Starting in 2025, Google introduced a mandatory procedure for publishing a new app - closed testing. Without it, you simply cannot publish, and if the testing is of poor quality or formal, you will be rejected at the next step. 

I went through this procedure and also gathered the experience of many people, and I can say that the requirements declared by Google Play and the real ones are slightly different. Here's what  

1. 12 testers must install and test your app
2. Testing lasts two weeks

If you simply invite 12 people and stop there, you will most likely not pass the testing. By the way, I asked my friends to test not nominally, but to actually look for bugs, make publications, etc., and they found a whole bunch of problems, including several critical issues with permissions. 

Now, what you actually need to do to 100% pass the testing. 

• Be sure to gather 20 people for testing - if someone deletes the app and you have 11 testers, Google Play will block you at the next step and deem the testing insufficient. So you need to over-insure.
• Testers must be active. So take the trouble to remind people what to do. Write instructions that they need to simply open the app 3-4 times during the testing period and poke around for a minute.
• Send reminders to all testers 3 times during the entire testing period that they need to open the app. Your acquaintances and friends you recruited will simply forget to do it themselves.
• Release updates during testing. For Google, this is a great sign that testers are giving you feedback and you are responding to it. I updated the app about 5 times during testing.
• Do not publish the latest version of the app on RuStore - if a person updates via RuStore, they will automatically be removed from the tester group.

Recommendations on how to get more out of testing: 

1. Collect testers' contacts, ask them to give feedback on the testing. They are experienced developers and can really give you useful advice. 

2. Recruit friends, but ask them to test for real - you will get both first users and a lot of feedback. 

3. Ask everyone who tested your app to leave a review in the app stores. Traffic really comes, and if you have high ratings, you will rank higher than competitors.