Apple has announced that they will be hosting an event on the 10th of November where is expected that the company will finally and officially unveil their new Apple Silicon Mac computers. However, in addition to announcing new computers, a tweet by The Verifier claims that Apple could also be bringing TestFlight to macOS next week.
For those who are unfamiliar, TestFlight is a feature in iOS in which developers can beta test apps and open them up to the public ahead of their release. TestFlight has been exclusive to iOS devices up till now, but if the tweet is accurate, it seems that Apple will be expanding it to macOS as well.
So why is this a big deal? Why should we care about beta testing macOS apps? This actually ties in rather neatly with the launch of Apple Silicon computers. Given that app compatibility will no doubt be a focus when Apple begins transitioning to ARM-based chipsets over Intel’s x86 processors, TestFlight will be a good way for developers to allow macOS users to try out beta versions of their apps to help ensure compatibility and functionality.
https://twitter.com/theverifer/status/1323382573406572544
Apple has a monumental task ahead of them to try and convince developers and users to adopt its Apple Silicon Mac computers, and a healthy ecosystem is everything. Apple had previously introduced tools like Catalyst which helps developers port iOS apps over to macOS, but with TestFlight, it could help speed things along as more users will be able to beta test apps on the behalf of developers.