Try a beta

New versions of the Smile app, Smile Connect and Smile Code go to beta.smilecorp.co.uk first, before everyone gets them. Betas are for accepted beta testers only.

Join the beta program

1. Go to beta.smilecorp.co.uk and sign in with your Smile account - the same one you use for Smile Hosting. If you use two-factor authentication, you’ll be asked for your code.
2. Pick the apps you’d like to test, tell us a little about why, and send your application.
3. Staff look at every application by hand. Come back to the beta site to see when you’re accepted.

Once you’re accepted, the betas unlock on the beta site for your account. Nobody else can download them.

Your beta dashboard

Once you’re accepted, sign in on beta.smilecorp.co.uk and open your dashboard (the Dashboard button at the top). It has:

• Betas for you - the beta of each app for your device, with what’s new and a download button.
• Your copies - every beta you’ve downloaded, its beta key, and whether it’s locked to a PC or phone yet.
• Reset your PC lock - for when you move to a new PC or phone (see below).

The main beta page shows what’s in each beta; the downloads are on your dashboard.

Install a beta

1. On your dashboard, download the beta for your device and install it over the top of the app you have, the same way you installed it the first time. Keep the file’s name as it is - it ends in your beta key (for example Smile-Connect-Setup-0.8.6-b-K7M2Q9X4PZ.exe).
2. On Linux, betas are AppImages (a .deb can’t keep your beta key).
3. On Android and iPhone, the beta asks for your beta key the first time it opens - type the 10 letters and numbers from your dashboard (they’re also at the end of the file name).

On iPhone and iPad, install the IPA with your signing app, as in Install Smile on iPhone.

Your own copy, on one device

Every beta you download is your own copy, made for your account.

• The first PC or phone you run it on is the one it’s locked to - and so is every beta of that app you download, older and newer versions too. After that they open there only - there’s nothing to sign in to.
• If the installer is shared, it won’t open on anyone else’s device.
• Moved to a new PC or phone? Press Reset my PC lock on your dashboard - you can do this once a week - then install it on the new one, and it locks to that. Need it sooner? Ask Smile staff on Discord.
• Each start, the beta checks with Smile that it’s still allowed to open, so it needs the internet.

If you’re taken off the beta program, your betas stop opening - install the released version instead.

When a beta is released

Once a beta version is released to everyone, the copy you have becomes a normal app: the lock and the check switch off by themselves, and it opens anywhere, even offline. You don’t need to download anything again.

The beta rule

Every beta of every Smile app - Smile on Windows, Linux, Android and iPhone, Smile Connect and Smile Code - works this way. It’s a requirement before any build goes on the beta site:

1. Each beta download is a personal copy for one accepted tester.
2. It locks to the first PC or phone it runs on - and so does every other beta of that app the tester has, whatever the version, so an older copy can’t be handed on. The tester can reset that once a week; Smile staff can any time.
3. When that version is released to everyone, the check switches off for good and it’s an ordinary app.

A build without this check is never offered as a beta - it can only be released to everyone. Every build newer than an app’s released version is a beta straight away.

Updates

A beta doesn’t update to the next beta - come back to the beta site for those. As soon as a version newer than your beta is released to everyone, your app updates to it as normal.

Go back to the released version

Download the released version from auth.smilecorp.co.uk/download, connect.smilecorp.co.uk for Smile Connect, or code.smilecorp.co.uk for Smile Code, and install it:

• Windows and Linux - install it over the top.
• Android - uninstall the beta first (Android won’t install an older version over a newer one), then install the released one and sign in again.

Note

Betas are signed by Smile like every release, but they’re newer than what’s been fully tested, so something might not work. Your Smile Auth vault stays end-to-end encrypted either way. Tell us what you find in #feedback on our Discord.

Sometimes there’s no beta for an app - then everyone already has the newest version. When the beta site is closed, it says so.