Signal publishes beta versions of the software for public testing. Beta testers can provide feedback on upcoming features, as well as provide a larger test pool of devices and configurations than any development team could get their hands on which allows for early detection of bugs.
A full guide on Signal beta testing can be found on this page.
Joining the beta testers group[edit | edit source]
Android users can join by subscribing to the beta channel on Google Play. iOS users can join by getting the TestFlight app and installing the beta version from there.
Windows and macOS users can join by downloading their respective beta app directly, and Debian-based Linux users can join by configuring the repositories and installing the signal-desktop-beta package.
Android-specific considerations[edit | edit source]
Android users can get the latest beta version of the app immediately after release (instead of waiting 6-24 hours for it to be available via Play Store) by joining the Firebase beta testers group to use Firebase App Distribution.
Furthermore, Signal developers no longer publish the very first build (patch version 0, aka .0) to the Google Play Store; it is only available via Firebase App Distribution. This is due to the aforementioned long waiting times in the Play Store combined with the fact that .0 versions are more likely to have significant issues, like application crashes, that need to be addressed quickly.[1]
Updating to the latest beta[edit | edit source]
Android and iOS users update to the latest beta via the Play Store and TestFlight apps, respectively.
Desktop on Windows and macOS will get a blue banner when a new version is available, prompting them to restart the app to install the latest version. Desktop users on Linux will need to update using their package manager.
Providing feedback on beta versions[edit | edit source]
Feedback and bug reports on beta versions are provided via the Signal community forum. When reporting a technical issue, Debug logs and/or Crash Reports need to be included.
For each minor version, a new topic is opened, which is archived once a new minor version is released and testing for the older one is concluded. Topics are separated by Android, iOS and Desktop.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ "Please note, .0 beta releases will not be published on Google Play going forward. Think of them as a “canary” build where we can get to a bunch of immediate issues, and then publish a follow-up .1 build the next day which we’ll put on both firebase and the play store."—post #17 by alex-signal in Beta feedback for the upcoming Android 6.17 release