Google Play requires personal developer accounts created after 13 November 2023 to run a closed test with at least 12 testers opted in continuously for 14 days before they can apply for production access. Testers who drop out reset the clock. The full detail is in our guide to the rule.

Yes — physical Android phones, each signed in to its own Google account, opting in to your closed track and installing from the Play Store like any real tester. No emulators, no scripts pretending to be installs.

A Play Console app with a closed-testing track, your release uploaded and rolled out, and the track's web opt-in link. If you haven't set that up yet, the closed testing guide and the opt-in link guide walk through every screen.

After payment we show you the Google accounts our devices use. You add them to your track's tester list in Play Console, confirm in the dashboard, and the devices start opting in and installing. Google can take a little while to propagate tester-list changes — we retry automatically for around two days if a device can't see your app yet.

A live dashboard per app: install and open timestamps for every device, a screenshot captured from each one, install charts, a progress donut and a countdown of the days left in the 14-day hold. The apps stay installed for the full window, and we verify daily that they're still there.

Play Console unlocks the production-access application. Google asks about your testing and how you acted on feedback — the production guide covers what to say and what else (store listing, data safety, content rating) must be finished. On the Concierge tier we walk you through the application itself.

One price per app, per platform — the same app on both Android and iOS is two purchases. No subscription: £19 Basic, £49 In-depth (adds repeated sessions, crash and ANR capture, a stability report), or £149 Concierge (a human walks you to production). On iOS every tier includes one device class — iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch — and each extra class is half the tier price. See pricing for the full comparison.

No — that decision is Google's, and it also weighs your store listing, policy declarations and app quality. What we guarantee is the part we control: 12+ real devices opted in, installed and held for the full 14 days, with evidence. The guides (and the Concierge tier) cover the rest of the application.

Almost always one of two things: the tester accounts haven't been added to your closed track yet, or Google is still propagating the change. Double-check the tester list against the accounts we gave you and leave it with us — the devices keep retrying automatically.

Not yet. Apple has no tester-count rule, but real-hardware testing before App Review is the same good idea — we're building the iOS side now. Join the waitlist on the home page and we'll email you when it opens.