Supporting the announcement of brand-new Fire tablets and enhancements to Fire OS, the App Testing Service (ATS) has been updated to work seamlessly with Fire OS. In as little as 90 seconds, you can receive a detailed report of potential issues that could affect compatibility with the Amazon Appstore—including guidance on how to resolve them before publishing. ATS can also run your app on actual Fire HD 6 and Fire HD 7 devices, providing a comprehensive compatibility report (including screenshots) in as little as 15 minutes.

What Is Tested?

ATS performs a static analysis of your app’s manifest and optionally analyzes your app as it runs on actual device hardware (including the new 6” and 7” Fire tablets just announced).  It performs tests that fall into three major categories:

1. Libraries – Identify software libraries incompatible with the Amazon Appstore, in which case we suggest compatible alternatives
2. Amazon APIs – Determine if Amazon APIs are being called incorrectly, in which case we provide documentation to help
3. Device Capabilities – Look for features that aren’t supported by certain devices, in which case we provide guidance on how to handle this

Testing combines static analysis of how how your app runs on Fire OS as with analysis of your app as it runs on actual device hardware (including the new 6” and 7” Fire tablets just announced). Your app will be installed and launched, after which the service will explore activities it is able to identify. ATS will generate a report that includes test events, screenshots, CPU usage, and heap utilization during testing. You will also have access to detailed logs.

The testing process is optimized for apps built using native Android widgets, so if you create a custom user interface (for example, using OpenGL or HTML5) testing may be less extensive. Note that ATS does not collect login credentials, so it will not explore sections of your app where these are required.

How to Submit Your App for Testing

Using ATS to check your app is fast and easy. All we need is your APK file, which you can drag and drop directly on the ATS widget located at the top-left of the Developer Portal home page.

Once you drop an APK file on the widget, your app will be uploaded to ATS and testing will begin.

Results of the initial analysis will be available in as little as 90 seconds.

We’ll provide specific instructions on how to resolve issues we discovered.

Device tests will also be performed, though analysis of those results will takes longer—usually between 15 minutes and 6 hours. If you have a developer account with Amazon, you can access those results from your ATS dashboard. If not, you may provide an email address and we will send the results to you as soon as they are available.

Device test results will provide links to screenshots captured during the testing process, letting you see how your app actually appeared while under test.

Publish Your App on Amazon

Once you have used ATS to test your app for potential compatibility issues, reviewed the test results, and made any updates necessary to address specific items called out by the service, you are ready to publish your app to the Amazon Appstore. Submit your app from the Developer Portal or drag and drop your APK to re-run the test; the initial results will include a big orange button to kick off the submission process.

If you don’t already have an Amazon developer account, note that you will be required to create one before you can submit your app to the Amazon Appstore. Creating a developer account is free, however. If you are an Amazon customer, you can even use your existing Amazon account, if you want.

Other Resources

See our Developer Portal for more information on the App Testing Service and

• Why indie developers love the Amazon Appstore
• Downloading the Amazon Mobile App SDK
• Testing your app with live testers for free

-peter (@peterdotgames)