How I: Manage beta testing communities using Google Play Video Lecture | "How I" by Google Developers - IT & Software

[MUSIC PLAYING]
PAVOL MAGIC: My
name is Pavol Magic.
I'm from Sygic, and I work
there as a product manager.
I would like to tell you more
about how we use beta testing
and Google+ communities
to build better products.
Beta testing communities
feature Google [? Allowance ?],
just a few months ago.
And first we started to use it
for our main product, the Sygic
GPS navigation, which already
has more than 50 million users.
So getting feedback
is tricky sometimes.
But using the Google+ community
connected with Google Play
account of Sygic, we started
getting a lot of really
valuable feedback, directly from
our users-- from real users.
So we also created communities
like this for other apps
we have.
Releasing beta is very easy.
You just go to your
Developer Console.
You connect your
Google community,
which you previously created.
Or you can search for
it, and add it here.
Or you can share the
link with your testers.
And the they can ask to be
a part of the community.
Then you just upload a new
APK, and it's already there.
As you can see, we've already
posted several beta versions.
Then the best part
is, that when you're
satisfied with the beta APK, you
just promote it to production.
And it's rolled out to
all users in just hours.
So of course, the issues
we address as of first
are crashes.
So when somebody reports
they had a crash of our app,
we ask what device
was the user using,
and some other questions.
Usually reinstalling
the app works.
But sometimes we need to address
this issue with our developers,
and make some fixes
for the app directly.
But here, it was a case
that reinstalling helped.
So we got into a conversation
about some other issues.
Right now we have around 200
members in our community,
and most of them
are really active.
But to keep them active,
you have to respond a lot.
You just can't let them
share their thoughts.
Because in just
a few weeks, they
will forget about the community,
because they have other issues.
They have other
problems to solve.
So you have to be really
active; post new beta versions
quite often.
Or you have to ask them
questions, or even do
a little promotion.
Because you can't
forget they are
doing this for free,
and in their own time.
So doing a little competition
or something like that
would be really awesome.
And this is how we use beta
testing for Speedometer
by Sygic.