Build Distro makes it dead simple to get the right app builds into the right teammates’ hands
Mobile build distribution is hard. There’s the provisioning and signing gauntlet, of course, but the challenges don’t end there. Getting the right builds in front of the right teammates takes constant effort and shepherding, and creating an install flow that’s pain-free is difficult. Existing tooling options tend to jumble all different kinds of builds together and offer half-baked installation flows; the “human factors” aspect of build distribution is secondary, or ignored altogether.
We set about building a better, more foolproof and human-centric way.
What is Build Distro?
Build Distro allows you to clearly define and group the different types of mobile builds your team distributes – from one-offs and work-in-progress dev builds, to staging builds, to release candidates. You can avoid the usual jumbled pile of builds that folks have to carefully sift through, and give technical and non-technical team members alike an easier way to grab builds, with streamlined installation via QR or Slack link. With hassle-free distribution, your team can check out builds earlier and more often, improving collaboration and app quality.
Here are some highlights:
📲 Get the right builds into the right people’s hands
Build Distro introduces the idea of build buckets to allow you to clearly define and group different flavors of builds. Instead of having all distributed builds landing in that jumbled pile, you can now separate different kinds of builds using definitions based on branch, CI workflow, or some combination of both — or using more freeform, ad hoc buckets. Not only are build flavors logically separated into buckets, but you can set up targeted notifications and scope access per bucket to ensure the right people are aware of and able to seamlessly install new builds relevant to them.
✨ Share one-offs & early test builds more easily
With branch-based and ad hoc, personal build buckets, Runway makes it much easier to share work-in-progress builds. You can create dedicated buckets for test builds and nightlies on your main development branch or any feature branches, and everyone on your team can also have their own personal buckets to drop updates into as they work. Product managers, QA, designers, and other engineers and stakeholders can now easily grab any WIP builds, earlier and more often during the development cycle, helping your mobile org improve quality and shift left.
đź”’ Make it impossible to ship the wrong build to prod
One of the worst failure modes around build distribution has to do with test or staging builds getting accidentally shipped to production. It may be rare, but when it happens, it can be devastating. Confusion around distributed build flavors is often to blame, and Runway’s build buckets remove this risk. Clearly delineate prod and pre-prod builds, and scope access accordingly.
đź“Ą Install app builds with less hassle, and more context
Even once someone has tracked down a build they want to check out, actually getting it onto their device comes with its own hassles. Runway makes installation foolproof and seamless: with each build, you can install directly by scanning a QR code or sending yourself a link in Slack. Plus, alongside each build you can see full context on the build flavor and exactly what work it contains — no more guesswork, pinging build numbers back and forth and hoping you’re grabbing the right version of the app.
⚙️ Integrate with your existing tools for zero extra overhead
Getting up and running is simple: connect your existing CI and… that’s it. Once you’re connected, Runway will get you started with a few default shared buckets for development and RC builds, and anyone on your team can easily create scoped personal buckets. To define a new shared bucket, simply select a workflow (from among any defined in your CI, automatically pulled in by Runway), a branch, or some combination of both.
🤝 Standalone or tightly integrated with the rest of Runway
Exactly how you leverage Build Distro is up to your team. You can spin up Build Distro by itself and use it as a standalone tool. Or, for a tightly integrated experience across the entire dev and release cycle, Build Distro plugs seamlessly into Runway’s end-to-end release management platform as a beta integration, allowing you to manage everything to do with pre-prod builds and testers alongside the rest of the release context.
Who is Build Distro for?
Build Distro is for mobile teams of all sizes who care about getting builds into the hands of team members and testers early and often.
There are a few team members that might be especially excited about Build Distro:
- Mobile engineers who want to get more eyes on their in-progress work, well before it makes its way to the team’s main branch
- PMs who care about checking out product work as it’s being developed, without having to hunt around for specific builds
- QA folks who want to stay on top of testing without the volley of unintelligible build numbers over Slack
- Anyone on the team, technical or non-technical, who cares about the product and wants to check out and help test builds pre-production
How to give Build Distro a try
You can sign up for free on the Runway site, no credit card required, and we’re always available to give folks a guided walkthrough as well – just get in touch!