Send iPhone app without user looking at source

Question

I was wondering if it was possible to send someone an iPhone application without them having access to the source code? For example lets say I create an app that i do not want to put on the app store (or cydia for that matter), and I want to send this application to someone (via email, usb, etc) without them being able to look at the source code. I don't see how I could do this when they would have to load the application onto their device via Xcode.

ps I see this being applicable to android applications also

Answer 1

1. As Choppin Broccoli already said, create an Ad Hoc Provisioning profile in the provisioning profile section at http://developers.apple.com .

2. In Xcode, make sure you set your build destination to "iOS Device"

3. In Xcode, click Product->Archive. The organizer window should pop up. If the Archives tap isn't selected, select it.

4. Click "Distribute".

5. Select "Save for Enterprise or Ad Hoc Deployment. Click next.

6. From the list of provisioning profiles on the next screen, select the same Ad Hoc profile that you created in step 1, and click "Export".

7. Select the location to store the file, then click "Save".

You can send that IPA to the user to install via iTunes.

Answer 2

What @Katim Languedoc said wad pretty accurate. In Android you do the same but the file extension is .apk.

Here is a post about how to make one:

Answer 3

您必须创建该应用程序的临时版本，并将.ipa文件发送给他们，以便他们通过iTunes安装。

Answer 4

You can also use services like TestFlight, but they just make the process described a little easier for your install-person (letting TestFlight handle the details of the actual install instead of having do it through iTunes). The fact that you have to do a build with an ad-hoc distribution profile is the same.