Ipa share it "over the air" with other ios users . Help / Guidelines

Expo SDK
1

Hello there,
I have recently build my ipa file , by running expo build:ios . I`ve enter my Apple credentials. Chose on all options “Let expo handle …” . And finally got my .ipa file.

Now i want to share that ipa file with all my colleagues that have an iOS device. Kindly note that i don’t want to publish the application to the store.

I`ve read numerous threads discussing how to share the ipa file with an href , and concluded that i have to create a custom plist . which is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>items</key>
        <array>
                <dict>
                        <key>assets</key>
                        <array>
                                <dict>
                                        <key>kind</key>
                                        <string>software-package</string>
                                        <key>url</key>
                                        <string>https://path/to/my/app.ipa</string>
                                </dict>
                        </array>
                        <key>metadata</key>
                        <dict>
                                <key>bundle-identifier</key>
                                <string>com.test.identifier</string>
                                <key>bundle-version</key>
                                <string>1.0.0</string>
                                <key>kind</key>
                                <string>software</string>
                                <key>title</key>
                                <string>My App</string>
                        </dict>
                </dict>
        </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Then i proceeded and created an href that its like this:
<a href="itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=https://path/to/my/manifest.plist">Install App</a>
The users click on the link download the app. But it displays the message “Unable to Download App … could not be downloaded at this time”.

Can anyone share guidelines or assistance on what is the process to achieve sharing the ipa app and running on the devices without the use of App Store. Kindly note that the application runs smooth on iOS devices when i run expo start, so there are no issues there.

Thank you in advance.

2

Hey @mits,

I would strongly suggest uploading your .ipa to TestFlight. It makes it much easier to share with users without having to publish it to the App Store. They recently made it even easier where you can share a link to add people as beta testers: Invite Beta Testers with a TestFlight Public Link - Latest News - Apple Developer

Cheers,

Adam

3

Hey @adamjnav TestFlight looks awesome but I would prefer to avoid any other applications or processes involved. I would prefer just creating a link so the users can download it. I am actually looking for the correct process to deploy an OTA application, (I am not familiar with iOS procedures)

4

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