Trends in 2019

 
The mobile devices and applications have witnessed a constant progress in the year 2018 making the mobile app industry one of the largest. The burgeoning number of mobile apps can be seen in 3rd quarter statistics of the year 2018 with the numbers rising to 2.1 million for android based and 2 million for iOS based mobile apps. The mobile apps industry is estimated to generate approximately USD 189 Billion by 2020 according to Statista Research. Considering how greatly the mobile app market has grown in the past year, the mobile application testing trends in 2019 seems to bring out even the better version of the former .

With the innovative technologies introduced every year, the users and developers of mobile app ought to get the updated and enhanced versions of mobile apps which can be achieved through steady Mobile App test automation and deployment. Few trends that can be seen in 2019 are as follows:

1. Machine learning and AI in testing:
Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence in Testing has already been the talk of the town in 2018. It is going to bring revolution in the mobile testing world by bringing changes in the processes and workflows of the testing cycle. It is going to be used for test suite optimization to identify the inessential and unique tests. It is also going to be a great contributor in the predictive analysis of the test cases. Machine learning would also be responsible to perform log analytics meaning to identify the test cases that need to be executed automatically.

AI has already made its stand in mobile apps space by manifesting itself in the form of bots and virtual assistants. Artificial Intelligence in testing platform would certainly recognize any changes faster than a human along with the constant updates in the algorithms. Most importantly, it is going to be used to identify risks areas of the mobile application in order to prioritize regression testing. The growing demand for quality at speed is forcing enterprise mobility to test faster than ever. Automation testing alone is just not enough. AI powered bot tests to run deep exploratory tests or crash tests in lesser time with enhanced quality reports can solve the purpose.

pCloudy has launched Certifaya which is the AI-powered app testing bot which automatically tests the mobile apps over multiple devices giving the real-time insights about the app behavior and performance to its users. It also allows screenshots, session videos as well as provides detailed logs and quick fix rectification recommendations. It has analytics-driven testing engine uses machine learning algorithms to navigate through the app and detect issues. It also allows to generate reports on the critical issues like crashes, leaks , slow response time etc.

2. Popularity of IOT:
Just as AI in testing is gaining popularity, IOT is also gaining momentum alongside with more and more devices getting connected to the internet. With the introduction of IOT, IOT testing will make more sense. IOT testing would be applied on the IOT based devices to test the usability, compatibility of the IOT system; for the simulation of the sensors, for data validation integrity; for user authentication and data privacy, and finally test the performance of the connect IOT devices.

3. Impact of 5G: 5G will be the 5th generation of the mobile network. Move from 4G to 5G is a great shift in the network ecosystem. It will be responsible for greatest bandwidth for uploads and downloads.

eMBB (Enhanced mobile broadband) The introduction of 5G networks in the mobile devices is going to present the advantages of high speed, security, and reliability than ever. According to statista, there is going to be around 20 to 100 million 5G connections by 2021.Test automation, built in systems and monitoring would be required to test the 5G powered mobile apps by analyzing the performance of the network. Along with 5G, 3GPP identifies three main aspects of 5G technology that co-exist in the same network infrastructure, namely:

-eMBB: provides greater bandwidth for uploads and download speeds , reduced network latency and will enable rich media apps like mobile AR/VR and 360 degree video streaming.

-URLCC(Ultra Reliable Low Latency communications): URLCC provides benefits like , real time virtual reality gaming, robot-enabled remote surgery, autonomous driving, factory lien automation etc. The technologies that enable URLCC are in the process of being standardized and will enable high end latency sensitive tasks.

Massive Machine Type Communication: It is a narrowband access type to sense, meter and monitor the use cases.
Undoubtedly 5G is a paradigm shift towards user and application technology framework and testing the overall communication behavior of the devices would be the key focus in the testing space related to 5G.


4. Performance testing to performance engineering:
There are many factors like usability, performance, security, hardware, software, configuration, etc. that contribute towards the performance of a mobile app. Now , the performance testing will not be about running the test scripts, rather it will be focused on prioritizing the factors and analyzing the highest value amongst them in order to deliver the high quality product.

5. Manual and Automation merger :
This practice has been followed in the previous times and it will be carried forward even in 2019 due to the combined benefits of both the types of testing. Although manual testing dominates the market specifically in the areas of usability and design, but it will still go hand in hand with the efficiency of mobile automation. We have already initiated that with our breakthrough feature Follow Me where we have tried to automate the use cases of manual app testing on multiple devices.

6. Shorter Delivery Cycle:
Up gradations in the technologies and the devices makes the software developers think a bit more about the development process i.e to shorten the delivery cycle. The choice of right mobile app testing tools and test management is going to play a major role in these decisions.

7. Cloud Apps:
Cloud apps have always been a part of the successful quality assurance decisions. Focus will be more on building the cloud apps that require minimum operational costs and high productivity. In 2019, it is estimated that the number of cloud based apps will increase from $30 Billion in 2014 to $66 Billion in 2019 and so would be the need for the cloud based testing for the cloud mobile apps.

The above stated trends would help testing team to acquire right skills and tools for investing time and effort to the right focus area. Smartphones being the future also allows the mobile apps to be a part of the process. Hence, making it noteworthy for the upcoming generations. To stay ahead of the challenging environment, one must be aware of the above trends in Mobile App Testing in 2019.

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Successful 5 Tips

There are millions of mobile apps available in the market today. The statistics shows that since 2016, on an average around 6000 apps on Google play store and 1400 on the Apple store have been released every day. In order to be hassle free and to be on top of the competitors, an app needs to be stable and be properly tested.

Testing on mobile devices could be very challenging as it has to constantly be in touch with the new updates, new features and a myriad of DevOps tools that get introduced every time to ensure better performance and reliability of the mobile app.

Hence, there are many factors that have to be considered while framing the testing strategy in order to avoid all kinds of uncertainties in the app performance, just needs a right planning.

Below are five strategies every mobile testing team should keep in mind in order to reap the most benefits from their QA efforts.

1. Real Environment Testing is a must
2. Testing Automation
3. Functionality Testing
4. Performance and Load Testing
5. Choice of Mobile App Testing Tools

1. Real environment testing is a must

Emulators are the best option only at the early stage of testing, and they have a vital place in the overall QA process. But testing on emulators is not successful for all types of testing. All the tests should not run on emulators as those will not be reliable for an app to run immaculately in the real world scenario. Testing on the real devices is certainly more accurate as it can test many device functionalities like camera operations, battery life, GPS, Bluetooth, networks and more. Each device is designed differently and emulators do not solve issues specific to a particular type of device.

Procuring multiple devices and testing the app on each Operating System can be quite a daunting task and it may seem next to impossible to test the app on every OS combination. The best way would be to test apps on a cloud based platform with a hub of real devices. This way your testing results would be more precise and the procurement cost could be controlled. pCloudy has a wide variety of mobile devices available on cloud that can be considered as the preferred option.

2. Testing Automation

Automation testing is the key and the most vital when it comes to mobile apps. It can ease the execution of tests to run simultaneously across real devices which speeds up the entire testing process allowing the apps to float in the market quite earlier and faster. In the cases where the tests require a lot of set up and aren’t the routine tests, manual testing should be preferred over automation. Mobile Automation testing necessitates the use of right automation tools. The choicest one is Appium which is open source and supports both iOS and Android and also allows to write the tests that can run on both the platforms.

3. Functionality testing

The core functionality is the main draw for any app and it has to be rock solid. People seek out apps to perform specific functions. Incomplete or inadequate functionality will result in abandonment, so make sure that the main functions are fully implemented and tested before you move on. User experience really matters and is also a key factor in an app’s success. For example, if the elements of the app are placed incorrectly on the mobile screen, the user will not use the app and uninstall it straightaway. So, the mobile app needs to be tested on each functionality in order to give the best results.

4. Performance and Load Testing

Usual tests are performed at earlier stages to identify the bugs even before they are pushed for production but the performance and load tests are performed later in the SDLC process to assess the maximum operating capacity and behavior of a mobile app in real life load scenarios. Tools like JMeter and Android’s Monkey tool are often used for performance and load testing. Also, the app performance on real devices is done in order to check the issues like network interruptions, memory leaks. Whatever the choice of tool may be, the goal is to ensure the smooth functioning of the app before and after the final release.

The Internet speed can also have a major impact on the experience of using an app. A user connected to a slow cellular network might have a hard time with apps that have rich media content. Make sure your app testing includes slow connections — and fast ones — to make sure the experience is OK at any speed.

5. Choice of Mobile app testing tools

It is very important to choose the right tool for mobile app testing. There are many favored mobile app testing tools to do the right testing.

Out of the meagre tools available in the market, Appium tops the list of the most preferred open source mobile testing tool in the market. Other than this, the tools like Robotium and Espresso which are used widely to test the Android apps by empowering the testers to write UI tests for Android Apps, easily. Google’s EarlGrey performs the similar function as Robotium for iOS framework.

Conclusion

To conclude, we must acknowledge that the decisions related to successful mobile app testing is the key role of the testing team. Testing landscapes keep changing and the testing strategies have to be aligned with the vulnerabilities of the market. It can be deduced from the above discussion that both emulators and the real devices are needed as per the testing situation. Performance and load testing are the saviors and must be performed sincerely in the production to understand the reaction of the mobile apps at different load conditions. There should be a right combination of the testing tools as per the type of operating system where the app has to be installed. To make the Mobile app testing a success, the right decision-matrix regarding the above mentioned points would prove to be the strongest pillar of the QA team of an organization. To know more about the mobile app testing success, visit www.pcloudy.com.

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App Testing with AI and DevOps

 
Are we not living in an amazing time? Technologically advanced, digitally sound!

We thrive on all things digital. The world around us is becoming all digital with limitless possibilities. Today as a consumer, you can preorder your coffee, interact with augmented reality in the store, and skip the lines at store with alternative payment methods.

To cut the story short, as a consumer, we have access to unlimited goods and services and connected around us. And mobile is at the center of all this change. It’s the tool that is bridging the gap between the digital and physical.

And the availability of 5 million apps come as a proof of this explosion. In the first quarter of 2018, Apple had 2 million apps on App store. As of the same quarter, Android users were able to choose between 3.8 million apps. More and more businesses are adopting Mobile Apps as their primary channel for business growth. This explosion proves that mobile is at the core of customer experience.

Before moving further into the topic, you can watch the entire webinar here or else you can skip the video and continue reading to get the gist of the webinar.

 
As a business mobile Apps are not just another channel. More and more organization are realizing that it can be a means to create awesome customer experiences. There are numerous examples to illustrate.

One such example is Starbucks.

The secret to Starbucks’ app’s success is that it gives users an intuitive experience, making it as easy to find a store, order your coffee and make a payment through their wallet. Recently, Starbucks has also taken the mobile app experience one step further with an innovative conversational ordering system powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The explosion in mobile apps imply to speed. How quickly you can make a change and let the customer experience it? The mathematics of velocity matter here. Market speed has left companies with a simple problem: How do we go faster than we ever have before, without losing an eye on quality?

 
The success stories like Facebook and Netflix tell us that we can
It is an amazing fact that Facebook mobile app is updated and refreshed every two weeks like clockwork. That’s the new normal. We will talk about this example in detail a little later in the webinar.

So in order to gain Quality@Speed, we reach to a point where experience and quality intersect and we name this convergence Quality@Speed. It’s a no brainer to say that Quality @ speed can be achieved with two fundamental principles.

Agile: Agility allows teams to work closely with business and it Pulls quality forward. It’s also called Shift Left of Quality. You are delivering small chunks to end consumers on weekly or monthly basis. This allows teams to get feedback early on.

DevOps: DevOps brings you speed. It’s a Shift left of operations.

DevOps practices allow you to create “ready to deploy code” on demand. In other words, it means deploying software and the environment on which it runs, automatically and on demand, at any stage of the software delivery lifecycle. You can truly have multiple deployment in a day.

If we dig deeper, DevOps is enabled by two practices Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery. These two will not work in sync until you have continuous testing in place. It’s also proven by many independent studies.

Here, we have a look at the data extracted from World Quality report, 2017-18 showcasing the popular and the best practices followed in DevOps.

If we have a closer look at the data, we will find that 87% of CIOs and senior tech professionals use or are planning to use cloud based test environment. Depending on choice of organization, it could a Private or public cloud but it’s a must to achieve speed.

Second data point is about Continuous Testing, here as well more than 80% of respondents chose this as a preferred DevOps practice.

 
Let’s look at what some of the success stories say
 

Facebook follows Ship early and Ship often approach. They update their web app multiple times a day while their Mobile Apps with frequency of almost 2 weeks. This is possible with DevOps best practices they have been following from past few years.

If we analyze their DevOps story in short, we find that one of the biggest takeaway for Mobile Teams is their massive investment in device infrastructure. Every time they make a change to app, it gets tested on 2000 real devices. Imagine 2000 real devices! They have bypassed use of simulators or emulators.

 
Mobile DevOps Challenges
Now let us move on to have a look at some of the Mobile DevOps challenges that comes as an obstacle on the way of mobility teams.

 
Multi-platform Support
Mobile apps have multi environmental target. Mobile apps have to deal with device fragmentation as they need to be workable on multiple devices. This poses a test for Ops team to build an optimal device infrastructure. Moreover, it is difficult to keep pace with the ever changing device requirements.

 
Mobile apps as an enterprise front end
Mobile apps, that too, mostly the enterprise mobile apps catering to business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-employee (B2E) segment of apps, characteristically have very less trade logic on the mobile device itself. On the other hand, a B2C or a B2E mobile app
serves as a front end to enterprise mobility already in use by the firm, such as transaction processing systems, employee HR systems, or customer acquisition systems.

This implies that the mobile app, available on multiple platforms as a native or Mobile Web app, needs to be built and delivered aligned with the backend services. The biggest challenge for DevOps is to think about enterprise mobility holistically and manage their build and release processes and cycles.

 
The App store
The app store includes an extra asynchronous step to the deployment procedure since developers are not able to update apps on demand. Even for grave bug fixes, new app versions need to pass through an app store submission and review process. Continuous delivery here gets a roadblock and the instant delivery becomes “submit and wait.”

 
Build Challenges
Since apps today are supported on multiple platforms, numerous different builds of the app has to be triggered each time when a change is being deployed by a developer.

The build system and configuration for each supported mobile environment is dissimilar from the others. You will probably require a small farm of build servers to be provisioned and available to manage these multiple operating system builds.

 
A typical Mobile DevOps Architecture
Let’s try to depict the Mobile DevOps cycle. Some of the tools mentioned here are a representative set of tools in the respective category.

It starts with a Dev checking in a code to Git/Versioning system. That triggers the CI server to build the App which could be Internal build server or a cloud system like Circle CI. Once the build is successful, Unit tests are runs on Real devices. If the Tests are pass, build is pushed to QA Env. Where Automated regression tests are triggered on real devices. If that’s a pass App compatibility tests for new features are done.

 
The Evolution
 

We’ve by now witnessed quite a journey to reach Continuous Testing. “Classical” testing was intended for software delivery cycles spanning months or year. Agile has changed this norm to a 2-week development iterations—but now something extra is required to meet today’s insatiable demand for software. Attempts to fasten the process further, created a chasm between Development, Test, and Operations. That gap has been bridged with DevOps and Continuous Testing in order to move beyond that speeding up plateau. However, when we look into the future, it’s clear that even Continuous Testing will not be enough. We need “Digital Testing” to achieve extra acceleration and meet the quality needs of future. AI can help us get there.

 
Mobile Testing and AI

If you keep pace with the market buzz you will find there is an ongoing debate about what AI can do? When it comes to testing, lot of theories have started predicting that AI has the ability to replace testing. Well personally I don’t see this happening in near future. But we certainly are very excited about capabilities AI present in from of us.

 
When we an organization think of using AI to sole testing problems we think on three lines
a) Can it improve speed of current testing process?
b) Can it help generate meaning full data for me to make intelligent decisions?
c) Can it improve the test coverage and reduce cost?

So, are you ready to adapt a personal assistant for testing. So are you ready to say? Certifaya, Can you run an App Test for me? pCloudy’s AI powered bot, can automatically test the mobile applications over hundreds of real mobile devices and gives its users real time insights into the app’s behaviour and performance. Do you want to explore more? Try Certifaya for free now and testify it yourself. You can also go through our webinar on the same topic to understand it in detail.

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Appium 1.9.0

Having Appium 1.9.0 out, we find it to be a feature release, comprising multiple updates. Some of the key features brought forward in this release update are:

a. Appium users have been facing unlocking device issues with older versions of Appium. This had been a big headache but Appium has resolved this issue with update 1.9.0. Even if the device remains locked, Appium 1.9.0 is very much capable to unlock the device and run your script smoothly.

b. If the object is not identified anywhere in the script, you will be able to locate the error in Appium logs itself.

c. Appium 1.9.0 comes with much faster execution compared to its older versions.

d. The log information is more insightful and detailed than before.

Let us have a look at Feature release updates below:
(Source: https://github.com/appium/appium/releases)

General

• Full W3C Specification support.
• Add full beta of Espresso driver
  for Android automation (used by specifying automationName capability to be
  “Espresso”).
• Add driver for Samsung Tizen devices
• Add -image find element strategy,
• Fix –async-trace server argument, and rename as –long-stacktrace
• Sample code has been moved into the main repository to aid in maintenance.
• Fix status retrieval to speed up performance.

iOS

• Add support for Xcode 10 beta 5 and iOS 12 beta 5.
• Add preliminary support for MacOS Mojave beta.
• Add face id biometric support.
• Fix retrieval of device time, and add optional format parameter.
• Do not crash if there is no idevicesyslog when ending session.
• Handle frames when page changes in Safari.
• Add desired capabilities:
  • remoteDebugProxy – port or Unix domain socket on which a proxy for the
    remote debugger sits.
  • safariGarbageCollect – turn on/off JS garbage collection in Safari.
  • showSafariNetworkLog – print Safari network logs in the Appium server logs.
  • mjpegServerPort – port to which screenshots can be streamed.
• Fix handling of settings updates, so simulators are not restarted unnecessarily.
• Allow pulling of folder from real devices.
• Add mobile: getContexts execute function, to retrieve meta-information (title,
  url, etc.) about available contexts.
• Fix certificate retrieval and handling.
• Fix cookie handling, to allow secure cookies.
• Fix Safari timeout issues.
• Add support to retrieve Safari network logs, as safariNetwork log type.

Android

• Update Chromedriver to v2.41.
• Get Chrome version for Webviews in Android 7+, to find correct Chromedriver.
• Make sure UiAutomator processes are cleaned up during test.
• Fix handling of autoWebview capability.
• New desired capabilities:
  • mjpegScreenshotUrl – url to stream screenshots to.
  • chromedriverUseSystemExecutable – boolean flag to use the default Chromedriver
    installed with Appium, avoiding any attempt to find correct Chromedriver.
  • disableWindowAnimation – disable window animations on device (now available
    on UiAutomator and UiAutomator2).
  • pageLoadStrategy – page load strategy for Chromedriver.
• Allow test-only APKs to be installed.
• Fix implicit wait handling for finding elements.
• Better handle Unicode IME installation.
• Relax package validation logic.
• Fix error in UiAutomator searches with nested quotes.
• Perform accessibility refresh when needed on UiAutomator2.
• Improve logic for determining if apps need upgrade.
• Fix screen recording to allow longer recordings, up to 30 minutes.

Key challenge with Appium 1.9.0

Now, we bring to you the challenge area that we have been able to identify with this release.

• Even after using the capability automationName as uiautomatortool, we were unable to locate the object in >=Android v8.0 devices

If you have been able to find out any workaround for this issue mentioned above, kindly share it with us in the comments section.

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Monitoring Mobile App Performance

With the myriad of apps cluttering our smartphone screens nowadays, it has become all the more important to optimize app performance. While going through your daily routine, you certainly don’t want useful apps hanging up or worse still, crashing abysmally.

In this post, you’ll know how app monitoring performance works so that you can get the best out of your smartphone software.

What is application performance management? 10 APM features that we can tick right off our fingers are:

• Troubleshooting of disruption of frequent speed and uptime
• Monitoring of the speed at which transactions are performed by end-users and systems
• Use of a single integrated suite of software tools
• Load-testing
• Synthetic monitoring
• Real-use monitoring
• Root-cause analysis
• Web-performance monitoring, to gauge app speed and uptime
• An end-to-end overview of bottlenecks
• Review of service interruptions

APM is integrated through the lifecycle of an application including the pre-deployment and post-deployment stages. It is therefore important for developers, testers, and business teams.
A slow load can be prevalent due to a host of issues related to APIs, servers, or browsers. APM techniques are what help pinpoint the actual problem.

Basic availability monitoring involves testing IP protocols and network services, but a user needs to establish some optimal performance thresholds and real-time alerts to monitor and manage both speed and reliability.

Tips for monitoring app performance

Performance monitoring must take into account certain things in order to optimize user experience. These include measuring from the user’s point of view, i.e. performance, stability, and resource utilization in real time the way the user perceives them.

The context is crucial too. It’s important to determine how many users were affected by a slowdown, and what action on a specific operating device prompted the disruption. To truly experience a ‘mobile moment,’ you should follow these tips for monitoring your app performance:

Measure Frame rendering time

Only measuring network time doesn’t cut it out for users, who are interested in when the network resumes as well as when it responds.

Measuring response time by the device or operating system allows the product manager to focus on one platform at a time, respond to performance issues, and deploy resources accordingly.

Measure battery usage

It’s crucial to measure the battery consumption of your mobile app, along with data plan impact and memory usage. If the app is responsible for draining your battery, you should bring it in line with best practices.

Frequent updates can also be minimized so that user satisfaction can be increased.

Measure cell data consumption

Recent studies by Dimensional Research have shown that 20% of respondents stopped using apps that were heavy on data usage. This indicates that you should measure the consumption by app version, the total number of users, KBs of data consumed per minute, the amount of data being transferred per hit, and the percentage of data being consumed per hit.

Measure errors

HTTP errors from certain URLs need to be captured. This will help track the number of users who received an error, the actions that resulted in it, number of users with errors on app launch, the percentage of actions that led to at least one error, and the app version.

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App Testing Companies Must Follow

Today, the world is earnestly dependent on mobility devices and so is their dependency on the mobile applications. The number of smartphone users are expected to reach 3 billion by 2019 out of which India alone covers half a million. So, it becomes impertinent to have an extremely practical mobile application strategy to make the usage of it more effective. Unless the mobile application is acceptable and extremely compelling to the users, it becomes inconsequential to even trade in it. So, there is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of Mobile application companies to assure the accessibility, security, purpose and usability of the mobile application to make it noticeable and engaging enough in long term.

pCloudy is fully equipped cloud based platform with a strong principled approach to tackle and heed the performance of today’s robust mobile applications. Following are the 5 best practices to count on for successful mobile app testing:

1. Master Plan
2. Device Testing
3. An early stage testing move
4. Crowd Sourced App Testing
5. Automation

1. Master Plan: A common plan is what will drive the team towards the ultimate business goal. Defining the testing approach, the effort, the timeline and the expected results would solve a lot of anticipated problems in different testing phases.

2. Device Testing: Some important points in context to devices are:

• Testing on every possible device is what looks promising but is impossible. So, testers have to be smart and cover the largest market with largest sample size.
• Testing on real devices is what is going to be the reality check and is going to give a better idea of the challenges and the convenience of the general usability of the app.
• Test on more than one OS version to check interface compatibility and consistency.

3. An early stage testing move: Testing early ensures quality and makes the application more favorable in the market as per the new approaches in mobile application development. To minimize the defects at later stages, testing efforts should start at the early stages of mobile app development life cycle.

4. Crowd Sourced App Testing: The best platform to employ the benefits of cloud which allows global pool of experts from all over the world to be utilized for incomparable testing practices and performance saving both time and money.Not to be considered as a replacement of traditional testing but it has some obvious benefits of testing in real world conditions and without investing in full-time testers. With more participation,feedback and reporting actions, crowd testing has become a reliable and most sought practice today. With the help of pCloudy’s global crowd, testing has become an easy ballgame ensuring app testing in different environments with different network bandwidth, on different devices and on time delivery.

5. Automation: Test Automation is what a machine does much faster and with less error than humans. This approach would save a lot of time, cost and would provide great return on investment but for reaping all these benefits, this has to be properly planned as it involves good investment, training and cost of trained resources and tools.If the objectives are undefined, it can lead to wastage of time and resources.

Mobile app testing is facing challenges in terms of changes in networks, operating systems and of course devices. So, the functioning and performance of the mobile applications becomes the prime focus. Selecting the best tool and the reason of doing so is very important. A strategy with clear objectives would be an informed move and a savior in this decision making process.

In the end, all we have to keep in mind is the user is happy using the app and is able to fulfil the purpose. All of this cannot be achieved by an individual but by the effort and strength of the team of both Developers and testers. There can always be brainstorming and learning from failures but the real game can be played by having a strong unified strategy.

pCloudy is a market leader in mobile app testing providing a wide range of MAT services. It has the most powerful mobile app testing platform which gives you a chance to access to real Android and IOS devices in a single click. Connect with our expert team to build a customized MAT strategy for your mobile application.

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Future Trends

Living in a technological era has forced entrepreneurs to adapt to current market and technology trends. Mobile is one such driving force that is propelling enterprises to another level.

E-commerce industry is so vast that it needs a proper channel or platform to reach a wider spread of audience. Android and iPhones both have turned to be largely used platforms used by people across the globe.

Consumers of ecommerce industry today use their mobile devices in numerous contexts like – making a purchase anytime, anywhere, browse and get details about a product while shopping in store. A mobile app serves as a bridge connecting all channels and touch points between a retailer and a customer which they together leverage to get a great and seamless shopping experience. Let us have a look at the trends that tend to set the future of mobile apps in e-commerce industry.

A Rising Influx of Mobile Shoppers

Just as smartphone usage and sales continue to tick upward, mobile shopping is likewise expected to rise. Mobile devices currently account for 19% of all ecommerce sales in the United States; however, the figure is projected to rise to 27% by the end of 2018, according to an Invesp report. This influx of mobile shoppers also presents new challenges to merchants, though. Though desktop driven ecommerce sales may be plateauing, but data from Comscore shows that online sales are booming as a whole. Sales from mobile devices are now leading the charge with an annual growth rate of 59% that eclipses desktop 17%.

More Prevalent Storefront Apps

In a response to the aforementioned challenge of appealing to mobile buyers, expect to see a new wave of mobile “storefront apps” to reach buyers on-the-go. This trend goes hand in hand with the need for merchants to have omni-channel presence, as well. Given that mobile users spend 86% of their time within apps versus mobile sites, perhaps branded native smartphone shopping apps are the key to converting those once-fickle customers.

After all, if a customer is willing to go through the effort of downloading a mobile app, chances are they’re loyal and trusting enough to make ongoing purchases. “App commerce” platform Poq recently found that storefront apps outperform mobile web conversion rates by 40%, support longer browsing sessions than even desktop web browsers and are twice as likely to drive repeat visits. This all makes sense given the game-changing functionalities that storefront apps offer, which include superior content personalization opportunities, push notifications and geo location-integrated brick-and-mortar shopping recommendations.

Poq’s compelling solution, for one, offers a centralized content management system that merchants and marketers can use as a unified data hub that uses an API to automatically sync with analytics platforms, payment gateways, customer review platforms and more.

Boom of app adoption in Indian market

Over 80% of buyers surveyed in India now prefer using apps over mobile browsers to shop on phones, compared to the global average of around 70%, according to a report published by payments technology firm Worldpay. At an average download of 10 mobile apps per day, India has been far ahead and is a thriving market beating its rival U.S and U.K. where the average downloads are 7, the report added. Indians downloaded 12.1 billion apps last year, dethroning the US’s app economy (11.3 billion).

Getting the app experience right can yield handsome rewards for e-tailers. After all, according to the Worldpay report, one in three Indians spent more than Rs4,000 ($62) on their last purchase. Tapping the right market will be the key to their success for e-tailers.

Conclusion

Nobody can truly predict the future in regard to ecommerce. However, these current trends will continue to heavily influence the space for the time being. One thing that is inevitable for the evolving e-commerce industry is that they should maintain the highest quality apps with fastest time to market. The best strategy would be to test the apps on multiple real devices with different OS versions and on different parameters on a cloud based platform that can deliver better quality apps faster. pCloudy is the ideal full lifecycle digital testing cloud based platform to test all the mobile and IOT apps.

Manual, automated and crowd testing can be done on both iOS and Android devices. These tests can be run on a public cloud, on premise or a dedicated private cloud as per the need. Both Selenium and Appium tests can be run on pCloudy. One of the biggest advantage of it is that it can be integrated with Continuous Integration systems.

Sign up on pCloudy and test your apps to believe what we say.

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Mock Location for Testing of Mobile Apps

How many apps on your phone today has applications that need GPS as a tool to do the task that it needs to. Be it hailing a cab, ordering food, booking a movie or the indispensability of shopping online, more often than not, we use GPS based apps all available at our fingertips. Gone are the days when asking people around a few times used to connect you and the place of the product.

Precision is the name of the game now. The applications developed need to be tried and tested. Not just that its functional requirements are easy to read and track format seamlessly.

Geo-Location Testing of Apps by using mock locations on devices

Geolocation technology has given birth to new ideas for startups which didn’t exist before. New market strategies keep bringing to light that have transformed the relationship of a company and its consumers. The ability to integrate Geolocation into our mobile technology creates solution for any industry domain.

Why is testing necessary?

A few examples of Geolocation apps are the ones that also track weather alert systems, track lifestock and location based advertisement systems. Using Geo-Tag or GPS Location of a mobile device, location aware apps are created. Geo-location testing is performed on apps that are location-aware. Which means it has to display and collect information based on the real-time location of the device, to provide real-time services to its user’s proximity.

So how does a developer guarantee that the application will be functional worldwide? Not just that, for local areas, how does he guarantee that the app will work in specific streets with crowded services and neighborhood areas?

Presently the state of affairs are such that geolocation apps are restricted to field testing and iOS/Android based simulators. Developers can also manually draw up GPX/KML files that need talented coding skills. Test teams have always struggled to test location based feature due to lack of mock location tools.

How does pCloudy allows testing of Geolocation apps?

pCloudy provides single click access to a tool to mock location on a IOS or Android device. Which is why testing geolocation functionalities is also pretty damn seamless and easy.

Similar to field-testing but only far easier. If your application under test is a location aware app and if it reads the geo-location from the device to provide the necessary results, “Set Phone Location” feature can be used to inject any location (mock location) on the earth to the device and the device will be teleported to the selected location. Simply choosing a location of choice on a virtual map, which internally feeds latitude and longitude information to the device.

This emulates the chosen location on the device as your real location. This helps you test if your application behaves properly at different locations.

Cloud-based testing for mobile applications is cost-effective. While looking for cloud-based mobile application testing tools you need to consider that it provides comprehensive coverage with more numbers of real devices. Users also download the mock location app to spoof your location to view any content that is blacked out in a particular region.

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Explore Full Power of pCloudy

pCloudy understands that businesses need their apps to be rolled out faster than before, without bugs, crashes, functionality issues, UI glitches, memory drainage and well, everything wrong with every app you uninstalled on your phone within minutes of using them.

We simplify testing. More importantly, this platform will equip, enable and guide you to provide single-click access solutions to the battling issues that can easily drive a developer nuts. This platform allows you to test real Android and IOS devices directly from your browser using real Mobile Devices to click-and-perform Manual and Automated Testing for maximum coverage.

Here are the most frequently used App Testing Use Cases you might be interested in.

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Mobile App Testing Tools to Improve App Quality

Mobile is the key to the digital world in today’s era. The rise of Mobile Internet has ensured that we all are going to make most of our digital decisions on a Mobile device (primarily using an App). Mobile Apps are going to be everywhere.

One of the biggest challenges for App Development teams is to ensure that their Apps works on the variety of devices. They need their apps tested on multiple devices before it is released to the market, simply because of the plethora of devices available in the market.

Each mobile from each OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) with different specifications is a unique device where the application should be tested.

Practically it is not possible to test the application on each and every mobile device available in the market. But the app must be tested on a large set of the devices depending on the market segment of App under test.

Introduction:

pCloudy is a cloud-based remote mobile app testing platform which allows testing of Android and iOS mobile applications on remote REAL devices. It allows the user to do Manual testing and also facilitate to run test automation on multiple devices in parallel.

It provides a whole lot of statistics like session video, device logs, Screenshots, data usage, memory usage, CPU usage, battery consumption and frame rendering count. The devices are also equipped with Real Operator SIM’s to make MO/MT calls and can receive and send SMS.

Preparing for Manual Test

Before we start the test on pCloudy, we recommend uploading the test application, test data or even test suites to the cloud drive provided by pCloudy. This is the secured location for each user.

Click on the Upload button and select the file from your local system through file explorer. After selecting the file select upload and the file will be uploaded to your cloud drive.

You can also manage the cloud drive by download. These applications can be installed on the devices as explained below.

Performing Manual Test remotely

Based on test requirement, you can search for any specific device by using the filters provided at pCloudy.

(Note: Click on any image for enlarged view)

You can access any device for Instant Access. Also, you can book the device for a longer duration for your planned testing using “Book your Device” link.

After selecting the device just click on the “Connect to a device” button to connect to the device. The below device page will be displayed with all the supported features.

The device is displayed in the middle pane with some features on the right, left and top pane.

• The Left pane where the device information is displayed, followed by other tabs like App/Data, Device Settings, Debug and Automation
• The top pane with handy features & a timer to show the remaining time & wake up the device and release the device back to the cloud.
• The right pane to view the device logs and Performance vitals for application under test.

How to Install the application on the Remote Mobile device?

• Install from my App data – enables user to upload app on device.
• Push to Device – This feature allows you to transfer your test data to the device.
• Upload App – Upload and install an app from your local system.

Once the application is installed you can test the application on REAL Remote Device the way you test the application with the phone in hand. You can use the mouse to give touch gestures to the device. You can click the button, drag the screen or double tap the image.

While doing functional testing on the remote device, you can also monitor the device logs next to the device. Please start the logs from the right page and start monitoring the logs next to the device.

All Mobile App Testing tools at one place: One of the biggest advantages of pCloudy platform is it provides performance statistics like Memory Usage, CPU Usage, Battery usage, Data usage & frame rendering count of the application under test without any extra efforts by the test engineer.

To view this vital statistic on pCloudy platform, please select Performance tab -> Choose an APP -> Select the application under test.

Start navigating through the application to complete the function test flow.

On the right pane, you will start seeing the important vitals of the performance.

On the left pane, you can expand the device settings. All the important frequently used applications are made available to use on the device.

You can perform below actions on the remote device:

• Reboot the device remotely
• Toggle the Wi-Fi connection
• Adjust the volume of the device
• Manage the Apps
• Open Developers options
• Open Play store
• Open Device settings
• Use Set Phone Location

If your application under test is a location aware app and if it reads the geo-location from the device to provide the necessary results, “Set Phone Location” feature can be used to inject any location on the earth to the device and the device will be teleported to the selected location.

Once you select the “Set Phone Location”, the platform shows the google maps and you can select the location of your choice on this map. The same location is injected to the device.

Other key features during manual tests

• You can capture high-resolution screen shots with the skin of the device
• Change the orientation of the device to Landscape and portrait
• Open the browser from the list of preinstalled browsers
• Use the extended keyboard if you want to enter some text on the device. However, for Android ver 5.0 and above you can directly enter the text from your system keyboard.
• Check the stack trace (crash logs) if the application is crashed
• You can navigate the application with the buttons
• Zoom in/out the device shown on the screen
• Reset the zoom level to bring the device to default size
• Extend the session if the device is available
• Wake up the device from sleep mode or push the device to sleep mode
• Release the device back to the cloud

Reporting

Under reports folder, you can see the entire device session data for all the devices you used. You can find Videos & Logs (by default platform generates), screen shots and performance data if selected by the user.

Running test automation remotely

pCloudy platform supports test automation on multiple devices in parallel. Below test frameworks are supported for Android platform.

• • Monkey Test
  • Espresso

• Calabash
• Appium

You just need to select the Test platform, Choose the application under test, Test Suite, time to run on single device and test cycle name.

The biggest advantage of this platform is it generates performance vitals for your test automation scripts without you adding any hooks in your scripts. Otherwise, you will be using multiple mobile App testing tools to achieve the same result.

Once the above data is provided, user can select the devices on which the test automation to be run. Once the devices are selected, the user can schedule the test cycle.

The platform will book the devices on your behalf and will start the test automation as soon as the devices are available. Once the execution is over, the user will be notified with an email and user can see the test reports.

APPIUM Test Automation

You can run the Appium test automation scripts directly from Eclipse or Android Studio. The platform provides the plugin for both the IDE’s. Simply copy a small piece of code to your driver code and run the project, select the devices on which this tests to be run.

The “LIVE VIEW” feature will allow you to monitor the test automation runs through video streaming on the platform.

LIVE VIEW

Live view – To see the automation happening on devices

Automation Test Reports

All the test automation reports will be available under Reports folder.

The reports will open in another tab with video, logs and performance data.

To view the performance data for each device, please click on the device icon for each device.

Opkey Integration

pCloudy has seamless integration with OpKey, which is a zero code multi-channel automation tool. A unique combination of Mobile App Testing Tools for manual and Automation testing.

OpKey allows single click recording and generation of automated scripts for Mobile Apps.

You can run the automated scripts on multiple devices on pCloudy directly from OpKey interface.

Advance Features:

pCloudy also provides many advanced Mobile App Testing tools like Network Virtualization Tests, Device Tunnel (access of devices from Developer IDE and Jenkins Integrations).

Conclusion

The quality of App is extremely important for its success in the market. Right devices and right mobile App testing tools are critical ask from every Mobile Dev and Test team. pCloudy with its comprehensive set of devices and tools could be a perfect companion to every Developer and Tester.

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