Google opens up its “Early Access” beta program to more developers – more open beta titles on the way

During its developer conference in Mountain View this past spring, Google announced a program to allow developers an easier path to test their apps in beta without having to go through the expense of harnessing resources in-house.

Called Early Access, Google launched the program for select developers a little over a month ago. Google hand-picked developers during the initial rollout of Early Access.

Since this “trial” began, open beta apps have seen over a million times. Beginning today, Early Access is opening up to more developers, who can now simply nominate their apps or games to be included in the program.

Early Access is a double-edged benefit. It is great for users because allows enthusiasts to take part in seeing early builds of interesting apps and allows them to provide feedback, all without complicated selection processes, or side-loading applications. It is great for developers, especially smaller studios or startups, because it allows them to offer beta builds of their apps through legitimate channels like Google Play, they can gather feedback from a vast user-audience from the around the world, and it give them a chance to jump-start a fan base.

Google shared a couple success stories of the Early Access program to-date, Readfeed is a virtual book club for Android. The developers there were able to leverage Early Access to solicit feature requests, generate feedback on app performance, and optimize target markets and reader communities. Another notable app from Early Access is called Wiz, a community powered tech-assistant for your gadgets.

Early Access brings users and developers together in a trusted framework, users get to try the latest and greatest, while providing developers more tools to improve their products. For us as enthusiasts, this also means we will begin seeing a lot more titles available to try while they are in beta. We can expect to see new titles added every week.



source: Google