iOS App Distribution

The iOS App Distribution and Best Practices book has a great example for internal distribution, and why you might need it in your development.

Suppose you pass your boss in the hall one day, and they stop you and mention they heard about this iOS app you were working on. There is some great buzz going on around the water cooler, and they wanted to check it out on their iPhone.

You say sure, but then realize the app isn’t on the App Store yet. Also,

your boss isn’t a developer, and it isn’t like you could ask them to download Xcode, check out the code, and install it. So what do you do?

Apple provides a few internal distribution mechanisms for your app. What does that mean?

In the App Store, your app is accessible to anyone that is a user of your App Store (App Store availability may vary by region).

With Internal distributions methods, you can limit the audience to which your app is distributed.

With the exception of unlisted apps, apps for internal distribution are not delivered to the App Store.

There are various types of internal distribution based on your end goal.

So how do you get them into the hands of your users? In the next episode you’ll learn more about the various types of internal distribution methods available on iOS.