Joining the beta

The app is not released on Google Play yet. Google requires a round of testing first, and testers reach the app through Play rather than by downloading a file. The test is closed: an invitation is the way in, and there is no public listing to find.

Getting an invitation

Sign up on the beta page with the email address of the Google account signed in on the phone you’ll drive with. Play can invite that address and no other, so an address you don’t use on the phone will not work.

An invitation is an email, sent by hand when a testing slot opens. It carries a Play opt-in link, and that link is the only way the app becomes visible to your account. Nothing is downloaded from anywhere else.

Accepting the opt-in

The opt-in link opens a Google Play page for the test. Accept it there, and the app’s Play listing becomes visible to that account — with a download button, the way any other app has one. Install it from that page.

The listing is private while the test runs: you can reach it, and someone who was never invited cannot. Keep the opt-in page bookmarked. It is also the page that lets you leave.

If Play says the app is not available for your device, send the phone and the Android version to admin@interstatetracker.com. That is a useful report, not a nuisance.

Updates

Updates arrive through Play like any other app’s. Test builds come out more often than a released app’s would, sometimes several in a week, and each one carries the same recorded trips: an update never clears your data.

Settings, then About, prints the version and build a phone is running. Quote those two lines in a problem report and there is no guessing about which build you saw.

Leaving the test

The opt-in page has a link for leaving the program. After you leave, Play stops offering the test builds.

Leaving does not delete anything. The trips on the phone stay on the phone until you delete them, and uninstalling the app deletes everything it stored on that phone — which cannot be undone, so export first if you want a copy. If you signed in, your account keeps what it was sent until you delete the account.

Reporting what you find

That is the point of a test. Settings, then Problems, then Report a problem, sends a report with what the phone knows about it. What a report carries, and what makes one easy to act on, is on getting help.

admin@interstatetracker.com is the other way, and the only address this project has. Before you report a wrong number, the known limitations are worth a look — some of them are already filed.

Testers get a producer credit for the time, if they want one. A name is published only with your consent.