We’re very excited and pleased to announce that we’ve begun beta testing Codebook 4, the next major version release of our password manager! This upgrade has been in the works for some time, due to the critical nature of some of the features being updated, specifically the encryption and sync features. In addition, we’re pleased to have a great group of beta testers signed up, outside of our usual beta channels. This post will discuss what we’re up to and how we’re going about it.
Back towards the beginning of the year we put out several calls for folks who wanted to beta test Codebook 4 specifically, as opposed to people who get regular beta updates from us in TestFlight for maintenance releases, for example. Codebook 4 will not sync with Codebook 3, requiring the user to update on all platforms, so we didn’t want to surprise anybody with such a big update.
We’ve broken the list of testers up into two groups. We just sent out the information to download Codebook 4 to Group 1 on Monday. If you signed up and haven’t heard from us yet it’s because you’re in Group 2, we haven’t snubbed you!
So far, so good, no major issues have been reported as of yet, knock on wood. We plan to collect feedback for the next two weeks while we make adjustments as necessary (a few minor issues have already been caught and fixed). Then, assuming all is still going well, we’ll send out download information to Group 2 to get a fresh perspective and expand the number of testers.
If you’d like to join the Codebook 4 beta test, there’s still time to sign up! We’ll be taking our time, and the more people who try out the new Sync system, the sooner we’ll identify and work out any remaining kinks.
We’re distributing the iOS beta through Apple’s TestFlight service, which requires you to have an Apple ID and the TestFlight app installed on your iOS device. Similarly, Android betas are being distributed through the Google Play store and require a Google account to access. The macOS and Windows betas are being made available via direct download over HTTPS (as always, the installer packages are signed).
We’re using Campaign Monitor to email Groups 1 and 2 updates about beta testing directly. However, we’ll also be posting further information (like the Codebook 4 Beta Release Notes) in the Beta section of our discussion forum. Accessing this requires an account on Discuss, and a quick message to us to add your username to the Beta section. Beta testers are encouraged to send us feedback as soon as they can, either by emailing us directly, or posting to the Beta discussion forum.