to see that all the features function the way they are meant to. Quality is closely linked to the next point,
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Usability: From UI through to UX. A usable app is one with an intuitive user-interface, with users easily able to navigate through your app, find what they want, and do what they expect to with your app. You are looking at how they perform certain functions, and seeing if there are any ways of improving the flow.
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Bugs: Naturally you would have been thorough in ensuring there are no bugs in your app, but until it is used in a real-world scenario, you can't be sure. From serious bugs that cause the app to crash, to minor bugs that only reveal themselves under certain conditions.
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Performance: The device, operating system, and even other apps could all affect the speed and overall performance of your app. Beta testing gives you an opportunity to analyse this more authentically than your...