Why does apple require a review for beta testing?

fairly new to apple releases and wondering what is the difference between

the "Beta testing review" and "submit for approval"?

We submitted the app for approval and this was approved and we could release to the appstore if we wanted to. Obviously we want to test the app and I was no sure between internal testers and External testers and chose External testers and submitted to beta for review , and the app was rejected as it required access to all screens etc...

I am confused can someone explain what do they review in beta that the dont review when you submit for approval?

Do they test different things? Is there a list of requirements?

many thanks

Solution 1:

The TestFlight App Review (for external best testing) can be seen as a slightly lighter version of the App Store review process. It is still the same guidelines, but the testing might not be as thorough - and it seems in my experience that they have a higher tolerance for "known bugs".

Just because the app was approved for App Store release does not mean that it is automatically approved for external beta testing as well. Apple seems to review the app once more. Typically you would have different app executables in the review queue for the app store release and beta testing, so in the common case there's no "rework" involved.

Note also that with betas it seems the app only gets manually reviewed on the first submission. Subsequent test versions are usually approved after only an automated testing. Note that some times a manual review takes place again, but it is occurs very infrequently in my experience.

I assume that Apple requires the app to go through the manual TestFlight App Review, even though it is already App Store approved, in order to save various information about your app that it uses for subsequent automatized reviews.

You can find the list of requirements for the review process here:

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/

Note that the guidelines apply equally to the App Store review as well as the TestFlight App Review.