Dark Launch Testing
Also known as: Silent Release Testing
Dark launch testing (also called silent release testing) deploys a new feature to production infrastructure without exposing it to users, so its real-world performance and stability can be verified under genuine load before it's ever turned on. The feature runs silently in the background, invisible to the audience.
A dark launch typically routes real production traffic through the new code path, but discards or hides the output — testing infrastructure capacity and code stability under authentic conditions without any user-facing risk if something goes wrong. It's distinct from a canary release, which does expose the feature, just to a small percentage of users.
The two techniques are often combined in sequence: dark-launch first to validate the code doesn't fall over under real load, then canary release to a small user segment to validate the actual user-facing behavior, before a full rollout.
