Dark launching is the process of releasing features to a subset of users prior to a full release
The idea is that rather than launch a new feature for all users, you instead release it to a small subset. Usually, these users aren’t aware they are testing the new feature; often, nothing highlights the new functionality, hence the term Dark Launching.
Tech Giants like Google and Facebook regularly use Dark Launches to test new features by releasing them to a small group of users at a time.
There are no public announcements of these releases and therefore called Dark Launches
How to do dark launches
- New features code is wrapped in logical chunks
- These features can be toggled on or off using feature flags.
References
https://www.functionize.com/blog/what-is-canary-testing-and-dark-launching/
