onTest
Play Store Closed Testing. $2/device. Live tracking. 3 free.
TL;DR: Exactly one year ago today (May 22, 2025), my second Android app went live — after 2.5 months hunting 12 strangers to open it daily. My first app took even longer. Total: 5.5 months of my life spent finding testers, not building. That's why I built onTest (https://ontest.app).
The "innocent" Google Play rule
November 2023, Google added a rule: every new personal Play Console account must run a closed test with 12 testers for 14 consecutive days before production access. One drop below 12 = counter resets.
12 people. 14 days. Easy, right? Not even close.
App #1: Motion Cues (live since March 2025)
I built Motion Cues (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.motion.cues.sickness) — prevents motion sickness using phone sensors. Code took 2 months.
Then the closed testing trap began:
Developer friends (~40 people): 3 on Android, 1 actually opened the app daily for 14 days. The irony of 2026 — devs who build mobile apps are the least likely to use Android.
Family + extended circle: 7-8 on Android, most forgot by day 3.
University WhatsApp (~100 people): every opt-in came with "what is this? is it safe? why daily?"
End of week 1: 5 active testers. 7 short.
Fiverr "12 testers for $15"
I paid one. Got 12 Gmail addresses. Two opted in. Seller reminded them, got to 7. But no one actually used the app.
Fiverr sellers sell email delivery, not testing. Real engagement patterns are not their problem.
Reddit swap threads
The math is brutal: to keep your test alive, you test 12 strangers' apps every day for 14 days. I did 3 swaps, people dropped out, domino. Never hit 12 continuously.
Motion Cues math
Coding: 2 months
Finding 12 testers: 3 months
Live now with 30k+ downloads, 4+ stars. Those 3 months stayed with me.
App #2: Let it Rain (live since exactly 1 year ago today)
A few months later I shipped Let it Rain (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.onstart.rain.mood) — rain overlay for focus and sleep. Code: 3 weeks. Same Google rule, same WhatsApp groups, same Fiverr scams, same Reddit swaps. 2.5 months to production. Went live May 22, 2025 — one year ago today. Climbing toward 10k downloads.
That's when I did the math: 5.5 months of my life spent finding strangers to open my apps daily. Not building. Not shipping. Just hunting testers.
The vibe coding era made this worse
Claude Code, Cursor, Bolt, Replit. Building a mobile app now takes days. Publishing one still takes months. In the next 12 months, tens of thousands of new indie devs will hit the same 12-tester wall.
So I built onTest
ontest.app — Google Play closed testing as a service. Real devices (Samsung, Xiaomi, Nothing — every model listed on the homepage), $2/device pay-per-device, live dashboard with daily screenshot proof, drop-replacement so your counter never resets.
The goal: save indie devs the months I lost.
Why I'm posting this here
Feedback wanted. Does pay-per-device pricing land at first glance, or should the homepage emphasize "12 for $18" more loudly? Anything you see on ontest.app — copy, pricing, onboarding — all welcome.
If you're stuck in closed testing right now, you're not alone. Happy to share what I learned about getting unstuck — even if you don't use onTest.
AMA about sourcing real testers, unit economics of $2/device, or competing against $15 Fiverr gigs.
1 Comment
Forgot to mention in the post, if anyone here has shipped an Android app under the new closed testing rule, I'd love to hear how you got your 12 testers. Was it friends? Reddit swaps? Something I haven't tried? Always curious how other indie devs solved this.