I'm looking for Beta testers for my cooking iOS and Watch app

By jimtreats, 14 December, 2015

Forum
App Development and Programming

Hi,

I've been working on a cooking app for a year or two now and am getting close to wanting to release it from a feature completeness point of view at least. I'd hoped to release in time for Christmas but I realise now that this is not going to happen. A shame as my app would be very helpful in preparing the Christmas dinner!

I'm looking for testers to help test the Voice Over features of my app and the app's behaviour in general. I've been testing with a limited number of users already, including a blind friend who's helped provide me with invaluable feedback for what makes a good or not so good accessible app. I'd like to go wider now with my testing and am very keen to ensure that my app works well for all my users.

Only just registered here, so not sure how this works but if you could reply registering your interest then I'll try to get back to you and sort out the test flight registrations to get you able to test the app.

Thanks for your time!

Cheers!

James

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Comments

By Jarrod Jicha on Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 21:56

I have been using IOS now for just a bit over two years now, and for a while paid to be a developer just so I could help beta test new versions of IOS. Now that they have the public betas I don't have to put out that kind of money, but I still help beta test that. I have also helped beta test some games for windows as well. So if you would like to contact me off the forum VIA email, you can email me at jamminjerry2011@gmail.com. I don't mind putting my email address here as it is in podcasts all over the internet.

By Christian Stef… on Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 21:56

Hello.
I'd also like to test your iOS app.
To contact me off this forum, here's my email address:
rajcanjirobert@gmail.com

It's also my apple ID, so you can send me an invitation to test the app.
Cheers,
Christian

By jimtreats on Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 21:56

Thanks guys. It's my part time job so it may be a little delay of a day or two until I send out the invites. Also I'm just working on finishing up migrating my watch app to WatchOS 2 with proper voice over so I'd prefer to wait until that version is live in test flight before adding you so you have the best experience.

Am happy for people to PM me if they don't want to put their email addresses in the public forum.

Cheers

By jimtreats on Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 21:56

Sorry to be clearer, my app is about helping you to coordinate and cook a meal that has many parts being cooked at once. It handles the timings of all dishes to cook so they all finish at the same time. Unlike other apps on the market it treats microwave cooking as a first class citizen.

You add items to the app with their cooking details, and you can then build up meals with items you've already added before easily.

It is not a recipe app as such.

It has a few utility functions built in too, including microwave wattage conversions and a set of simple timers that you can setup and trigger to alert you like the default clock app but allowing you to have multiple timers running at the same time.

Sorry should have been clearer about this

By swordsmasher on Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 21:56

Hello leon again. I would be interested in testing this app out for you.

By Niall Gallagher on Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 21:56

Hi,

I would be more than happy to help out with beta testing your app.
My email address for Test Flight is niallgallagher91@gmail.com.

Sounds like a very interesting app.

Kind regards,
Niall

By jimtreats on Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 21:56

In reply to by swordsmasher

Hi Leon, I'll just need an email address to send the beta test flight invitation to. You can PM me the address if you'd rather not paste it publicly on the thread here.

Cheers

By Amber Shuping on Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 21:56

This is just what my dysgraphic fiancé needs, so you'd be getting two beta testers here. I'll send over both our addresses in a minute. Gotta say, what a cool concept, and you should definitely look into the LD (learning difficulties) market for this one.

By jimtreats on Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 21:56

Progress on my watch app's voice over is coming on, hopefully today or tomorrow I'll be happy enough with this and will be able to get everything ready to be put in the next TestFlight build at which time I'll start adding everyone's invites.

I wonder the best way to have a discussion about the app over time. I'm happy to email, tweet and whatever but can't decide a good way to communicate with testers as a group and individually. If you have any thoughts on how you've managed this with other apps before then I'd be interested to hear of any other options beyond emails, mailing lists, posting in here, Twitter or other instant message, Skype etc.

Thanks everyone for your interest and support, I've no doubt with your help I can improve the app further to cater for everyone's needs!

Cheers

By jimtreats on Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 21:56

I've just submitted a new build to test flight that seems to be working ok. I'll be getting it tested with existing testers and just letting it settle in and then I'll be starting to send invites out to everyone who has offered to help test it for me.

I wondered whether it'd be better if i could get some updated video tutorials, including some that are for voice over use of the app. The trouble is this may take some time to do so I can't decide whether it'd be better to just let you all get your hands on it and to start learning how it works and doesn't work for you.

I'm definitely interested in hearing some first impressions from the app when first tried, i know it could do with some introduction help popups but i've not had chance to start looking into this. I'll have a bit of a think about it, but realistically i'll be looking at trying to get it out to everyone by Saturday now.

I'm still looking into the best options for communicating with the testers and at the moment I'm not sure the best way of doing this.

Anyways, enough. I'll update on here when its live but also be in touch separately.

I'd recommend all testers ensure they already have TestFlight installed on their iOS devices. I'd encourage testing on iPhone as that's the target device for now. It does currently install on iPad but by launch i'll probably be removing support for iPad initially as i'd rather do it properly after getting the iPhone version out there.

Thanks for your time. Cheers!

By jimtreats on Saturday, December 26, 2015 - 21:56

I've sent invites to everyone who asked for them an hour or so ago. Have also sent an email to everyone with some videos to watch to hopefully help explain a bit more about the app. No voice over specific videos yet as I was struggling to capture phone audio and microphone audio in one.

For now unless needed I'll not post to this thread about the app, to save spam on the forum.

Cheers

By ZacharyS on Friday, February 26, 2016 - 21:56

I don't know if your still looking for testers but if you are id love to I cook for my family all the time. My test flight info is slocumbz@gmail.com

By SoundSchemer on Friday, February 26, 2016 - 21:56

Hi:

I'm always happy to assist app developers. I don't cook, however I'm looking for fun things to do online, so I'm always happy to help. My apple id eMail is robotech8000@gmail.com, and that's my normal eMail, for any other awesome people to eMail me at.

Have a great day, and keep up that laughter

By jimtreats on Friday, February 26, 2016 - 21:56

Hi Charlie, I'll be in touch with an app invite when I'm ready to post another build. I need to catch up with all the other testers soon too. I expect the current build may have expired, so apologies for that. Christmas and life have conspired to hold back progress a little but I'm nearly ready to release a new build shortly.

cheers

By JTran2013 on Friday, February 26, 2016 - 21:56

Hi,
My name is Joann and I am very interested in testing out your app.

By jimtreats on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 21:56

In reply to by JTran2013

Hi Joann, I'll be in touch with a new build for you to test when I next push one. Please direct message me with a suitable email address to invite you on.

Sorry everybody else for not updating the app itself or the posts here. I've been busy with my day job, but also working hard adding a few extra features that have overrun. I'm hopefully putting the finishing touches to this last feature any day now, a bit more final testing and i'll be pushing out another build to test for all who i've invited already, along with new testers that have asked to try it since the last build on here.

I would appreciate some feedback from testers when the app is functional again soon, as it will be helpful to know if its working ok for you all!

Thanks for your time, I'll be back with more updates soon, days hopefully!

By Matthew C on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 21:56

Hi Jim. I am coming into this conversation late but would like to help out if you would like. My email address is:

mcarello71@comcast.net

By Rolando Jr Ogayon on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 21:56

Hello there,

I will be happy to beta test.

cheers!

Jhon

By jimtreats on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 21:56

I have sent a new build out to testers this morning, hopefully you've all received the invite to download it?

I also just now added the new testers who asked to try it on here recently.

Joann, and Jhon I've not been able to invite you as I need an email address to invite you on. If you either post it on this thread or direct message it me if you'd like to be more private about it then i can send an invite out to you as soon as possible.

By jimtreats on Saturday, November 26, 2016 - 21:56

Just a quick heads up to everyone who's helped test my app during its beta testing phase. I've recently released the app onto the App Store and its currently available at 50% off to celebrate its launch.

You can find it on the App Store here

- https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/mealtime/id1016295040?mt=8

Also I've made a website for the app which you can access here

- http://mealtime.jimtreats.com

I'd appreciate it if those users who've used my app already could help ensure that its listed here as being suitable for Voice Over users.. I'm not sure how best to go about this and would appreciate any advice. Thanks for your time!

Cheers!