About Nokia Beta Labs
Nokia Beta Labs brings together developers and consumers keen on improving products and accelerating innovation.
We facilitate trials for applications, software, or services currently being developed by teams in Nokia or by selected 3rd party developers. The items in our catalog are in the beta phase, which to us means they are:
- Of reasonably good quality, but may have rough edges and occasional service breaks
- Not commercialized yet, not guaranteed, and not officially supported
- Under active development
- Free of charge
- Not be used for commercial purposes
Depending on the outcome of the beta trial and other business factors, a product may graduate to commercial offering or be archived along with the lessons learnt.
Nokia Beta Labs is open for all, and there is no formal process to join the community. However, we expect you’ll get the most value out of participating if the following apply to you:
- You own a relatively new and advanced Nokia device
- You are willing to tolerate rough edges, in return for access to cool stuff
- You often get ideas how to improve the products you’re using
- You want to make a difference – and are not afraid to share your opinions
In exchange for getting free access to these beta product releases, we expect consumers to share their feedback through surveys and by contributing to our feedback forums. If you build a reputation on the site you might get more cool opportunities to participate in new trials.
Like the apps that we host, Nokia Beta Labs itself is constantly being developed based on community and developer feedback. Therefore, you'll find Nokia Beta Labs in our catalog as well. Any feedback about the site is welcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I do at Nokia Beta Labs?
At Nokia Beta Labs you can try out free applications, software, and services currently under development, give feedback about them, and interact with the developers and others in the Beta Labs community.
Why should I participate?
By participating, you can get your hands on the latest things being developed by Nokia or 3rd party developers before they are available to mainstream users. And, you will be part of a unique community that has the opportunity to influence the development of these products by giving feedback and interacting with the developers.
How do I find things for my device?
We recommend adding your mobile devices and desktop operating systems to your profile. Once you do that, new apps compatible for your devices will be recommended for you on the Beta Labs homepage. Likewise, if you view the Apps list, you can choose to see those compatible for your devices (default) or all items.
What does "beta" and "experimental" mean?
Items marked as Beta have a clear roadmap, are usually rather mature, and will likely graduate to a commercial product. Experimental items do not have a clear commercialization plan, are typically rough around the edges, and may or may not continue in the same form after the beta trial.
How do I give feedback?
You can give feedback publicly on the relevant feedback forum or privately by responding to surveys sent to your email after you try a new beta. In some cases, there is also the possibility to give written feedback or usage data from within the application itself.
When you want to submit feedback to our forums, please first check if there is a thread existing about it already. If so, contribute there. Otherwise create a new thread and describe your feedback as completely as possible.
What's the difference between discussion, suggestions, bug reports, reviews?
Discussion is for asking questions about the app and its development and getting support for using the app.
Suggestions are for proposing new features or functionality within that app or service. Often, some suggestions are already acknowledged in the Known Issues.
Bug Reports are for describing issues you have had when using the app or service. When submitting Bug Reports, give as much detail as you can so that the developers can reproduce the bug.
Reviews are for sharing your impressions of the beta and rating the experience of using it. Review scores get aggregated and presented in the app catalog.
What do I do if a beta app is not behaving as expected?
If you suspect the beta is not behaving as expected, please check that you have followed the download/installation instructions correctly and that the issue is not already acknowledged in the list of known issues. If you don't find a solution, please report the issue you are having to the Bug Reports section of the relevant feedback forum. You may also want to uninstall the app.
What happens to feedback I submit?
Feedback submitted to the public forums can be read and commented by the community and developers of the beta. We encourage developers to respond to as much feedback as they can, but in some cases the volume of feedback can be overwhelming for a small team.
Survey responses (and often the forum feedback too) is aggregated and sorted by the developers to be used in prioritizing their development.
Who else is involved here?
Nokia Beta Labs has attracted a community of the most passionate Nokia consumers from around the world.
Here you'll also come across developers from Nokia and from selected 3rd parties as well as the small team of Nokia Beta Labs staff.
What are those symbols next to some people's profile pictures?
Community members that are active on the site (over a certain threshold in the past six months) will earn the Active Contributor badge, visible in their profile and on every comment they make. Giving feedback, commenting to others' threads, and rating the helpfulness of others' posts all contribute to your reputation as an Active Contributor.
Additionally, Beta Labs community members can earn the Top Contributor badge when they are active on the site AND valued by others. Helpful ratings on posts and comments as well as selections of posts by admins to the Editors' Picks contribute to your reputation as a Top Contributor. Like with the Active Contributor badge, you'll get the badge if your reputation over the past six months is over a certain threshold.
Once a month we also select a Contributor of the Month, someone who has contributed significant value to Beta Labs over the past month.
Nokia employees have the blue staff badge on their profile. Their responses to feedback get marked as "Nokia responses" in the forum overview.
Employees of other companies running trials at Nokia Beta Labs have the 3rd party staff badges on their profile. Their responses to feedback get marked as "Developer responses" in the forum overview.
What if I see a duplicate post, spam, or inappropriate content?
Click "Flag for moderation" at the bottom of the thread to alert a Nokia Beta Labs moderator to review the post and, if necessary, take action.
Note: We have invited some active contributors to serve as moderators on the site too, to help the Nokia staff keep things tidy and organized in the growing volume of feedback. If you are not happy with any of the moderator actions, please contact us.
Can I give feedback or ask questions about my device or other apps here?
Nokia Support Discussions (peer-to-peer forum) or Nokia Customer Service are better suited for this.
Can I suggest new application ideas?
IdeasProject is the best place to suggest new application ideas. Nokia Beta Labs is meant for discussing products actively under development with the developers themselves.
Contact us
We encourage you to discuss in the public forums if possible. Beta Labs has its own forum section, which is regularly read by John and Ilkka. We are also on Twitter. If you need to discuss something in private we can be contacted by email.