New App
Review Time used to be at least 1 week. If there was a policy violation, it could take another week.
In 2025, Review time has reduced significantly. Sept 2025, my App went live within 24 hours. 2 months before another app went live within 48 hours.
App Updates
Production and Beta both can take from 2-3 hours to 48 hours in 2025.
Internal Testing within seconds.
If an App update review is taking too much time like 3-4 days. Just submit another app after updating the app version. It will fix the issue.
If you just want to give .apk file to other people for testing. just upload the file and download the signed apk from playstore and send it on whatsapp or anyother platform.