UPDATE, May 29, 1:39 p.m. ET -- The Crashlytics beta testing tool for third party apps is no longer in beta, and is now available for free to any iOS or Android developer.
Crashlytics announced the transition out of beta on the company blog Thursday. Between Crashlytics, which lets developers test and hone their apps, and Twitter's MoPub, which helps developers monetize them, the company is making a pretty serious run at mobile developers.
Facebook seems to be taking a similar strategy. At Facebook's F8 developer conference last month, the company announced a number of changes in hopes of encouraging third party developers to build their apps in conjunction with the social network.
Twitter-owned Crashlytics, a mobile company focused on crash reporting technology for apps, is testing a new tool that allows developers to beta test their apps with real users.
The "beta distribution tool," as it's called in the company's recent blog post, lets developers ship early versions of their iOS or Android mobile apps to users in order to test for bugs and receive feedback. The distribution tool from Crashlytics is also in beta mode. Interested developers need to apply in order to gain access.
[seealso slug="best-android-apps"]
In other words, it's a beta version of the tool for apps in beta.
This is the first time that Crashlytics or Twitter has ever offered a tool for developers looking to test their beta apps. Twitter purchased Crashlytics in January 2013 for more than $100 million, and the company has remained virtually autonomous since the acquisition. The information about its new developer tool comes less than a week after Apple acquired another popular app developer tool, TestFlight, which is owned by Burstly, killing its Android support program.
TestFlight announced a few days before the acquisition that starting Android support would cease on March 21, meaning developers using the tool to test their Android apps will need to find something new. That doesn't necessarily mean they will turn to Crashlytics. Other companies offer beta testing tools that support Android including HockeyApp and, of course, Google.
Developers interested in applying to try Crashlytics's beta testing tool can do so here.