Review my App: BetaBoom - Connecting developers with testers

3 points by shanked 15 years ago | 2 comments

I've deployed my first app: BetaBoom. http://betaboom.com

The idea is to help app developers (like myself, and many of you) find testers who are willing to provide feedback on their apps. The incentive for testers is they get free access to new apps and their feedback can direct the development of the app.

Developers will add their App's information to BetaBoom and it will appear in the App List (apps currently accepting testers). Users can apply to become testers and developers can review and accept/reject testers. If accepted, developers will get access to the tester's email address and can contact them to provide access to their app. Testers will be able to submit feedback on BetaBoom and that feedback will be available for the developer to review.

Please take a look and let me know if you have feedback/suggestions. Feel free to apply to become a tester of BetaBoom itself. It is conveniently an App accepting testers on BetaBoom. :)

exline 15 years ago |

Congratulations on launching! That itself is a huge milestone and sets you apart from a lot of people.

The site looks nice. I didn't have time to create an account to see the inner workings yet. My initial thoughts are: 1) Screen shots of the internals. I.e. if I submit my app, what do I get. I don't want to have to submit it to see if the BetaBoom will be useful to me. 2) I'm not sure that you have a strong enough reason for testers to want to join. I regularly test apps posted here because I know how valuable the feedback is. I don't do it because I want free access to the site/app. It is about being part of the community and helping each other out. 3) Because of #2, I don't know if you will be able to get critical mass to have a usable service 4) Are you planning on making this a business? If so how will you make money?

shanked 15 years ago | |

Thanks for the feedback. I think I definitely need to address some of the issues you've raised. One of my apprehensions to posting my "Review my App" post is that my app doesn't instantaneously provide any functionality (other than viewing apps looking for testers).

As a developer, you submit an app and it appears on the list. However, it may take hours/days/weeks to get any tester requests (based on whether or not the site is being used). Similarly, as a tester if you apply to test an App, you aren't granted access to that app (or the ability to provide feedback) until the developer accepts you, which can take hours/days/weeks itself.

I will definitely take some screenshots and make the 'internal' features of the site more evident so people aren't forced to create an account in order to see whether or not they'll want to use the service.

As for whether this will become a business, my answer is: Not yet. While I have some ideas for monetization and where to grow the feature-set in the future, right now I'm just interested in getting users and feedback to help guide the direction of BetaBoom in the future.

For now, its merely a free service (and learning experience for me) to help Developers find/manage testers and feedback.