It’s no secret that developing and testing Android applications can be difficult, but a newly launched solution called DeployGate intends to take the pain out of part of the process. In a nutshell, DeployGate makes it possible for companies to distribute Android apps that are currently in development to team members over the air and monitor the performance.
The service lets users upload unreleased Android apps to multiple devices by dragging and dropping them in the DeployGate dashboard, collect logs and reports, or push updates – again, all by using the network.
The similarity to TestFlight seems to be obvious, but DeployGate offers a number of key features that set it apart from the popular iOS app-testing service.
For example, DeployGate:
- currently focuses on collaborative development for Android
- works in real-time
- doesn’t necessarily require an SDK
- doesn’t require device IDs
- specifically targets developers
Further technical details can be found here (the service is available in English and Japanese).
While DeployGate is free to everyone who wants to try it, there are three different price plans for individual Android developers, small companies, and large enterprise projects.
What’s interesting is that the service is coming out of a special unit recently set up by Tokyo-based mixi, operator of Japan’s largest real-identity social network (26 million users).
That unit, the so-called Innovation Center, is supposed to accelerate the creation of new, in-house businesses to expand mixi’s overall product portfolio. And DeployGate, as one of those new businesses, is thought to leverage the company’s experience with developing smartphone apps – similar to Amazon’s branching out of e-commerce with AWS.
DeployGate was co-created by Kyosuke Inoue (whose NFC-based check-in service for Mixi was covered by TechCrunch in 2011) and Yuki Fujisaki (who led development of Mixi’s Android client).
Here’s the official DeployGate promo video: