Different Aspects involved in Testing Mobile Applications

Have you ever felt confused if you should really test your mobile apps across multiple devices? Then this article is for you. 

We use mobile devices for testing purposes, and their use continues to grow, as the importance of testing apps on real devices also increases. Mobile apps have become an integral part of our daily lives and play a significant role in how we work, interact, and entertain ourselves. They are regularly downloaded on a variety of devices worldwide.

It is essential to ensure that your app is thoroughly tested before its final release for many reasons that can benefit everyone involved. Proper testing can help prevent problems and ensure that the app functions as intended

What is Mobile App Testing?

Mobile application testing is validating a mobile application, be it iOS or Android, for its usability and functionality before release. Testing mobile apps help in checking if the application meets the expectations of business and technical needs. 

For successful mobile application testing, teams are required to test the applications across different devices, screens, operating systems, resolutions, and network bandwidths. This helps in ensuring that the application will perform without issues on a variety of device configurations when it is released in the market.

At a higher level, testing of mobile applications may include:

• Testing the functionality of the app’s GUI (navigation buttons, dropdown menus, etc.)
• Testing the app’s appearance in both landscape and portrait mode
• Testing the app’s performance on various versions of the operating system
• Testing the app’s compatibility with mobile sensors such as GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, etc.
• Validating the app’s performance and compatibility when used with specific settings.

Why do Mobile Applications Need Testing?

Ensuring quality of mobile applications include checking usability errors that could negatively impact user experience, ensuring compatibility with various operating systems and devices, using test automation to improve efficiency, and addressing potential security threats (AppSec). 

It is not always possible for app developers to fully test their apps before release, so it is important to test the app in different ways over a range of devices to ensure its quality.

Testing Apps in Different Ways

There are plenty of ways to test your mobile applications, and the approach that you should go ahead with will depend on the specific needs of the applications and the purpose for which it has been designed. However, here are a few tips that can help you get started in your mobile app testing journey. 

1. To Test on Multiple Devices

One way to test mobile apps is to test them on multiple devices. This can help uncover performance issues, compatibility issues, and other problems that may arise depending on the type of Operating System and device.

It may be necessary to test apps on both emulated and real devices. Emulators are easy to set up and use. However, emulated devices are not accurate to the T as much as actual devices do, in aspects such as pixel-perfect exact rendering. On the other hand, real devices can provide more accurate results, but they may be more expensive to maintain. As you will have to bear the costs associated with maintaining and upgrading the tablet and smartphone device farm on a timely basis.

2. Quick Automation

Another important aspect of mobile app testing is automation. With the large number of Operating Systems and devices available, it is not practical to test everything manually. 

In addition, certain aspects of mobile app testing, such as mobile servers or network traffic performance, may require automation to generate meaningful results. There are various tools and services available to help automate mobile app testing, such as Appium, which is an open-source tool for automating mobile web, native, and hybrid apps on Android and iOS devices.

Native applications are scripted using Windows SDKs, Android, or iOS. It is a web server that exposes a REST API. It receives connections from customers, listens for commands, performs those commands on various devices, and retaliates with an HTTP response showcasing the repercussions of the executed command. 

With this server/client architecture, you can write your test code in any language having an HTTP client API. You can keep the server on multiple machines to run the test, write test code and depend on cloud services to interpret and receive the commands. 

3. Focus on Usability Testing

Usability testing is another important aspect of mobile app testing. It’s essential to pay attention to how users will communicate with your application. Usability testing enables you to receive valuable feedback from real-world users regarding how better your application performs in everyday circumstances. The integral part of usability testing is to find out how comfortable the target audience is using your app. To find this out, you must ask them to execute specific tasks with an actionable and clear scenario without giving them instructions.

4. Don’t Overlook security testing (AppSec)

Data security has become more crucial in the digital world, and security of  mobile applications is no exception. Always ensure to spend  time researching security threats in your application and implement strategies to mitigate them. 

Various tools are available to aid you in the process. Static Application Security Test (SAST) tools look into the source code of your mobile application to detect and report issues that can create security threats. Dynamic testing tools (DAST) will examine your mobile app as executed, stashing both the external components and code. You can also leverage ethical hacking services or manage an error bounty program to let external security professionals assess your application. 

Closing Thoughts

We hope this blog was helpful in understanding why it is essential to test your mobile app on multiple devices.Quality Assurance for mobile apps is an important process and can be achieved by testing the app on multiple devices, using automation, evaluating usability, and ensuring security. 

By following these best practices, app developers can improve the quality and reliability of their mobile apps which in turn helps a company release products that meet and fulfill users’ needs and expectations. Thus, it becomes important to test your mobile app on multiple aspects.