Quick answer
To get app feedback from people who are not developers, pick three to six people who match your users, give each one a short task, and make the build easy to open. A simulator link opens the build in a desktop browser with nothing to install. TestFlight and Google Play testing put it on their own phone. You collect what they find in one list, fix it, and send the next build.
Friends, family, a designer, or a first customer see things your team stopped seeing a while ago: a button they look for in the wrong place, a word they do not understand, a screen that looks wrong on their phone. The hard part is getting the build in front of them. They cannot install a development build, and a TestFlight invite asks them to install another app first.
Who should you ask?
The best testers already look like your users. For a fitness app, that is someone who works out, and for a tool that teams use, it is someone who runs a team.
Add a few people who are new to the project, such as friends, family, a designer, or an early customer. They do not know where anything is yet, so they show you where people get lost.
Three to six people in each round is a good start. A small group finds the rough edges, and you fix them before the next round.
On Google Play, plan for a bigger group. A personal developer account created after November 13, 2023 must run a closed test with at least 12 testers, opted in for 14 days in a row, before it can apply for production access.
How do they open the build?
How a tester opens the build depends on what they have in hand: a laptop, an iPhone, or an Android phone.
| Way to share | What the tester needs | Where the app runs | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expo Simulators private link | An Expo account that can view the project | A desktop browser | Designers and PMs on your Expo account |
| Expo Simulators public link | Only the link | A desktop browser | Friends, family, and anyone outside your Expo account |
| TestFlight internal testing | An App Store Connect user on your team, and the TestFlight app. Up to 100 testers. | Their iPhone | Your own team |
| TestFlight external testing | The TestFlight app. The first build of each app version passes Beta App Review first. Up to 10,000 testers. | Their iPhone | Friends, family, and early users on iPhone |
| Google Play internal testing | Their email on your tester list. Up to 100 testers. | Their Android phone | Quick checks with a few people |
| Google Play closed testing | Their email on a list, or a Google Group | Their Android phone | Larger groups on Android |
With a simulator link, the tester opens the app on a cloud simulator in their browser and taps, scrolls, and types through it, with nothing to install. The link works while its session runs. You start the session when they are ready and stop it when they are done. Anyone with a public link can use the simulator, and you send it only to people you trust with the build. Android support is still in development, so some features that work on iOS may not work on Android yet. For every link option, see Share a new build with a simulator link.
With TestFlight, the build lands on the tester's iPhone. You invite each tester by email or send a public TestFlight link, and each build expires 90 days after upload.
With Google Play testing, the build lands on the tester's Android phone. You add their email to a tester list first, then send them the link.
For more ways to share a build, such as ad hoc builds and preview updates, see How to share a working app build with stakeholders before it ships.
What should you ask them to do?
Testers give better feedback when they have something to do. Give each person one task, in their words, such as "Sign up and add your first workout." Then ask what confused them, and where they expected something to be.
When something looks wrong, ask for a screenshot. On TestFlight, testers take a screenshot in your app and send it with a comment.
With a simulator link, you can also watch. You and the tester open the same link and see the same session while they use the app. Stay quiet, and notice where they stop.
Where does the feedback go?
Feedback comes in from texts, emails, and calls. Put it all in one list, such as a bug tracker or a shared doc. Check off each item with a short note on the fix, so testers see what changed since their last round.
TestFlight feedback lands in the TestFlight section of App Store Connect, with the screenshots, comments, and crash reports. To bring it to your team, EAS Workflows can start a workflow when a tester sends a crash report or a screenshot. First, connect your App Store Connect app in the EAS dashboard. This workflow posts each one to Slack:
An agent can read the same feedback through the Expo MCP Server, which has tools for TestFlight feedback and TestFlight crashes.
How do you run the next round?
After the first round, you fix what testers found, make a new build, and send it to the same people with a note on what changed. A few rounds is normal.
With a simulator link, you start a session with the new build and send its link. Each link opens one build, so each tester sees the build you meant them to see. With TestFlight, you add the new build to the tester group, and the first build of each new app version goes through Beta App Review again. With Google Play, you upload the new build to the same test track.
If the fix is only in JavaScript, you can send a preview update to a build the testers already installed. See How to share a live mobile preview without TestFlight.
Can an agent prepare the build and the link?
Setting up each round takes a few commands. An agent can run them while you write the note to your testers. With the eas-simulator skill, a prompt can read like this:
Build the current branch for the iOS Simulator. Start an Expo Simulators session with a public link, named "Feedback round 2", that stops after 30 minutes. Give me the link.
The agent starts a web-preview-only session with --public-link and --max-duration-minutes 30, then gives you the link. A preview-only session has no idle timeout, so the stop time ends the session when the round is over.
Let an agent set it up
If an agent prepares the build or the link, have it load these Expo Skills first:
expo-overview: the entry point that routes the agent to the right Expo skill.eas-simulator: starts a session, prints the link, and stops the session.eas-app-stores: builds for TestFlight and Google Play testing tracks.eas-update: sends a JavaScript-only fix as a preview update.
Install them:
- Claude Code:
claude plugin install expo@claude-plugins-official - Codex:
codex plugin add expo@openai-curated - Cursor and other agents:
npx skills add expo/skills
The full list is at docs.expo.dev/skills.
Try it
Expo Simulators is in a limited beta release. The docs on sharing a session cover every link option.
Verified on 29 October 2026.