If your personal Play developer account was created after 13 November 2023, only one of the three testing tracks gets you to production: closed testing. Internal testing doesn't count toward the 12 testers for 14 days, and open testing stays locked until you already have production access.

That's the short answer. The rest is the four mistakes I see most from developers who run closed tests through TestFi. It's my product, so weigh that, but each of these mistakes costs about a week whoever you test with.

The three tracks side by side

Internal Closed Open

Who can join People you add by email Your email lists or a Google Group Anyone who finds it on Google Play

How many Up to 100 per app Lists of up to 2,000 each, or Google Groups Unlimited, or a cap of at least 1,000

Review first Usually live in minutes Normal app review Normal app review

Counts for the 12-tester rule No Yes No

On a new personal account Available Available, and required Locked until production access

Mistake 1: running the 14 days…