Facebook Unwraps App A/B Testing Platform

Facebook logo largeHaving abandoned its custom app platform in favour of going native, Facebook found itself unable to perform A/B tests on its apps.

To solve this issue, the company has built Airlock, a testing framework for updates made to its iOS and Android apps.

The company tested the platform on a small scale to get rid of any bugs, before doing a large test around its navigation bar on iOS.

It also had to simplify the app startup process and minimise the amount of data processing needed so it could serve A/B experiments without interrupting the users experience.

Facebook can now test up to 15 different variations of an update among millions of users all the same time.