For a shockingly small monthly membership fee, developers and testers of mobile, smart TV, and smartwatch applications, can access and work with a community of other developers with the needed devices to test from and debug — remotely.
The first beta release of debug.network is scheduled for July 2016. We are currently in the development process and have a successful proof of concept for our technology. We have started our marketing campaign and have a landing page to acquire users (https://debug.network). Hundreds of developers have already shown interest.
Created by experienced mobile developers, debug.network is solving the massive problem of device fragmentation, and allowing developers to create quality, bug-free applications in a clean, fast, and affordable way. debug.network will be the go-to tool for the nearly 10 million mobile developers worldwide.
Here’s a scenario that happens to all mobile developers:
We carefully craft an app — fixing, debugging, and cycling — and finally release it to app stores. We then stand by to get users’ feedback about crashes or other problems. In spite of all the testing and debugging in the world, there will alwaysbe unforeseen problems on the user’s end. There are simply too many variables in today’s tech-driven world to prepare for.
When there is inevitably a crash or unwanted behavior from a user’s device, developers cannot reproduce that failure is a test environment. Why? Because that failure only happened because of a series of events specific to that user and their device.
The myriad of circumstances that exist across devices, operating systems, and testing environments creates an unfortunate reality where a tester reporting a bug doesn’t do the developer much good since they can’t reproduce those exact same circumstances.
Moreover, until now, typically only large companies or well-funded startups had a big enough budget to perform a vast testing phase with a multitude of real devices.
How do developers combat this? They can register for services like Perfecto Mobile or TestObject, which provide access to the specific device/OS that a user reported an error on. When you locate the desired device, you can upload your app, and hope you can reproduce the bug. That doesn’t always work out. Even if you DO reproduce the bug, these services don’t allow you to do the actual debugging, merely identify the problem.
Another limiting factor is that these services cost a lot of money — a tough burden for individual developers and small startups. Usually only big companies or well-funded startups have a big enough budget to really do a vast testing phase with a lot of real devices.
What’s the Main Source of App Failures?
The main reason bugs appear is because of device fragmentation. This mostly happens in Android devices because there are way more device makers (versus iOS which is only made by Apple). More device makers, more unrepeatable environments, more problems.
In short, the only viable solution to fix these problems is remote debugging. Previously impossible, debug.network is the world’s first remote mobile debugging solution.
Debug.network is a social network of mobile developers and testers that can access one another’s devices remotely from different countries, allowing each other to debug and test (peer to peer) on any real device and environment the community shares.
As our community grows, we will offer the widest variety of testing devices and environments in the market — all at affordable rates that even the smallest business, indie-developer/tester, or newest startup can afford.
How It Works
The goal is to “give” your device to the network and “get” others’ devices.
What About Security?
Every session happening on your device will be encrypted and securely removed when the other party is finished. Alternatively, when you finish testing and debugging an app, all the data produced is removed from the hosting device.
You can also create private “company groups” which make it possible to share devices only among group members.
What Kind of Apps Does debug.network Support?
debug.network is a service for developers and testers of mobile, smart TV, and smart watch applications. The service is provided in a comfortable, safe, and affordable way, on any device and in any environment that the members of our community own.
Product development is fully underway with a successful proof of concept available to show. We’ve started our marketing campaign and have a landing page (https://debug.network) where interested users can sign up to receive the latest news including launch date.
To date, we have over 100 developers interested with the number growing every day. We expect to have at least 10,000 interested users by the time we launch.
Timeline
We’ve already been featured in a long list of publications including:
… and many more
Up next: As debug.network grows, we will caplize more on the social network aspect of our service. Mobile developers and testers can share knowledge with each other and even partner up on projects. We have the potential to supplant top freelance job sites for mobile developers. We will also offer auto-testing tools on our platform.
Make sure to request access to the business plan tab of this profile for an inside look into debug.network!
The debug.network team consists of talented software developers and with experience across a wide range of fields, from social to IoT and beyond.
Guy Doron, CEO
Guy has over 15 years of R&D experience in web and mobile development including CTO roles at various startups. He is also the owner of Moblers (moblers.com), a development studio for Android and iOS mobile applications. Moblers’ customer list includes: 365Scores, UIA International check in, JIFITI, IKEA, Zappix, ORANGE, and many more. His time in the mobile development community has resulted in a lot of global connections to work with in order to put debug.network in front of mobile developers and testers. He holds a B.Sc. in computer science. As CEO, Guy manages all aspects of debug.network from marketing to product development.
Tal Halperin, Vice President
Tal brings over 10 years of experience in software development to the debug.network team. As a former Captain in the Israeli Air Force, Tal has extensive management and intelligence experience. Prior to joining debug.network, he worked for Elbit Systems and Comverse. Tal holds a B.Sc. in mathematics and computer science from Ben-Gurion University.
Zvi Forgacs, Vice President of R&D
Zvi has over 15 years of experience in software development, and served as a technological director for several software companies where he was responsible for software research, design, and technological research. Zvi holds a B.Sc. in physics from Ben-Gurion University.