Big Sky Field Guide

Trying the beta

The Field Guide is in beta, and you can try it now. It comes to you through something called TestFlight instead of the App Store. If you've never heard of TestFlight, this page is for you. It takes about two minutes and you only do it once.

You need an iPhone running iOS 26 or later. Settings → General → Software Update will tell you which one you have, and will offer the update if you need it.

The TestFlight app icon: a blue tile with a white three-blade propeller

TestFlight is Apple's own app for trying apps before they reach the App Store. It's free, it's made by Apple, and it comes from the same App Store you already use. This is the icon to look for.

The steps

  1. Put TestFlight on your iPhone. It installs like any other app.
    Get TestFlight on the App Store
  2. Tap the join button below, on your iPhone. It opens TestFlight and offers you the Field Guide.
  3. Tap Accept, then Install. That's the whole ceremony. New builds arrive through TestFlight on their own from then on.
  4. Open it, then try it once in airplane mode. The map, every place, and the safety screens are all inside the app. If any of it wants a network, we want to know which part.

The beta is open

Join the Big Sky Field Guide beta

Trouble with the link? Check that you tapped it on the phone rather than a laptop, and that the phone is on iOS 26.

What we want to hear

Tell us what's wrong about a place you actually know. Everything is draft and we can't be everywhere, it's the report we want most: details we missed, hours that are wrong, a place that closed and we missed that...

Every place and item has a line at the bottom, Something we missed or got wrong? Let us know. Tap it and say what you saw. Nothing about you goes with it, and a person reads it.

Also worth a look:

  • The front door changes depending on whether you're planning a trip, driving here, or standing in Big Sky. Settings has a switch to force it if you're not in Montana.
  • The directory is sorted in ‘shelves’. Tap into one, then use the filter in the top right to narrow by area or category, and the search icon if you know the name.
  • "The dead zone and the call boxes," under safety. Eighteen miles of US-191 have no signal, and the screen should tell you how far that is from wherever you're standing.

Already on the list, so no need to report it: winter hours are thin because much of the valley hasn't published its ski season yet, most places have no photograph, and the paywall shows no price.

How to send it

  • Take a screenshot. Because the app came through TestFlight, your iPhone offers to send it as beta feedback, with the screen attached and room for a note.
  • Or write to hello@bigskyfieldguide.com, or tell Joe.
  • A wrong fact about a place is best sent from the place itself, with the line at the bottom of its page.

Fair questions

Is this safe?
Yes. TestFlight is built and run by Apple, and every beta build goes through Apple's review before it reaches you. You are not installing anything from the side of the road.
Does it cost anything?
No. TestFlight is free and the beta is free. The subscription isn't switched on yet, so the paywall shows no price, and a button on the front door moves you between the free tier and the whole guide so you can see both. Nothing is charged. When it ships, browsing is free and the rest is $19.99 a year.
What's different about a beta?
It's a work in progress. Plenty is unfinished, and the useful feedback is what looks wrong rather than what looks unfinished.
What does it know about me?
Almost nothing, and none of it is you. There's no account, no advertising and no tracker, and nothing you read, search or save leaves the phone. What the app does send back is which screens get opened, how fast the drawn valley runs on your phone, and a report when it falls over, all of it against a random number the app made up rather than anything about you, and there's a switch in Settings that turns it off. The privacy page is the whole of it. Feedback you send through TestFlight arrives with the iPhone model and iOS version attached, which is TestFlight's doing, and it tells you so when you install.
What about the places I bookmark?
They live in the app, on your phone. When the guide reaches the App Store, the store version installs over the beta and keeps them.
Does a beta run out?
Each beta build works for 90 days, and new builds arrive through TestFlight before that. If TestFlight ever says the build has expired, open it and install the current one.
Will I need TestFlight forever?
No. Once the guide is on the App Store you can switch to the regular version and can delete TestFlight if you like, or you can stay a tester as the app evolves.

TestFlight and the TestFlight logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. The Big Sky Field Guide isn't affiliated with Apple; we just ride their propeller plane to get to you.