Microsoft has acquired HockyApp which provides  crash analytics and app distribution for developers building mobile apps on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. 

The acquisition of Stuttgart Germany based HockyApp provides Microsoft with yet another developer tool for its ApplicationInsights service on Visual Studio Online.  HockyApp provides several key services for mobile developers building apps for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.

  • Distribution – Build and upload your apps to HockeyApp. Testers can now download and install them. You have full control of who can access which app. Think of it as your personal App Store for testing.
  • Crash Reports – Nobody wants their app to crash. But when it happens HockeyApp provides you with the right information at your fingertips, like symbolicated stack traces and environment details.
  • Feedback – Testing your app is way more than preventing crashes. With HockeyApp, your testers can provide valuable feedback and suggest new features or improvements right from the app.
  • Analytics – HockeyApp provides you with analytics about which devices and languages your testers have already covered and where you need to spend some additional testing effort for full coverage.
  • Teams – Sophisticated team-management features make distributing applications to different sets of test users quick and easy. Full access control included.
  • Enterprise – Well-suited for large companies developing many different apps. HockeyApp integrates with your environment and scales with your needs.

Integrating HockeyApp crash reports with Application Insights usage analytics will extend device support for Application Insights across all major mobile platforms and make application analytics an ambient part of the application development cycle with support for all tiers of a modern “mobile first, cloud first” solution. — Somasegar’s Blog