How to Build and Test iOS Apps on a Physical Phone: Sending Updates (Part 5/5)

Now that we have our app on TestFlight, and gotten the testers feedback (in Part 4 ), we can now send the fixes! The best way to do this is to use Over The Air (OTA) updates, which bypasses Apple’s Reviewing system so the users get instant changes. Limitations Using EAS update is good for JS updates, but not for native code changes. So, if something does not require a new Build (eg eas build), then we can send the new code using this method. Tip: Apple’s guidelines allow OTA updates for bug fixes/minor features, but using it to significantly change the app's purpose can get an account banned. How the Phone Receives the Updates Unlike a website, where the updates can be patched onto the server for the users to receive them; the app is a binary already compiled and only lives on users’ phones. Therefore, a few things we need to check: What is the version of the user’s binary? (i.e. “runtime version”)? What “channel” is this binary? We can only send the updates if it’s the correct channel