Find and track Google Play beta programs for the apps on your device.
BetaScout scans your installed apps, shows which ones are known to have a Google Play open-testing (beta) program, opens the opt-in page for you, and reminds you to re-check the ones you are watching — so you catch a free slot when one opens up.
The app is available in seven languages: English, Finnish (suomi), Spanish (español), German (Deutsch), French (français), Italian (italiano) and Brazilian Portuguese (português do Brasil). It follows your device language automatically; on Android 13+ you can also pick the language per app in system settings. Native speakers: corrections are very welcome — please open an issue.
- 📋 Scans installed apps — name, icon, version and install source, entirely on-device
- 🔍 Knows about beta programs — a shared catalog of apps with known open-testing programs, updated daily and grown by opt-in community discoveries that a server-side job verifies against Google Play before they are published
- 🔗 One-tap deep links — open an app's
play.google.com/apps/testing/…opt-in page or its Play Store page directly - ✍️ Track your own status — mark each app as joined / not joined / full / no program, and keep private notes
- ⏰ Watchlist with reminders — watch apps you care about and get a notification at your chosen interval (7/14/30 days) reminding you to re-check; tapping it opens the beta page
Honesty first:
- It never joins a beta program on your behalf. Joining requires pressing the Join button on Google Play yourself.
- Without signing in it cannot detect whether a program is open or full. That information is only visible to a signed-in Google account on the testing page. If you sign in inside the app, BetaScout reads your own testing pages to detect your memberships and each program's open/full status; otherwise it just takes you there.
- The shared catalog only says a testing program exists — your live open/full status still comes from the signed-in scan of your own testing pages.
- No accessibility-service automation, no APK sideloading, no Play Store bypassing.
| Onboarding | App details | Watchlist |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
BetaScout is distributed as an APK via GitHub Releases and is also available on Aptoide — it is not on the Play Store.
- Download the latest APK from the Releases page.
- Allow installs from unknown sources when Android asks.
- Done. Listing and tracking work offline; the beta-catalog refresh and the signed-in status scan need a network connection.
Why not the Play Store? BetaScout uses the
QUERY_ALL_PACKAGESpermission to list everything installed on your device. That permission is heavily restricted on the Play Store, but it is exactly what makes the app useful — so it lives here instead.
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES |
List your installed apps — the whole point of the app |
POST_NOTIFICATIONS |
Watchlist reminders and beta-opening alerts (asked on first launch, Android 13+) |
INTERNET, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE |
Fetch the beta catalog, and read your own Play testing pages once you sign in |
FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC |
Let a manual "Scan now" finish even if you leave the app |
The network is used for exactly two things: downloading the beta-program catalog, and —
only after you sign in — fetching play.google.com/apps/testing/… pages with your own
session to read your memberships. There is no telemetry and no analytics; your app list
and markings never leave the device.
Optional discovery sharing (off by default): if you enable "Share discoveries" in settings, BetaScout uploads the package names of apps whose scans found a testing program, so the shared catalog can grow with real-world finds. Only bare package names are ever sent — never your account, memberships, device identifiers or anything else — and the server stores no submitter information. Uploaded hints are only candidates: they enter the catalog after the daily harvester independently verifies them against Google Play.
The full privacy policy lives in PRIVACY.md.
Requirements: JDK 17+ and the Android SDK (or just Android Studio).
git clone https://github.com/jrs8205/BetaScout.git
cd BetaScout
./gradlew assembleDebug # APK at app/build/outputs/apk/debug/
./gradlew test # unit testsKotlin · Jetpack Compose (Material 3) · MVVM + Repository · Room · DataStore · WorkManager · Hilt · Navigation-Compose · kotlinx-serialization
- minSdk 26 (Android 8.0) · targetSdk 36
- Core logic is unit-tested (TDD): link building, package scanning, seed parsing, repository behavior, list filtering and reminder scheduling policy
- Opt-in, signed-in check of your own testing pages (membership + open/full status)
- Community-sourced beta-program catalog (opt-in discovery sharing + daily server-side verification against Google Play)
Suggestions and bug reports are welcome in Issues.
The app is under the Apache License 2.0. Beta membership and open/full/closed
status are read by signing into your own Google account and parsing your own testing pages
with Jsoup (MIT); no Google Play private API is used. The backend
harvester (harvester/) is GPL-3.0 and runs server-side only.