Questions

For a personal developer account created after 13 November 2023, a closed test with at least 12 testers opted in for 14 continuous days before you can apply for production. Google lowered the number from 20, so Google’s numbers can change. Check Google’s own help page, linked in the guides, before you rely on any of it.

Each tester’s 14 days start when they opt in, and people install on different days. Two days of slack let the last installers finish theirs. A cohort can never be shorter than Google’s minimum: the server refuses to start one. It is slack, not a guarantee: a tester who opts in on day 4 still finishes after the cohort has ended.

No one can promise that, and we do not. Google decides. What we do is get you 12 real testers who are held to a daily check-in, and give you a report of who tested, how often, what they wrote and what you changed, which you can use when you answer Google’s questions.

Google asks for testers; it does not say where they must come from. Its policies on fake or incentivised engagement are a separate matter, and we have not had Google confirm how it views exchanges. Our testers are real people who use your app daily and write real notes, and we keep the evidence. Read Google’s current policy and decide for yourself.

Credit, not cash. The first time one of your apps passes the Google Play check you are given $15.00 of credit on us, once per account and once per package. You lock $15.00 as your stake when you join a cohort and keep it when the cohort finishes, so it pays for your next app too. It cannot be withdrawn or sent to anyone.

While a cohort is forming, nothing, up to 3 free leaves in a row. During the install phase, leaving is still free but uses 2 of those free leaves, and in the last hour of the window it counts as a no-show. If you are removed for not installing, you lose $3.75 if you installed none of the apps and $1.50 if you installed some. Once the clock starts, leaving costs the whole stake. Forfeited credit stays with TestersGuild; it is never paid to other users.

Before a cohort starts you may leave and take your whole stake back, at most 3 times in a row. After that you must join a cohort and stay until it starts. Starting resets the count. It stops people hopping between cohorts without ever committing.

You buy $15.00 of credit as a single Google Play purchase. It is a digital good, so Google Play handles the payment, tax and refunds. The first $15.00 is free.

Your phone reports what it has installed and the server checks it: the installer must be the Play Store and the version code must be one read from the owner’s track. Two different testers on two different phones make an app Ready.

You open at least 70% of the apps on your list that day, each for at least 30 seconds in the foreground. With 15 apps that is 11, about 5.5 minutes. Usage is read from your phone with Android’s usage-access permission. Your day is your own local day, plus 4 hours after midnight. The first and last day of the cohort are not counted. Apps still being set up, or whose owner left, are never on your list.

A missed day costs $1.00, taken from your stake. 3 missed days in total, not in a row, and you are removed and lose what is left of the stake. You are warned after the second miss and the app shows your count from the first. Support can waive a miss if the fault was ours, such as a broken app or a dead phone.

Yes, a short note each week: a 1 to 5 rating and at least 20 characters on 3 of your 15 apps, after you have really used the app. A note may not repeat another of your notes. Missing the weekly feedback counts as a missed day. Owners read the notes without names and can mark one not useful, which lowers your reputation.

When an owner ships a new release, testers get 24 hours from detection to install it, and a day only counts if the installed version is current when that window closes. To keep it fair we require at most one such update per app every 3 days and at most 4 per cohort; any further releases are optional.

Usage comes from the phone, so we treat it as untrusted. The server checks it against the install records and runs an audit that looks for patterns real use does not make, like many apps held at exactly the minimum, identical timings across testers, impossible totals, or one device behind several accounts. Flags go to a person to review. A modified phone could still fake usage, and device attestation is not built yet, so we do not claim the evidence is unforgeable.

Read-only access to one app: you invite our service account with the permission “View app information” and nothing more. We use it to read your closed track. We cannot edit or publish. Never your password, never permission to release. A one-tap “Connect Play Console” flow is coming; today you add the invite by hand.

Usually the group is missing from the track, the release is still a draft, or a country is excluded. We read your track through the Play Developer API before anyone is asked to install, and tell you which one to fix. One caveat: the API shows your saved settings, including changes still waiting for Google’s review, so a pass means configured. An app turns verified only after real installs.

Yes, as a reserve. You lock the same stake, wait in a full cohort, and take over the assignments of the first person who leaves. If nobody leaves, you get the stake back when the cohort ends.

A cohort starts with fewer than 16 if at least 13 apps are verified, because each remaining app still has its 12 testers. Below 13, it is cancelled and everyone is refunded in full.

The swap is free: your first $15.00 of credit is a gift, you test fifteen apps and fifteen test yours. You only pay if you lose your stake and want to join again.

A paid seat for people who do not want to test: your app is tested by 32 working members across two overlapping cohorts, and you test nothing. It is coming, not live, and the planned price of $23.99 is not final. If your app does not reach 12 testers for 14 continuous days, the plan is a full refund. That covers the tester count, never Google’s decision.

Not to the public. TestersGuild's Android app and servers run end to end in testing, but nobody has used it in a real cohort yet. Leave your email below and we will tell you when the first cohort opens.

Yes. Google’s closed-testing requirement is a Google Play rule, and the daily check reads Android usage.