Microsoft buys app beta testing startup HockeyApp, plans Visual Studio integration

Today, Microsoft announced that it has acquired HockeyApp, a startup that lets developers beta test their apps on iOS, Android, and Windows.

This deal follow’s Apple’s February acquisition of Burstly, the parent company of HockeyApp competitor TestFlight.

Microsoft says it plans to integrate aspects of HockeyApp into “Visual Studio Online to expand Application Insights support for iOS and Android.” More specifically, Microsoft intends to build HockeyApp’s crash reporting, app distribution, and tester feedback features into “new iOS and Android SDKs for Application Insights.”

For now, there are apparently no plans to shut down HockeyApp as an independent service:

We want to be very clear about the most important thing: we remain dedicated to our mission of making the best mobile app development feedback and testing distribution platform in the world. Your HockeyApp apps and accounts will continue to work and the team has not stopped working on advancing the platform. Throughout the next few months, we’ll reveal more about our plans with Microsoft.

Via: Federico Viticci