Best way to install an iOS app on a limited number of devices

Targets iOS
1

Hi,

This is a question I already asked last year, I know, but I’m still hoping for a working answer.

On next week-end, I’ll organise a “small” event, and I need to install an iOS app on some iPhones when the event starts (up to 7 or 8 devices owned by friends). Internet will be unavailable during the event (but available earlier).

Since they don’t know in advance how the teams are composed, I can’t ask who has an iPhone prior to next Saturday morning, so making them testers of the app is barely an option.

I’ve never distributed an app using the AppStore until now. I doubt it would be suitable for installing an app to only 7 devices once.

Ideas would be welcome.

2

If you have access to the Internet when you are about to install the app, this is what I would do:

  1. Connect each device to your macbook, open XCode and get the device UUID.
  2. Go to developer.apple.com to add development devices. Add all UUIDs. You can add up to 100 devices per year (or is it 1000?)
  3. Update the app development profile on developer.apple.com to include all devices from step 1/2
  4. Download the development profile
  5. Double-click to install (it will open XCode and silently install)
  6. Recompile the app
  7. Connect each device to your macbook and install your_app_name.app using XCode

If step 6 or 7 fails open XCode, go to settings > profiles > click download manual profiles.

1 Like
3

Why not put the app in Testflight and then invite them all.
Maybe even give out invitations in paper, so people just type in the code.

4 Likes
4

Thanks for your advices!

I think I explored Christian’s way a bit last year (and was lost at a thing), but I’ll try again today or tomorrow.
Both ways are looking good; Christian’s one has the advantage that I don’t have to take my laptop with me.

And I’ll report my attempts, of course.

5

Distribution through testflight is another solution and has some advantages. You can easily send updates if needed.

The drawback is that each app update goes through app review which can take 48hrs.

6

FWIW, I’ve helped several people get started with TestFlight and it’s never taken more than about 6 hrs. I find that after the first test version gets approved, it takes a lot less time to get subsequent updates approved. Sometimes as short as 10 minutes.

2 Likes
7

It looks like Apple doesn’t allow my kind of software, it’s much disappointing.
Their first answer was to refuse my app, because they couldn’t understand its purpose. I was asked to explain the purpose and my target audience, which I did.

Today, I received another refusal:

Guideline 4.2 - Design - Minimum Functionality

We found that the usefulness of your app is limited because it seems to be intended for a small, or niche, set of users. Specifically, your app is intended for small event with friends.

So, on one hand, they don’t allow to install apps on devices freely (App Store is needed), and on the other hand, they require apps to be useable more than for a single event! Awful…

They continue with these “suggestions”:

Next Steps

We encourage you to review your app concept and incorporate different content and features to address the needs and interests of a wider range of users.

(no, I’m discouraged at most)
My sole need was to provide an app for the players of that event to not be lost in the game; that’s the only reason for the app to exist, yet Apple suggests me to design it otherwise :man_shrugging:

You can use the Ad Hoc distribution method to share your app with your friends and family with registered devices. You can find more information in App Store Connect Developer Help.

Well, the event will run the day after tomorrow. I’ve no time to learn that unnecessary process.

Alternatively, you may consider creating a web app, which looks and behaves similar to a native app when the user adds it to their Home screen. Please see Configuring Web Applications for more information.

I’ve explained in my report that there will be no Internet availability.
Do they just not listen to their users?

I guess it’s not worth the time to continue that way, nor to answer further to Apple, but it makes me feeling better to at least report their inexcusable process somewhere and let other users be aware of Apple’s misbehaviour.

Still, I’d welcome further advices, and I thank everyone who tried to help.

2 Likes
8

Well Ihope you get lots of further advice, but one piece of advice in particular is perhaps to look at the link they gave for Ad Hoc distribution - maybe that will be useful another time.

Still, your story is another reason I don’t use, or bother with, smartphones.

2 Likes
9

Having recently fought – and lost – my own battle with Apple over “Minimum Functionality”, and nearly a year after the app was initially accepted for distribution only to be later denied when submitting an updated, I feel your pain. It’s their house and we have to play by their rules, no matter how arbitrary. It’s frustrating, demeaning, undermining, and silly.

When I look at some of the apps available on the App Store, then look at the ones I see denied, it makes me feel sick to my stomach. I hope you find an acceptable way around this. I didn’t.

2 Likes
10

My solution, which is in fact Ad-hoc distribution, does not require the App Store review team to decide whether or not the app has minimum functionality.

You have certainly spent hours writing your app, the solution I provided takes 10-15 minutes to set up. Much less frustrating than working for nothing.

1 Like
11

Agree with others that ad hoc distribution is the way to go, and it’s not all that difficult. There are YouTube videos that can walk you through it in a few minutes.

Warning: Rant incoming.

I’m sorry yet another of us has been bitten by Apple’s app policies.

I have a bit of an ax to grind on this issue because for the better part of a decade, I was prohibited from having a developer account due to legal reasons I can’t really get into here. This completely hindered my ability to distribute apps to their ecosystems.

On iOS this is absolutely worse than it is on MacOS, because they can lock your app out of the device completely. On MacOS you still have right-click/open for gatekeeper sidestepping as an option, although the user experience is awful, and it seems that going forward they are trying to eliminate this as well.

One company should not be able to decide whether or not you can create apps. They should not be able to unilaterally destroy one’s livelihood. I don’t care if it’s their ecosystem and they built it, they are so pervasive in the modern world that they are a common carrier like Ma Bell, cable companies and airlines, and need to be regulated as such.

I would encourage anyone who agrees to write to their lawmakers and urge them to hold Apple to account, demanding a more open ecosystem that allows sideloading and third-party app distribution across all their platforms.

This must be done in a workable way, not the garbage approach they are trying to hustle the EU with right now. The “core technology fee” is absolute nonsense, they are double-dipping as they have already been paid for the technology via people buying hardware (including the developers themselves). Developers creating software for the Apple ecosystems only benefits Apple as it encourages more hardware sales. These fees only exist to make third-party distribution financially infeasible.

I know there are many who will disagree and cherish the stock-Apple experience, and that’s totally fine, nobody should deprive you of that. But options should be made available for those of us who do want better access to the hardware we paid for. Sideloading has been on Android since the beginning, and it hasn’t bothered anyone who hasn’t enabled it.

Thanks for reading. Hope everyone has a nice day.

12

I agree. I don’t build apps for these devices either, except now, for the same reason.

Agreed as well. It’s their house, yes, but when one can’t welcome guests in his house, you better have to not make public services at all.

Now I know I should have followed that way. I tried the other one first, because I wouldn’t have to carry on my Mac with me (both because it’s more chances to get it stolen than keeping it safe at home and also because it’s not my main computer and, while Xojo and XCode are indeed installed there, I’m already expecting the setup (e.g. certificates installation, etc.) will be as frustrating as it always is).
But yes, if I have remaining free time today, I’ll set things up for that. Otherwise, I’ll provide only the Android version for those who have that OS. They have other means of solving their troubles, if any.

Thanks for all your answers. Much appreciated.