The real build
The same 2.1.4 that is in front of Google. Nothing is stripped down or watermarked.
Internal test open
Nine Lives for Android
Join the Nine Lives test.
Nine Lives is moving from an up front purchase to being free for the core functions, with an in-app purchase for many of the features. There are only 100 spots available, so an application is not a guarantee.
Free to install
Same build as review
Unlock costs nothing here
Four steps, one of them mine
How it works
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Email me
Send [email protected] the Google account you use on your phone. That address is the whole application. Google Play only lets people in by exact account, so a different one will not work.
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You get added, usually the same day
I do this by hand. There is no form, no list you sign up on, and nothing automated on the other end.
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Open the join link on your phone
Signed in as that account, open the internal test link and accept. Google Play then shows the install button like any other app. The link only works once you are on the list.
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Listen, then tell me what broke
Local folders, your Audiobookshelf server, both. Then say what broke, what confused you, and what you expected to happen instead.
No stripped down tester build
What you get
The unlock, at no charge
Every account added to the test goes on Google Play's license tester list at the same time, and Play bills license testers against a test card instead of a real one. Go through the purchase anyway. The paywall is the part I most want tried, and it will not bill you.
The app stays
When the free release goes live, it updates over the top. You do not reinstall and you do not lose your place.
Said plainly, before you send it
What I keep
Your email lands in my inbox with whatever you typed in it, which the template asks for as a Google account, a phone model, an Android version, the other audiobook apps you use, and whether you plan on local files, Audiobookshelf, or both.
The Google account goes into two Google Play Console lists, testers and license testers, so Play knows to let you in and not charge you. That is the whole footprint of joining. Ask to be removed and the email is deleted, both list entries go with it, and the test access ends there.
One more use of that address: now and then I may email to ask whether you still use the app, so I know who to reach when a new version needs testers. If I do not hear back, I will take that as you have moved on and free up the seat. Asking to be removed at any point does the same thing on your terms.
Nothing on this page collects anything. There is no form, and the only thing it asks you to do is open your own email client. Reading it does get counted by my own cookieless analytics, the same as every page here, and the site privacy notice says exactly what that counts. The app itself collects nothing, which is the same answer it gives on its Data safety form.
The parts Google decides, not me
Two things worth knowing
The internal test is capped at one hundred people
Google sets that ceiling and it is first in, first added. If it fills, I will update this page to say I am not taking new testers and pull the join buttons.
Google locks a tester to one track
Joining the internal test makes that account ineligible for any later closed or open test of the app until you leave this one. For most people that never comes up.
Reporting
Bugs go somewhere a human reads them.
The easiest way is inside the app: Settings, then Feedback and Reports, then Bug Report. It drafts an email with the diagnostics I need already filled in. Or open an issue on GitHub, or reply to the email that added you. A screenshot and the phone model cover most of the rest.