Benefits Of In-App Feedback During Beta Testing

If you're serious about your app's success, then integrating an in-app user feedback tool to collect bug reports and communicate with your beta testers is a no-brainer.

The beta testing stage can either be the worst and messiest part of finally shipping your project, or you can automate and optimize it. After all, you didn't spend weeks and months working on this app just to get rejected from the app store during review because of a bug that you failed to catch in beta.

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Save time, build a better product

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In app development, time is a high-value yet limited resource. An in-app user feedback SDK automates some of the most tedious and annoying parts of beta testing so that you and your team can focus on fixing errors, refining the app, and iterating faster.

If you're in a race with competitors to be the first to market, you can speed up the testing period and release quicker with automated bug reports. If the release date isn't an issue, efficiency definitely is. In-app feedback and bug-tracking free up resources that can be redirected to other critical areas of your app's development.

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750% increase in user feedback

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The top two problems with beta testing are finding testers and getting feedback. On average, only one out of five testers provides feedback, which means if you want 100 responses, you'll need to find around 500 testers. And we all know how difficult it can be just to find 10.

You can offer incentives to attract as many testers as you can, and you can also optimize your rate of feedback. To do this, you want to make it as easy as possible for testers to send you their reports. You have to streamline the process and reduce friction.

With an in-app feedback tool, testers never have to leave your app. Without it, they'd have to open their e-mail client, click through to a survey form, and/or log in to a forum. And at each step of the way, you lose their attention and motivation and the rate of participation drops steeply.

We found that implementing our in-app user feedback tool can result in a 750% increase in user response. That's more data you can use to improve your app, better chances of identifying problems, and since you're using a third-party bug reporting tool, you have more time to fix errors.

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Standardized bug reports

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If you're handling the beta testing stage yourself, it can get overwhelming, so you're going to want to make the process as efficient as possible. With 500 beta testers from all over the world, people could be sending you feedback through random Dropbox screenshot uploads, WhatsApp files, PDFs attached to e-mails, and carrier pigeons. You'll have to gather all of this information and log them in one place and sort through each to find anything actionable. And if you're shipping a new app build every five to seven days during the beta testing phase as recommended, this mess can pile up.

Or you could use a bug tracking tool that makes all reports consistent across all platforms. We've found that just having standardized bug reports saves up to 45% of your time.

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Automated device logs and repro steps

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An in-app user feedback tool also removes the back-and-forth of asking testers for details about the testing environment and user steps to reproduce and fix a bug. Depending on the technical background and speed of response of your testers, a conversation to determine a single piece of information could take days to weeks and delay your entire release schedule.

You could automate those conversations, or you could just eliminate them altogether for maximum efficiency. A bug reporting tool would capture all the technical details you need automatically without extra time or effort from you or your testers and without losing any precious data.

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All the analytics in one dashboard

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With a bug reporting tool, you get a dashboard that consolidates all of those standardized bug reports, super detailed logs, and user feedback across different app builds in one place for easy access and effective analysis. You'll be able to spot patterns, prioritize critical bugs, and monitor your team's progress.

You can be sure that no crucial data was left out and with easy integration with your project management tool of choice, you and your team can immediately take action on the information you receive from your testers.

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Convert beta testers into early users

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To really optimize the beta testing stage and boost your app's chances of success, you want to go beyond simply saving time in your dev process and capitalize on this period and pool of testers to win their love.

The secret sauce of any successful app is having a culture of devoted, engaged users. Why wait until your app is live to cultivate this from scratch? Get a head start and build your user base during the beta testing phase, starting with those 500 testers. An in-app user feedback tool allows you to be as close to your beta testers as possible, have direct conversations with them inside the app, and keep them active.

Take their advice into account, make them feel heard and appreciated, and reward the time and effort they put into helping you improve your app. This will build their trust, earn their respect, and convert them from mere testers to loyal fans of your app.

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Instabug is the top beta testing tool for bug reporting and user feedback in mobile apps. It provides the most useful metadata on the market, exceptional customer support, and an in-app communication channel to chat with your beta testers.

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Bug Reporting and Crash Reporting

With each report, you automatically receive comprehensive data to help fix issues faster, including steps to reproduce errors, network request and console logs, and environment details. For bug reporting, your beta testers can also send screen recordings and annotate screenshots to provide further context.

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Mobile-first App Performance Monitoring

View your app's performance from your users' perspective with built-for-mobile performance monitoring that tackles the unique challenges of the mobile experience. Instabug's APM aligns your team around a single overall metric that reflects your app performance and helps you build a culture of performance for your team.

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In-App Surveys

Collect user feedback from your beta testers right inside your app to minimize interruptions and boost participation rates. Get powerful insights to enhance your product roadmap with surveys that you can target at specific tester segments and feature request voting to understand user pain points and desires.

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Visual Mobile Session Replay

Capture all your app's sessions and watch visual replays to see through your users' eyes. Instabug captures a series of screenshots along with all the events, actions, logs, and more, allowing you to quickly understand the issue, what's causing it, and how to fix it without wasting your time on needless back-and-forth questions. Additionally, you can ensure user privacy out of the box with customizable levels of auto-masking to protect sensitive information.