Mobile App Testing Challenges: A Comprehensive Guide
The mobile market has seen exponential growth over the past decade, largely driven by the mobile application industry. With more than 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide, mobile apps have become an integral part of our daily lives. This booming sector is expected to generate over $189 billion in revenue by 2020 through app stores and in-app advertising, and the demand shows no signs of slowing down. As mobile apps become more ubiquitous, the competition to create unique, high-performing apps has intensified.
Yet, as apps grow more complex and diverse, so do the challenges faced in ensuring their quality. Mobile app testing plays a pivotal role in meeting these challenges, especially as the industry evolves at a rapid pace. Below, we explore the common issues in mobile app testing and offer solutions to ensure apps remain competitive, reliable, and user-friendly.
1. Device Fragmentation: The Complexity of Multiple Devices
One of the most significant challenges in mobile app testing is device fragmentation. With countless manufacturers, models, operating systems, and screen sizes, testing across all devices is a daunting task. Android alone has a wide range of OS versions, with older versions still in circulation despite new releases. This fragmentation means that an app may perform flawlessly on one device but crash on another.
The Challenge
Operating System Fragmentation: Apps must function across multiple operating systems, such as Android and iOS. Even within these operating systems, there are variations in performance and compatibility across different versions (e.g., Android 10 vs. Android 12).
Device Variability: Different devices have varying processing capabilities, screen sizes, and resolutions, all of which can affect app performance.
The Solution
Testing on a range of real devices is the best way to ensure compatibility. This is where cloud-based platforms like Pcloudy come in. Pcloudy offers access to real devices with varying OS versions and configurations, allowing testers to check how their app behaves across multiple devices without needing physical access to each one.
Pro Tip: It’s crucial to prioritize testing on the most popular devices and operating systems to maximize your app’s reach.
2. Network Conditions: Testing for Real-World Scenarios
In today’s connected world, apps must perform well across a variety of network conditions. However, this introduces another layer of complexity in mobile app testing. Network issues, such as low bandwidth or weak signal strength, can drastically affect an app’s performance, leading to poor user experiences. According to studies, 53% of users will uninstall an app if it crashes, freezes, or has performance issues.
The Challenge
Network Fluctuations: Users frequently switch between Wi-Fi and cellular networks, both of which offer different speeds and signal strengths.
Latency and Packet Loss: Poor network conditions can lead to latency issues, dropped packets, or complete loss of connectivity, which can make even the best-designed apps frustrating to use.
The Solution
Testing apps under real-world network conditions is essential to ensure that they perform smoothly, even under poor network environments. Pcloudy offers network simulation tools that enable testers to replicate varying network conditions, from weak 2G signals to high-speed 5G or Wi-Fi, on real devices.
Pro Tip: Regularly test your app’s performance in low-bandwidth scenarios to ensure seamless user experiences in all conditions.
3. Choosing the Right Tools: Making or Breaking Mobile App Testing
The choice of testing tools can significantly impact the efficiency and effectiveness of mobile app testing. There are numerous tools available in the market, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Selecting the right one based on your app type (native, hybrid, or web) and testing needs is critical.
The Challenge
Tool Overload: The number of tools available can be overwhelming. Each offers different features for automation, debugging, performance monitoring, and security testing.
Incompatibility: Not all tools are suitable for every app type. For instance, some may work well for native apps but not for hybrid or web-based apps.
The Solution
To navigate this landscape, it’s crucial to evaluate tools based on your specific app requirements. Pcloudy supports a wide range of automation tools, such as Appium, Espresso, and Selenium, making it easier for teams to test apps across multiple environments.
Consider the following when evaluating tools:
App Type: Your chosen tool should support native, hybrid, and web-based apps.
Cross-Platform Support: Ensure that the tool supports Android, iOS, and other potential operating systems like Windows.
Cloud Integration: Leveraging cloud platforms for test automation allows teams to access devices and results from any location, improving collaboration and efficiency.
4. Screen Size Variations: Ensuring Consistency Across Devices
Mobile devices come in various screen sizes, and ensuring that your app displays correctly on all of them can be challenging. Apps that look perfect on a large-screen phone may appear cluttered or disjointed on a smaller device.
The Challenge
Pixel Density: Different devices have varying pixel densities, which can affect the sharpness and clarity of app content.
Layout Adjustments: App elements need to adjust dynamically to fit various screen sizes without compromising user experience.
The Solution
Adopt responsive design principles to create adaptable UI layouts. This approach ensures that your app looks good on all screen sizes, from small smartphones to large tablets. Testing your app on real devices of varying screen sizes is crucial, and platforms like Pcloudy allow for testing on multiple screen configurations to ensure a seamless experience.
Pro Tip: Focus on adaptive designs rather than pixel-perfect layouts, as adaptive designs scale more effectively across different screen sizes.
Native Apps: Developed for specific platforms (iOS or Android), native apps tend to offer better performance but require separate testing for each platform.
Hybrid Apps: These apps combine elements of native and web apps. While easier to develop and maintain across platforms, they often face performance and compatibility issues.
Web Apps: Running in browsers, web apps must be tested across multiple browsers and operating systems, making compatibility a primary concern.
The Solution
Each app type comes with its own set of testing challenges, and it’s essential to customize your testing strategy accordingly. Pcloudy supports testing for all three app types, allowing teams to ensure that their apps meet the required standards of performance, usability, and functionality.
6. AI-Powered Test Automation: The Future of Mobile Testing
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing mobile app testing by automating complex testing tasks, generating test cases, and predicting defects. AI-driven testing can significantly reduce time and effort, allowing testers to focus on more critical aspects of app development.
The Challenge
Resistance to Change: Many teams are still reliant on traditional testing methods, hesitant to adopt AI-powered testing solutions.
Implementation Complexity: Integrating AI testing into existing workflows can be challenging without the right expertise or tools.
The Solution
AI-powered test automation, like the solutions offered by Pcloudy, helps automate repetitive tasks such as regression testing, bug detection, and performance analysis. AI-driven bots can create test cases, execute tests, and analyze results, enabling faster releases and higher accuracy.
Pro Tip: Embrace AI-based testing early to stay ahead of the competition. Automating repetitive tests frees up resources for more creative problem-solving.
7. Security and Compliance Testing: Safeguarding Data and Trust
In an era where data privacy and security are of paramount importance, ensuring that your app is secure and compliant with regulations is vital. The increasing number of cyberattacks and data breaches highlights the need for robust security testing.
The Challenge
Security Vulnerabilities: Apps are often vulnerable to attacks such as data leaks, insecure storage, and unauthorized access.
Compliance Regulations: Apps must comply with regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS, depending on the region and industry.
The Solution
Incorporate security and compliance testing into your QA process. Test for data encryption, authentication, and security vulnerabilities. Pcloudy offers features like biometric authentication testing and encrypted device communication to ensure that your app meets the highest security standards.
Pro Tip: Regularly update your app’s security protocols to keep up with emerging threats and regulations.
8. Usability Testing: Ensuring a Seamless User Experience
Usability testing focuses on how user-friendly your app is, evaluating its ease of navigation, intuitive design, and overall user experience.
The Challenge
User Expectations: As mobile users grow more tech-savvy, they expect apps to be easy to use and navigate.
Cross-Platform Usability: Usability can differ across iOS and Android devices due to interface design differences.
The Solution
Conduct usability testing on real devices to gather feedback from real users. Cloud-based platforms like Pcloudy allow for real-device usability testing, providing insights into the app’s user experience across different devices and operating systems.
9. Battery Usage: Avoiding Power-Hungry Apps
Battery consumption is a critical factor that can impact app usage and customer retention. An app that drains battery quickly is likely to be uninstalled by users.
The Challenge
Performance Optimization: Apps that use GPS, background processes, or frequent notifications can quickly drain battery power.
Device-Specific Impact: Battery usage can vary across devices, especially those with older hardware.
The Solution
Test for battery efficiency on various devices using real-device cloud testing environments like Pcloudy. Analyze how your app consumes battery power and optimize where needed to ensure it runs smoothly without excessive battery drain.
10. Memory Leaks: Preserving Device Performance
Memory leaks occur when an app uses excessive memory, causing performance issues like slowdowns or crashes. This can lead to a poor user experience, especially on devices with limited resources.
The Challenge
Resource Management: Apps need to manage memory effectively to avoid crashing or slowing down the device.
Device-Specific Issues: Memory management can vary depending on the device’s hardware.
The Solution
Implement memory profiling tools during your app’s development and testing phases. Regularly test your app on different devices using Pcloudy to identify and fix memory leaks.
11. Geolocation Testing: Apps that Depend on Location
For apps that rely on geolocation features, such as navigation or ride-hailing apps, ensuring that location services work across different regions is crucial.
The Challenge
Location Variability: GPS performance can vary based on the user’s location and the accuracy of their device’s GPS hardware.
Testing Across Regions: Simulating different geolocation scenarios can be difficult without access to real devices in those regions.
The Solution
Use cloud platforms like Pcloudy to simulate geolocation testing on real devices in different geographic regions. This ensures your app’s location services work accurately across the globe.
12. App Localization: Adapting for Global Markets
Apps often need to be localized to different languages, currencies, and cultural contexts. Ensuring proper localization is essential for expanding into global markets.
The Challenge
Text Expansion: Some languages, like German or Russian, take up more space than English, which can break layouts or text boxes.
Cultural Sensitivity: Localization isn’t just about language—it’s also about ensuring that the app’s design and functionality make sense in the target culture.
The Solution
Conduct thorough localization testing, focusing on the user interface, translations, and regional features. Pcloudy allows testing in real-world scenarios for apps localized into multiple languages and regions.
13. Accessibility Testing: Meeting User Needs
Accessibility testing ensures that your app is usable by people with disabilities, such as visual or hearing impairments. Ensuring your app meets accessibility standards is vital for inclusivity and can be a regulatory requirement in many regions.
The Challenge
Regulatory Compliance: Many countries have strict accessibility regulations, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the U.S. or the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) in Canada.
Wide Range of Disabilities: Apps must be tested for a range of disabilities, including vision impairments, hearing impairments, and physical disabilities.
The Solution
Use accessibility testing tools to check your app’s compatibility with screen readers, voice commands, and other assistive technologies. Test your app on different devices using Pcloudy to ensure it meets accessibility guidelines.
Interruption testing evaluates how well an app handles interruptions like phone calls, text messages, or low battery alerts. These interruptions are common during real-world app usage.
The Challenge
App Stability: Apps must be able to handle interruptions without crashing or losing user progress.
Consistent Experience: Interruption handling should be seamless across different devices and operating systems.
The Solution
Perform interruption testing on real devices to evaluate how your app reacts to common disruptions. Cloud platforms like Pcloudy allow testers to replicate interruptions during active app sessions, ensuring smooth recovery and minimal disruption.
15. App Store Compliance: Ensuring Successful Submissions
Each app store (Google Play, Apple App Store) has specific guidelines for app submission. Failing to comply with these guidelines can result in rejection, delaying your app’s release.
The Challenge
Guideline Variations: App store guidelines differ between platforms, and ensuring compliance with both can be time-consuming.
Performance Criteria: Stores often have performance benchmarks that apps must meet to be approved.
The Solution
Before submitting your app, ensure it meets all necessary guidelines. Test your app’s experience, security, and overall quality on multiple devices and operating systems using Pcloudy to minimize the risk of rejection.
Conclusion: A Holistic Testing Strategy
Mobile app testing involves overcoming a wide range of challenges, from ensuring compatibility across numerous devices to handling network variability, memory leaks, and accessibility. A successful testing strategy combines real-device testing, cloud-based automation, AI-driven test automation, and comprehensive security testing to deliver a high-quality app experience.
Pcloudy provides a robust cloud-based platform for mobile app testing, offering access to real devices, network simulation, and AI-powered automation. By adopting a well-rounded approach to testing, you can ensure
Android uses a centralized system for all logs and application programmers can also write custom log messages. The tooling to develop Android applications allows you to define filters for the log statements you are interested in. Log analysis is a phase of development and developers encounter it from time to time. Bug log helps in identifying the bugs in the Android application while in the development phase. Once the app is released into the market, the support engineers analyze the bug logs to resolve the issue. There are for different types of Logs available in the Android Eco-System – Application Logs, Android System Logs, Event Logs & Radio Logs.
The logging system consists of a kernel driver and kernel buffers for storing Android log messages, C, C++ and Java classes for making log entries and for accessing the log messages, a standalone program for viewing log messages (logcat) and the ability to view and filter the log messages from the host machine (via eclipse or ddms).
There are four different log buffers in the Linux kernel, which provide logging for different parts of the system. Access to the different buffers is via device nodes in the file system, in /dev/log. The four Android log buffers are main, events, radio and system. The main log is for the application, events is for system event information, radio is for phone related information and system is low level system messages and debugging.
Each message in the log consists of a tag indicating the part of the system or application that the message came from, a timestamp (at what time this message came), the message log level (or priority of the event represented by the message) and the log message itself (detail description of error or exception or information etc).
What Each Android Log Type Contains:
1. Application log
use android.util.Log class methods to write messages of different priority into the log
Java classes declare their tag statically as a string, which they pass to the log method
The log method used indicates the message “severity” (or log level)
Messages can be filtered by tag or priority when the logs are processed by retrieval tools (logcat)
2. System log
Use the android.util.Slog class to write message with different priority with its associated messages
Many Android framework classes utilize the system log to keep their messages separate from (possibly noisy) application log messages
A formatted message is delivered through the C/C++ library down to the kernel driver, which stores the message in the appropriate buffer(system buffer)
3. Event log
Event logs messages are created using android.util.EventLog class, which create binary-formatted log messages.
Log entries consist of binary tag codes, followed by binary parameters.
The message tag codes are stored on the system at: /system/etc/event-log-tags.
Each message has the string for the log message, as well as codes indicating the values associated with (stored with) that entry.
4. Radio log
Used for radio and phone (modem) related information
Log entries consist of binary tags code and message for Network info
Logging system automatically routes messages with specific tags into the radio buffer
Device Logs on pCloudy Platform.
Device Logs Filter Options
Log format on Android
A common log format in android:
tv_sectv_nsec priority pidtid tag messageLen Message
tag: log tag
tv_sec&tv_nsec: the timestamp of the log messages
pid: the process id of where log messages come from
tid: the thread id
Priority value is one of the following character values, ordered from lowest to highest priority:
V — Verbose (lowest priority)*
D — Debug*
I — Info*
W — Warning*
E — Error*
F — Fatal*
S — Silent (highest priority, on which nothing is ever printed)
Log-File locations
There are several directories where Android log (including those from crashes) stores and it are not standardized (i.e. some may be ROM-specific). I am putting some of common here.
/data/anr : Dalvik writes stack traces here on ANR, i.e. “Application Not Responding” aka “Force-Close”
/data/dontpanic : contains some crash logs including traces
/data/kernelpanics :- Stores “kernel panic” related logs
/data/tombstones :- may hold several tombstone_nn files (nn is a number from 0 to 10 and after 10 again repeat it)
‘Log’ command line tool
To capture Android log from the devices/emulator Below is the some command line tool. In real life project there are log capture application/tool used to capture the logs on user device and shared it back to Developer/maintainer for analysis .
adb logcat (shows all type logs for current android system
adb logcat -v threadtime (it will include date and time)
adb logcat -v threadtime> logfile.txt (Store logs in logfile.txt)
Useful filter patterns
You can use below filter in your adb command to filter logs. You can also use this filter to search your logs file(Android logs provided by user device).
adb logcat -f Save all logs into a file
adb logcat “*:E” Get all errors and fatals
adb logcat | grep -i “foo.example.” #get all logs related to “foo.example.*” tagname
adb logcat “application_or_tag_name:*” “*:S” Get all logs by application name
adb logcat -b events “gsm_service_state_change” “*:S” Get all GSM state changes
adb logcat -b radio Get all Radio events
Log Analysis
In this blog we got the basic understanding of the Android Log System. While analyzing the Android logs from your app you can divide it in two parts, debug Logs – file coming during development and testing phase and production Log – file coming directly from end user. The best way to do it is by using useful Filter Patterns and by using Some Tool like GoogleLogTool and SonyLogTool.
We are committed to keeping you ahead of others. pCloudy is one of the fastest to release the support of Android Q beta devices on the cloud.
Google has launched the final Android Q beta and Android Q official release is just a few weeks away. Testers and developers can test their app against this final beta version. Android Q beta 6 includes the final API 29 SDK and updated build tools for Android Studio. It also supports all the features, developer APIs and system behaviors that will be in the final release.
Now you can test your mobile apps on devices loaded with Android Q beta version in pCloudy.
AndroidX is an improved version of the android support libraries that the android team uses to develop, test, package, version and release libraries within the jetpack. AndroidX fully replaces the support library by providing feature parity and new libraries. In addition, AndroidX includes the following features:
All packages in AndroidX are in consistent namespace starting with the string AndroidX. The support library packages have been mapped into androidx.* packages. For a full mapping of all the old classes and built artifacts to the new ones.
Unlike the support libraries, AndroidX packages are separately maintained and updated. The AndroidX uses strict semantic versioning.
All new android development will occur in the AndroidX library. This includes maintenance of the original support library artifacts and introduction of new jetpack components.
Android Jetpack
Android jetpack is a set of components and tools along with architecture guidance designed to help you accelerate your android development. It gives a template to write production ready android code. Jetpack is made up of components in four categories, foundation architecture behaviour and UI. Each component is individually adaptable and build to maintain backwards compatibility. Android architecture components are very modular, so we are allowed to choose what feature sets we want that are compatible to our app.
Espresso is now a part of the AndroidX family
Espresso is a testing framework designed to provide a fluent API for writing concise and reliable UI test. Writing reliable UI test is difficult as user interfaces are asynchronous driven by events, transitions and data loaded from background threats. Coding around that without any help from UI testing framework would require a lot of boilerplate. Espresso takes care of any UI events, so that in most cases you don’t have to worry about any view state transition and implementation details. The basic UI test flow when using Espresso includes:
View Matchers: To find view in the current view hierarchy for e.g. to find UI elements like buttons, textbox etc.
View Action: To perform action on the view, e.g. to click on a button, double click, scrolling etc.
View Assertions: Allows to assert state of a view.
Application of Espresso test recorder
Allows us to create effective UI test cases with user interactions.
We can capture assertions and interactions without accessing app structure directly which increases execution speed and optimizes test case.
Saves time searching for locators and then writing the test cases.
It supports multiple assertions making more reliable test cases.
Pcloudy supports androidX instrumentation with Espresso
Now you can write test cases in espresso and test the APIs in pCloudy using androidX Junit instrumentation. Here are the steps for running your Test scripts on multiple android devices:
Login over https://device.pcloudy.com with your registered Email ID & Password.
To schedule “Espresso” over pCloudy, follow the below mentioned steps-
Go to the “Automation” page.
Select the Automation tool as “Espresso”.
Select “Instrumentation Type” based on your Test Scripts you’ve written.
Note: pCloudy provides support for Instrumentation Type (InstrumentationTestRunner, AndroidJUnitRunner and AndroidXJUnitRunner) for Android.
Select the Application APK and Test APK that you must have uploaded in the MY APP/DATA section.
Select the single device execution time and assign a name to your test cycle.
In the next step, Click on “ADD” to add the device for testing and click on “
Next”.
Click on “Schedule” to start the test.
Go to your mailbox and open pCloudy Automation Alert mail.
Click on the given link “Click to view Report”.
Now you have the result of your scheduled test automation.
How to migrate to AndroidX?
To migrate from support libraries to AndroidX the Google has provided a refractor tool in Android Studio. Projects can be migrated to AndroidX by clicking on ‘Refractor’ in the menu bar and then clicking on ‘Refactor to AndroidX’. Then it will search for the usage and show the result. To refactor click ‘Do Refactor’.
pCloudy is leading the way in the field of automated mobile testing solutions.
It is a new publishing format by Google which is a more efficient way to develop and release app. App bundle helps to reduce your app size and deliver features on demand. Earlier, android operating system used android packaging kit (APK) to distribute and install applications on a device. These applications are downloaded by users across the world on various devices. These devices have different configurations and language inputs. To meet all the users demands, the application becomes bulky as all the features are to be downloaded.
Android App Bundle is a zip archive with .aab extension. It contains codes and resources for all the devices that the app supports. Google Play handles signing and generation, once it is uploaded for publishing. In app bundle, dynamic delivery is used to generate an optimized APK for users, based on their device configuration.
Benefits of .aab
The key benefit of android app bundle is that it the developers need to write less code to push the app in Play store. The users save space in their device by saving a small size APK. App bundles can use uncompressed native libraries in android 6.0 and up, that are stored in the APK instead of the users device. This lowers the download size and the size on disk. It serves users with functions they need on demand, instead of installing all the functions at one go. We don’t need to build and publish multiple APKs, therefore, app bundle also simplify the built and release management.
How Android App Bundle works
Android delivers APKs with the required resources using split APK mechanism. Google Play uses this mechanism to split large apps into smaller APKs, as per the device requirements.
According the Google, there are 3 types of APKs:
a) Base APK: This is the first mandatory APK to be installed. It contains the basic requirements for the application. This APK contains codes and resources that other split APKs can provide. Only the base APK’s contains full declaration of your app’s services, permissions, platform version providers and dependencies of system features. It is important that all codes and resources included in this module are included in the base APK.
b) Configuration APK: It contains specific data, based on the device requirements. Configuration APK is generated by Google Play from the app bundle that is uploaded to the store. Each of these APKs includes native libraries and resources for a specific screen density, CPU architecture or language. When a user downloads the app, their device downloads only the specific APKs for that device. You don’t create separate module for configuration APKs. If you use standard practices to organize alternative, configuration specific resources for your base and dynamic modules, Google Play automatically generates configuration APKs for you.
c) Dynamic Feature APK: These are the optional features installed required by the user. Each of these APKs contains code and resources for a feature of your app that is not needed when your app is first installed. Using the play core library, dynamic APKs may be installed on demand after the base APK is installed on the device to provide additional functionality.
Android Application Bundle Format
An Android App Bundle is a file with .aab extension which you can upload to Google Play to support dynamic delivery. App bundles are signed binaries that organize your apps resources into modules. Each of these modules may be generated as separate APKs. Google Play uses the app bundles to generate various APKs that are served to users.
App Bundle’s files and directories: Base/, feature 1/ and feature 2/: Top level folders that contain different modules of your app. The base directory contains base module of the app. The directory for dynamic feature module is given the name specified by the split attribute in the module’s manifest.
Bundle-Metadata: Metadata files include complete list of the app’s DEX files and Proguard Mappings. Files in this directory are not packed into the app’s APKs.
Module Protocol Buffer files (*.pb): Provides metadata that describe the content of each module to the play store. For example, native.pb and resource.pb describe the code and resources in each module, which is used when Google Play optimizes APKs for different device configurations.
Manifest/,DEX/: Unlike APKs, app bundles stores the androidmanifest.xml and DEX files for each module in a separate directory.
res/, libs/and assets/: These directories are used in the same ways as APK, except that for an app bundle, they are used by Google Play to package only the files that satisfy the target device configuration.
root/: This directory stores files that are later relocated to the root of any APK including corresponding module.
How to deploy App Bundle
Unlike APKs, App Bundles cannot be installed on a device. It is an uploaded format which contains compiled code and resources in a single build framework. Once we upload out signed app bundle, Google Play builds and signs the apps APKs and serve them to users through dynamic delivery.
Testing your app bundle with Google Play Internal Test Track
You need to generate signed in app bundle before you can upload your app bundle to the play console. Proceed with these steps to generate a signed app bundle.
Select Build then select Generate Signed Bundle/APK from the menu bar. In the Generate Signed Bundle/APK dialogue, select Android app bundle and click on Next.
In the Module dropdown menu, select the base module for the app you want to generate app bundle for.
Provide information for an existing key and keystore, or create a new. This is the same type of key and keystore information you provide when building a signed APK.
I you want Android Studio to also save your signing key as an encrypted file, check the box next to Export encrypted key. To be able to upload your app bundle and take advantage of dynamic delivery, you need to upload this encrypted file to the play console and enrol in app signing by Google Play.
Click Next and provide a Destination Folder for your app bundle. Select the Build Type and flavours that you want to generate app bundles for.
Click Finish.
Now you have generated a signed bundle, you can upload your app bundle to the play console.
Testing your .aab file on pCloudy pCloudy supports .aab format and the user can upload the App Bundle instead of “.apk” to test their app on the device cloud.
Conclusion
Android Application Bundles is a big step forward in the area of application publishing and uploading. It has reduced the size of APK of your application which leads to more download of the application.
The much awaited bonanza for Appium users is here. We are up with a newer and simpler Appium integration architecture which can simplify your Appium test automation execution on Android and iOS devices with pCloudy. The newer architecture make developers’ life simpler with lesser changes in the code. The older architecture demanded using APIs and also changes in your code that required some level of expertise. We addressed this issue and have come up with a simpler architecture where you need to mention some desired capabilities instead of calling APIs or doing changes in the code to run the Appium scripts. And wonder what! it makes you save 50% of your app testing time.
Watch the video to know more about the new simpler and faster pCloudy Appium architecture.
Pre-requisites
Appium Script
APK or IPA file
pCloudy Account
The basic steps to replace your local Appium driver to pCloudy Appium Driver are given below:
Upload the apk/ipa from your local system to pCloudy. Check this link to know steps to upload an app for test.
Set pCloudy capabilities
pCloudy_Username: Enter the email ID with which you have registered on pCloudy. For reference, check this link
pCloudy_ApiKey: API key is important for user’s verification. You can generate the API key from Settings page on device.pcloudy.com. Check this link to get your API key.
Note: If you don’t know the Device full name then you can enter pCloudy_DeviceManufacturer and pCloudy_DeviceVersion in the code and it will automatically run command on those devices.
Android now occupies the number one place in the world Smartphone arena with a market share of 87% at the end of 2016 that means 9 out of 10 Smartphones in the world run on Android. With such dominance in the space, the creation of mobile apps has reached never before heights. But the constant innovation that fuels this market has major problems in terms of the development and testing timelines. Running an online Android emulator, which used to be a solution once up a time, is not good enough anymore. So what can companies and developers do to stay ahead in the development race? What alternates exist to improve your app’s usability, performance and customer satisfaction? Let us explore.
With the explosion of Smartphones, customers’ screen size is reducing. People are moving from desktops and laptops to Smartphones for their everyday work and personal needs. This massive shift from big screens to a personal device has created a huge opportunity for developers to create tools that can help people with their work and their personal needs. Users can now view their spreadsheets and book movie tickets from their phones.
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Apple’s Appstore and Android Play store has become the ‘go to’ place for people to discover apps that meet their requirements. The ratings left on those apps will decide how many people will install those apps. Customers have once again become the king of the market.
Days of unique apps are over. For your every need you will find at least two or more apps, giving you a choice. So if you want people to choose your app, install it, use and positively review it, your app needs to user-friendly, work on most handsets and be bug-free.
In the past, companies and developers determined product lifecycle. They planned the updates, feature upgrades etc based on the resources and other factors. Today the scenario is changed. The Market dictates the timeline. If your app is incompatible with the latest OS, or not render properly, or suck a lot of battery juice, off it goes into oblivion to be replaced by a better app.
The fight for the screen space is constant.
You can win the fight only if you develop faster than others, test it better and offer a good user experience. That means developers will need to compress their development cycle and testers should speed up their testing while at the same time, maintain high usability and reliability of the app.
Android and iPhone both offer an easy to use platform for developers. iPhone has a few products (IP6, IP7, IP8 etc.) and versions (OS 8, OS9, OS10 etc). The permutation of devices and OS makes testing with real devices easier although buying that many Apple devices is quite an expensive investment. You don’t need an online emulator while testing for iPhone.
In contrast, Android has a highly fragmented market. Apart from different versions (KitKat, Jellybean etc), there are different forks of Android (Stock, Cyanogen, OxygenOS etc) and there are also different skins that manufacturers put on their devices (TouchWiz, Optimus, Sense etc). Real android device testing to cover all the combinations is close to impossible and quite expensive.
Enter Online Android Emulators
When they started, online Android emulators were like a boon to developers. They could cross test their apps across different devices without physically buying the phones. Most of the Android emulators were easy to set up and a fairly inexpensive solution. Most importantly, online Android emulators could mimic hardware and software behaviour making easy for developers to identify unexpected behaviour during the early stage testing.
But as the market for apps grew, the demands on the app became even higher. Testing all the features of the app on an Online Android Emulators was not providing the full picture of how the app would behave on a customer’s phone.
For example, a user installs a new app on the phone and the next day he notices the battery is getting low very fast. Looking at the battery usage, he discovers the culprit is the new app and bam! He hits uninstall. He then visits the Playstore and writes a negative review of the app’s battery-sucking problem. The next 20 people who see that review will not install the app.
These kinds of bugs cannot be easily identified using an online android emulator. Apart from that, online emulators are slow because they have to replicate both software and the hardware components. thus slowing down the whole testing cycle.
Online android mobile emulator stimulate android devices on a PC to test an app on a variety of devices and API levels without the need for physical devices. Nox is the best online android emulator although BlueStacks is the best android emulator for online games. Online android emulators come with predefined configurations for various Android phone, tablet, Wear OS, and Android TV devices. There are many online android emulators for iOS available in the market.
Online Android emulators also have other limitations that make them unsuitable for large-scale testing. There are a limited number of OS versions you can run on an Android emulator. Even on a good PC with HAXM acceleration support, you can run approximately 8 emulators at a time. Even if you manage to set up all the online emulators you need, one small problem can send the whole system crashing forcing you to start all over again.
So what can app developers do to speed up their product lifecycle while releasing a relatively bug-free app? Is there any alternative for Online Android Emulators?
Testing on real devices has a few important benefits. Your testing can be in real conditions i.e. weather, location network accessibility, interruptions like SMS, calls etc can be tested accurately. You can also validate the screen brightness, visibility in different lighting conditions. Testing on a real device will be a lot faster than on an Android emulator.
The biggest problem in using actual android phones is the cost of buying all the phones you need to test. There are approximately 11k Android phone models in the market making it financially impossible to test on all available Android devices. This is one reason Online Android Emulators became famous in the initial stages.
You can run only one test at a time. If you have staff in another city or country, they cannot access the device. If you need to install an app, you have to do it manually on every device. Apart from that, there is also a question of logistics, maintaining the devices, updating them, etc all of which are time-consuming tasks.
One tactic used earlier involved a combination of using online Android emulators during the early stages and a small selected list of real Android devices during the beta testing. While this would work for a localized team, it still does not optimize device usage and covers a tiny portion of devices while the fragmentation continues. Thus it is not an optimal solution.
Is there a third alternative that can beat the disadvantages of online android emulator and real devices testing?
In recent times, a new mode of testing is gaining popularity among both amateurs as well as professional developers. It is called Mobile cloud testing.
What is Mobile cloud testing?
Testing on real devices using the cloud as the Interface is the new way of balancing the real android testing while making it economical and scalable. As a developer, you need not own any phones or buy expensive software. You connect to a lab that has a huge selection of Smartphones, select the ones you want to test on and start, it is that simple. You can run functional tests, automated tests, performance and other forms of tests easily. Since the interface is cloud-based, you can test from anywhere in the world, at any time.
There will be some changes in the way you set up your test, install an app, etc. All the testing though will happen on actual devices under user-level conditions. You can set the location, observe CPU utilization, battery drainage and pretty much anything else that you can do with a device in your hand. These are the things you can never test with an online Android emulator.
The best part is that you need not invest in any special infrastructure for such a facility. There are independent services providers who can allow you access to the device on a cost per use basis. You can even reserve devices in advance if you want to plan a battery of test over an extended period.
Opting for mobile cloud testing service gives you access to real devices at a fraction of a cost of setting up your own lab. There are no recurring charges as most of them use a ‘pay as you go’ model. You can spend all your time in testing rather than worry about the infrastructure, maintenance and other problems that come from the ‘owning’ model.
While there may not be a cost associated with getting Android emulators, they need a lot of expensive hardware to run a sufficient number of an online android emulator. Mobile cloud testing does not have a problem.
Using Mobile cloud testing, you can cover more ground over a large number of devices than if you were using either only real android device testing or the online android emulator. For example, if you have 10k scenarios to cover, you can spread it over 1k devices through automation rather than 1k test scenarios over 100 different online android emulator.
One of the biggest benefits of testing mobiles over the cloud is that you are more likely to discover bugs that affect real-world customers than what an emulator can reveal. From a user satisfaction perspective, this is probably one of the biggest advantages mobile cloud testing has over online android emulator.
Most of the app development work has moved to the agile methodology which means testing will run almost parallel to development work. You will need a way to speed up the testing process to meet the sprint deadlines.
Using a mobile cloud, it is easy to streamline the testing process whether you are using a DevOps or an agile approach. Continuous testing is a lot easier to streamline over the cloud setup rather than via online Android emulators or even with real devices.
Many development teams are spread across the globe. Cloud setup gives them an easy way to test seamlessly from different geographies.
Security for Mobile apps testing
Different apps have different needs in terms of security. An Astrology app that gives general predictions may have little data security requirements while a banking app might need the testing to be done in a secure environment. Such clients can always go for a private cloud or even opt for on-premises setup. When you use a good solution provider, you can just hook up your existing devices to their setup and give access to your cross-border teams to test on the devices.
Testing performance issues, be it CPU load, battery discharge or performance over 2G, 3G and other networks work a lot easier when you use the mobile testing via the cloud platform. You can select which network mode you want to be on and apply the test. This kind of flexibility is difficult and sometimes, impossible using an android emulator.
Mobile Apps Performance Testing
Apart from the need to test for compatibility with existing apps, battery usage, network usage etc, and mobile apps will need to go through a round of performance testing. Due to the ever-increasing storage space in a Smartphone, users tend to store a lot of content on their phones. So it is necessary to find how the increase in storage affects the application performance.
For example, if you are developing a photo gallery, how does your app perform when accessing 5 GBs worth of pictures and videos, v/s accessing 50 GBs worth of pictures and videos? Does it slow the pre-fetch? Customers are very unforgiving of apps that slow down their phones.
In case your app has a server-side component, it is important you run a performance test to verify how many concurrent users the server can handle. There have been many instances where e-commerce sites crashed being unable to keep up with increased demands during holiday sales.
These are a few areas that we cannot test on an online android emulator.
A customer kept waiting is a customer lost
A couple of years ago, it was acceptable to wait for two-three minutes to download an image on a phone. But today if your app takes longer than few seconds to start up, it is killed and replaced. The tide has shifted to the customer’s side in the Appstore and Playstore. The only way to win this game is to be Nimble, easy to use and not crash the phone.
Thanks to Mobile cloud testing, you don’t have to wait for the slow, unreliable online Android Emulators anymore. Testing on Mobile cloud gives you the opportunity to cut your infrastructure cost, speed up your testing cycle, spread your testing over a larger set of devices and gives you close to real-world results. As the completion heats up for the screen space, you have one tool in your kit that can help your app survive the tough jungle of user reviews.
