Test As: Quickly Preview & Test Your App as Any User

Overview

Test As allows you to instantly preview and interact with your app as a specific user, role, or as a public not logged in visitor, all directly from the Builder. You no longer need to know a user’s password, reset credentials, or log in and out of the app to test different experiences.

This removes one of the biggest sources of friction when building and testing role-based apps.

What Is the Test As Feature?

The Test As feature lets you temporarily assume the perspective of:

A user in a specific role
A Public not logged in visitor

While in Test As mode, the Builder area updates to reflect exactly what that user or visitor would see in the live app, without affecting real user sessions or credentials.

Key Benefits

Test any user experience without knowing or typing passwords
Switch between users and roles in seconds
Test live app behavior directly inside the Builder
Avoid changing or resetting user credentials
Validate permissions, page access, and navigation quickly
Safely test without impacting real users

Where to Find Test As

In the 'AI Builder' tab

If you have access to the AI Builder:

Navigate to the AI Builder tab
The Test As selector is in the upper-right area of the Live App Preview pane
Select a user or Public not logged in

**Testing as "John Belson", who is in the 'Student' role for this app**

In the Builder

Test As is available directly within the Builder, so you can test while you build.

Open the Builder area of an app
Locate the Test As selector at the top-right area of the screen

**Toggling to "Robert Foster" who is in the 'Parent' role for this app**

Select a user, or Public, and the Live App Preview (along with a yellow banner indicating you're testing) will overtake your Builder area, to let you interact with your live app as that specific user

The fully-functionality Live App Preview area, logged in as "Robert Foster" in the 'Parent' role

Testing as a Public Not Logged In User

What This Is

The Public (Not Logged-In) option represents a visitor who has not signed into your app. This allows you to test public pages and forms without creating a dedicated user record.

Why This Is Useful

Testing as a public visitor helps you:

Preview public forms and pages before sharing links
Confirm which parts of your app are accessible without login
Ensure private areas are properly protected

If something is visible while testing as Public not logged in, it means anyone can access it. If it is hidden, users must log in to see it.

Switching Between Users / Users in different Roles

As you switch between different Test As users, for example from a user in a 'Student' role, to a user in a 'Teacher' role:

The Live App Preview area in the Builder updates immediately, to go to the 1st top-level page that the specific user has access to
The top-level pages automatically refresh to show the pages that only that user has access to

This makes it easy to confirm that each role sees exactly what it should, without logging out or reloading the app.

Record History and Activity Tracking

If Record History is enabled:

Actions performed while testing as a user are logged in the format of "[Builder's email address] (testing as [user's email address])"
The log clearly indicates that the action was performed while testing as another user

Alex T was the app builder, who was testing as Gurveer Doe who has the email address of "[email protected]"

'Test As' in the Builder area vs the actual Live App

Test As feature / functionality is only accessible in the Builder area.
Clicking Go to Live App always opens the actual Live App experience and URL, without taking your Test-As user's credentials

This ensures safe testing without impacting real users.

Availability

Test-As is available to all customers
It is currently supported in the Next-Gen experience only

Let us know what you think! We'd be happy to hear your feedback at product.knack.com