What is an Ad Hoc certificate for iOS test app distribution?

Question

I'm developing a iPhone app and need to send it to my client. In turn, my client will distribute it to many other people for end-user testing.

What kind of Provisioning Profile, Certificate, or Code Signing will accomplish this task? I've heard something about Ad Hoc certificates; is an Ad Hoc certificate relevant for this task?

Solution 1

• Yes, ad hoc is exactly what you need for massive end user beta testings.
• There is a very thorough and comprehensive tutorial about this, right from Apple. Log into your iOS dev center account ==>> iOS Provisioning Portal ==>> Distribution ==>> Prepare App

Solution 2

Yes, at this point the Ad-Hoc distribution certificate is what you are looking for. The Ad-Hoc certificate allows you to build your app to run on a predetermined list of devices. There are a couple big caveats though:

1. You need the UDID of every device you want the app to run on.
2. The user needs to install the provisioning profile for the app as well as the device manually. It's a simple case of dragging and dropping to iTunes - but we're dealing with normal people here... Not programmers.

To Create One: You add all the UDIDs for testing to iTunes Connect and then create a new ad-hoc distrubution profile and certificate. Build your app with the new certificate and the users should be good to go.

What I recommend: TestFlight

Testflight allows you to simplify this process immensely. You just build a normal debug IPA and then put it on TestFlight. They have their own global provisioning profile the users install and run the app with. It's as seamless as mass testing on iPhone can be (Granted, that's not a high bar).

Good luck :)

Solution 3

Note that Ad Hoc certificates are no longer used in the new Apple TestFlight. Testers are no longer added via UUID.

Test Flight builds now require an App Store Distribution Provisioning Profile. The portal does not allow UUIDs to be added to this type of provisioning profile.

Instead, add "Internal Testers" via iTunes Connect:

Internal testers are iTunes Connect users with the Admin or Technical role. They can be added in Users and Roles.

After adding a user, be sure to click on their name and flip the "Internal Tester" switch.

Then, go to App > Prerelease > Internal Testers and invite them to the build.