Ensure perfect app functionality across real devices & browsers
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Run manual & automated tests at scale over real devices on cloud
Validate apps across every browser-OS combination
Create and maintain end to end tests without coding
AI Agents throughout the entire testing lifecycle
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Mobile apps have become indispensable in our daily lives, serving as tools for everything from communication to entertainment. However, many apps come with a frustrating downside: battery drain. Users quickly uninstall apps that consume excessive power, making battery performance a top priority for developers and QA teams. In this blog, we’ll explore the importance of battery drain testing, effective methods for testing battery consumption, and how platforms like Pcloudy can streamline the process.
Battery life is one of the most critical factors influencing the user experience and overall app retention. In a world where smartphones act as a lifeline for everything—from communication and entertainment to navigation and health tracking—users expect their devices to last longer on a single charge. If an app is consuming excessive battery, users are quick to uninstall it and move to a competitor.
The need for battery testing goes beyond just preventing app uninstalls. It also impacts brand perception, user engagement, and overall app performance. Here’s an in-depth look at why battery testing is essential for mobile apps:
Mobile users are highly sensitive to resource-heavy apps. A poorly optimized app that drains the battery will likely result in negative app reviews, reduced ratings, and eventual uninstalls. Studies indicate that users uninstall apps that:
Why it matters:
A single negative review highlighting excessive battery usage can deter hundreds of potential users. On the other hand, optimizing battery usage improves user satisfaction and encourages positive feedback.
Battery drain is often associated with excessive CPU and memory usage caused by inefficient processes, such as:
By testing for battery consumption, developers can identify and resolve these inefficiencies, leading to a more responsive and lightweight app.
When apps are optimized for resource consumption, they perform smoother, load faster, and are less prone to crashes—leading to a better user experience.
Apps that are known to consume minimal battery build trust among users. A reputation for delivering resource-efficient apps can significantly enhance a brand’s credibility and increase user loyalty.
Users are more likely to recommend apps that don’t compromise their device’s performance. Conversely, an app infamous for draining the battery can tarnish the brand’s reputation.
There are thousands of different smartphone models with varying hardware capabilities, operating systems, and power optimizations. An app that performs well on a flagship device might behave differently on mid-range or budget devices.
Battery testing ensures that the app behaves consistently across different devices, regardless of hardware limitations. Testing across multiple devices prevents issues that could disproportionately affect certain user segments.
Apps often interact with device components such as GPS, Bluetooth, cameras, and sensors. These components are major contributors to battery consumption, especially when used inefficiently.
By conducting battery tests, developers can identify areas where the app uses hardware unnecessarily (e.g., keeping GPS active even when not needed) and implement optimizations to reduce energy consumption.
With the rise of wearable technology, IoT devices, and connected ecosystems, mobile apps often communicate with external devices. These integrations can place additional demands on battery life.
Battery testing ensures that apps remain power-efficient when interacting with wearables (e.g., smartwatches), Bluetooth devices, or smart home systems. This is crucial for providing a seamless, long-lasting user experience.
Both Google Play and the Apple App Store emphasize app performance, including battery efficiency. Apps that are flagged for excessive resource consumption may face penalties, such as removal from the app store or poor visibility.
By proactively testing and optimizing battery usage, developers can ensure their apps comply with app store guidelines, maintaining app visibility and discoverability.
For enterprise apps used by field teams, healthcare workers, or logistics personnel, battery consumption can directly impact productivity. If the app consumes too much power, it can limit the user’s ability to work efficiently throughout the day.
Efficient battery usage in enterprise apps ensures that workers can rely on their mobile devices for an entire workday without constant recharging, improving operational efficiency.
Apps with optimized power consumption are more likely to remain installed and used regularly. Battery efficiency can directly impact how frequently users interact with an app and whether they keep it installed.
By addressing battery drain issues early in the development process, developers can create apps that users engage with more frequently, leading to higher retention rates.
As technology advances, consumers have grown more aware of resource consumption and expect their favorite apps to be optimized for performance and battery life.
Regular battery testing ensures that your app keeps pace with user expectations, building trust and maintaining competitiveness in the app marketplace.
Battery consumption can vary significantly depending on how the app is used. Here are some key scenarios to consider during testing:
Testing battery consumption requires both a systematic approach and the right tools. Below are steps to measure battery usage effectively:
1. Battery Test Flow
2. Testing from a User Perspective
Real-world conditions significantly impact battery performance. Test under:
3. Using Real Devices
Android’s OS fragmentation across OEMs makes it crucial to test on multiple real devices. Device labs or cloud-based platforms, such as Pcloudy, can help simulate these environments efficiently.
Tools for Battery Testing
Several tools can assist in monitoring and analyzing battery consumption:
1. Android Studio Profiler
A built-in tool for real-time monitoring of CPU, memory, and battery usage.
2. Battery Historian
This tool provides detailed insights into battery consumption patterns, highlighting resource-heavy processes.
3. Third-Party Tools
Pcloudy offers a comprehensive platform for battery consumption testing on real devices. Here’s how it helps:
Battery drain testing is no longer optional; it’s a vital step in delivering apps that users trust and love. By focusing on optimizing battery consumption, developers can enhance user satisfaction, retention, and brand loyalty. Tools like Pcloudy make it easier to test across diverse devices, ensuring your app meets user expectations and marketplace standards.
Ready to optimize your app’s battery performance? Discover how Pcloudy can help you deliver power-efficient apps.
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In today’s fast-paced development landscape, quality assurance is no longer the sole responsibility of QA teams. Developers and testers are increasingly working together as part of a DevOps-first approach, ensuring that quality is embedded throughout the development lifecycle. Nowhere is this collaboration more critical than in mobile app testing, where continuous iterations demand faster feedback and efficient testing strategies.
To keep pace with this, developers need tools that provide real-time testing capabilities on real devices. This is where cloud-based solutions bridge the gap between development and quality, empowering teams to test and debug seamlessly.
In the world of DevOps, where speed and agility define success, continuous testing is a crucial pillar. App testing in DevOps goes beyond finding bugs; it plays an integral role in ensuring seamless collaboration, faster releases, and enhanced product quality. Here’s an in-depth look at why app testing is indispensable in DevOps.
In DevOps, the objective is to deliver high-quality software quickly and continuously. Testing provides instant feedback on the quality of the code after every change, helping developers address issues early. This prevents defects from compounding and becoming costlier to fix later.
Key Benefits:
Continuous testing forms the backbone of CI/CD pipelines, ensuring that automated tests are executed with every build. This practice ensures that each integration of new code doesn’t break existing functionality.
DevOps encourages a shift-left testing approach where testing is conducted early in the development lifecycle. Additionally, shift-right testing focuses on post-deployment monitoring to gather user feedback and ensure stability in production.
App testing in DevOps accelerates the release cycles by automating repetitive test cases and integrating them into the CI/CD process. Automated tests enable teams to quickly validate code changes and release builds faster.
DevOps fosters a culture of collaboration between development, QA, and operations teams. Automated test reports and dashboards improve visibility, ensuring that all stakeholders are aware of the application’s health.
Manual testing is often limited by time and resources, while automated testing within a DevOps framework ensures comprehensive test coverage. This includes functional, performance, security, and compatibility tests.
One of the goals of DevOps is to minimize post-release issues. Automated testing detects vulnerabilities and inconsistencies in pre-production stages, reducing the risk of defects in live environments.
For mobile app testing, DevOps workflows require testing across different devices, operating systems, and screen sizes. Cloud-based testing platforms ensure that teams can scale their testing efforts without maintaining physical device labs.
In a DevOps environment, testing isn’t limited to functional validation. Performance and load testing are essential to ensure that the application can handle real-world usage patterns and peak traffic.
DevOps is centered around the concept of continuous improvement, and testing plays a key role in gathering insights for refinement. Test results, post-deployment feedback, and analytics help teams fine-tune their processes.
Without continuous testing, DevOps practices cannot achieve their full potential. Here’s why app testing is a critical component in DevOps:
By incorporating robust testing tools and strategies, teams can automate mundane tasks, improve coverage, and release high-quality software faster. Platforms like Pcloudy empower teams by providing cloud-based device access, real-time debugging, and seamless integration with CI/CD pipelines.
Despite advancements in DevOps, mobile app developers continue to face unique challenges when testing apps:
Developers need to test their apps on different device models, screen sizes, and operating system versions to ensure compatibility and performance. However, maintaining an in-house library of physical devices is expensive and difficult to manage due to:
This results in insufficient device coverage, leading to undetected bugs in production when users with different device configurations encounter issues.
2. Need for Robust Debugging Capabilities on Real Devices
Even when organizations provide device clouds, developers often lack the level of control they need for comprehensive debugging. Many platforms only allow basic interactions, such as installing and uninstalling apps, without:
Without robust debugging, identifying the root cause of complex issues becomes time-consuming, impacting development speed and overall productivity.
When an issue is reported in production, developers need access to the exact device model and OS version where the bug occurred. Unfortunately, this is not always feasible due to:
In such cases, developers often resort to inefficient workarounds or face delays in issue resolution, which can affect customer experience and app ratings.
In many workspaces, developers juggle multiple mobile devices connected to their computers via USB cables. This setup often leads to:
These inefficiencies slow down development cycles and create unnecessary frustration, especially when working on apps with frequent updates and tight release timelines.
To address the challenge of device access, many organizations have adopted device clouds that provide remote access to a library of real devices hosted in data centers. These platforms allow developers and testers to:
However, most device clouds are designed primarily for QA teams and automated testing, offering limited support for hands-on debugging by developers. Key limitations include:
Due to these gaps, developers often still rely on physical devices, undermining the benefits of cloud-based solutions.
Pcloudy’s DeviceTunnel bridges the gap between device clouds and developer needs by enabling complete control of cloud-hosted devices directly from the developer’s local environment.
How DeviceTunnel Works
Once connected, developers can perform a wide range of actions to debug and test their apps:
For a step-by-step guide on connecting to cloud devices using DeviceTunnel, click here.
DeviceTunnel transforms cloud-based mobile app testing by providing developers with real-time, hands-on access to cloud-hosted devices.
a. No need to maintain an in-house library of physical devices. b. Reduces clutter and time spent managing physical connections.
2. Real-Time Debugging a. Debug apps on real devices as if they were connected locally. b. Identify and resolve issues faster with direct ADB access and advanced debugging features.
3. Seamless Integration with IDEs
a.Works seamlessly with Android Studio, Eclipse, and command-line tools.
b. Enables uninterrupted workflows for faster development cycles.
4.Improves Collaboration Across Teams
a. QA and development teams can share device logs and testing results.
b. Ensures smoother handoffs between testing and debugging stages.
In an era where speed and quality are non-negotiable, DeviceTunnel helps teams bridge the gap between local development and cloud testing. By empowering developers with real-time device access, Pcloudy enables faster debugging, fewer production defects, and accelerated release cycles—ultimately enhancing the overall app experience.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Mobile apps come in three main forms: native, hybrid, and web-based apps. Each type requires a unique approach to testing.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Usability testing focuses on how user-friendly your app is, evaluating its ease of navigation, intuitive design, and overall user experience.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For apps that rely on geolocation features, such as navigation or ride-hailing apps, ensuring that location services work across different regions is crucial.
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.
Apps often need to be localized to different languages, currencies, and cultural contexts. Ensuring proper localization is essential for expanding into global markets.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
In today’s highly competitive mobile app market, delivering a flawless user experience is essential. Mobile apps are constantly updated with new features, bug fixes, and optimizations to meet user expectations. To ensure quality across diverse devices, operating systems, and networks, different types of testing methods are required. These testing techniques help ensure that apps not only function well but also provide a seamless, reliable, and enjoyable user experience. In this blog, we’ll explore seven essential types of mobile app testing, along with the challenges that arise and the solutions to overcome them.
Compatibility testing ensures that a mobile app works across a variety of operating systems, device models, screen sizes, and hardware configurations. This type of testing is critical because mobile users access apps on a wide range of devices with varying capabilities, and failure to support even a subset of these can lead to user frustration and lost customers.
Key factors that impact compatibility testing include:
Challenge:
One of the biggest challenges in compatibility testing is the sheer number of device combinations that need to be tested. Managing physical devices in-house is expensive and resource-intensive.
Solution:
Cloud-based testing platforms like Pcloudy provide an efficient solution by giving access to thousands of real devices with different OS versions and hardware configurations. This helps teams to automate compatibility tests and scale their testing efforts without maintaining physical labs. Pcloudy also enables parallel testing across multiple devices, speeding up the overall process.
Installation testing is one of the first interactions a user has with a mobile app. It ensures that an app installs, uninstalls, and updates without issues. This testing is critical to verify the app’s ability to install smoothly across various devices and handle future updates seamlessly.
Key areas to focus on include:
The main challenge in installation testing is handling various installation environments, especially on devices with low memory or unstable network connections. Additionally, testing installation scenarios across different OS versions and devices can be complex.
Using a cloud-based testing product like Pcloudy, QA teams can test on real devices under real-world conditions. Pcloudy provides access to thousands of actual mobile devices with varying configurations, enabling teams to test scenarios like low-memory conditions, update handling, and different installation environments. Automation tools help execute various user actions during the installation process, ensuring robust testing across multiple environments without manual intervention. This ensures that your app installs, updates, and uninstalls smoothly across different devices and conditions, providing users with a seamless experience.
Interruption testing evaluates how well a mobile app handles unexpected events, such as incoming calls, network disruptions, or battery drains, while the app is running. The goal is to ensure that the app resumes normal functionality after an interruption.
Common interruptions to test include:
Replicating real-world interruptions, especially across different devices, OS versions, and network conditions, can be difficult to reproduce consistently.
Pcloudy provides a reliable environment to automate and simulate interruptions such as network loss, incoming calls, or device shutdowns. Tools like Monkey (for Android) or UI Auto Monkey (for iOS) help simulate interruption scenarios, allowing testers to monitor how well the app recovers from these events. Automating these tests across multiple devices ensures thorough coverage.
Localization testing ensures that a mobile app is tailored to a specific geographic region, considering cultural, linguistic, and regional differences. This testing verifies that the app works seamlessly when localized for various languages, currencies, time zones, and formatting conventions.
Four key types of localization testing include:
Managing translations and ensuring cultural accuracy across multiple regions can be challenging, especially with languages that have different text directions, such as Arabic or Hebrew. Additionally, it’s important to ensure that all text is properly displayed without breaking the app layout.
Tools like Pcloudy allow testers to run localization tests across real devices in different regions, ensuring linguistic and functional accuracy. Automated scripts can be used to check for proper translation, layout adaptation, and functionality. Pcloudy provides access to a wide range of devices from different locales, helping to ensure comprehensive localization testing across multiple regions.
Performance testing is essential to ensure that the mobile app performs optimally under various conditions, such as high load, different network speeds, and limited device resources. It identifies performance bottlenecks, stability issues, and overall app responsiveness.
The three primary areas of focus in mobile performance testing are:
Replicating real-world conditions like varying network speeds or high traffic loads is a significant challenge. Ensuring that the app works well under different device configurations while maintaining performance consistency is also complex.
Pcloudy’s network simulation feature allows QA teams to replicate different network conditions, such as low bandwidth or high latency, to test how well the app performs under challenging conditions. Additionally, using tools like Pcloudy to run performance tests across multiple devices ensures that device-specific issues, such as excessive battery drain or memory usage, are identified and addressed early in the development cycle.
Usability testing ensures that the app is user-friendly and provides an intuitive, seamless experience. This type of testing focuses on how easy it is for users to navigate through the app, complete tasks, and interact with the app’s features.
Key factors in usability testing include:
Example of Navigation Path
Usability testing can be subjective, as user preferences and behaviors vary. It’s difficult to ensure that the app will be intuitive for all user types and across different demographics. Additionally, collecting meaningful feedback from users to guide improvements can be challenging.
Tools like Mr. Tappy or Reflector can capture real user interactions during usability testing, allowing testers to observe how users navigate and respond to the app. Recording user sessions helps teams identify pain points and optimize the user experience. Pcloudy’s cloud-based platform allows for testing on a wide range of devices, ensuring that the app remains user-friendly across different screen sizes, input types, and configurations.
Conformance testing, also known as compliance testing, ensures that your mobile app adheres to industry standards, regulatory requirements, and marketplace guidelines. This type of testing is critical, especially when submitting apps to app stores or meeting enterprise policy guidelines. Ensuring conformance can prevent rejections from app marketplaces and avoid penalties related to non-compliance with industry regulations.
The two key areas of conformance testing include:
Enterprise Policy Compliance: In some industries, apps must comply with industry-specific regulations. For instance, healthcare apps may need to comply with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), while pharmaceutical apps may fall under FDA (Food and Drug Administration) guidelines. Meeting these standards is essential to maintaining credibility and avoiding legal issues.
Staying up-to-date with app store guidelines and ensuring that the app meets the ever-changing standards of different marketplaces can be difficult. Moreover, managing compliance with strict industry regulations can be overwhelming, particularly when apps are released across multiple regions with differing legal frameworks.
Pcloudy offers a comprehensive conformance testing solution that helps validate whether your app meets both app store guidelines and industry regulations. Automated checks ensure your app complies with the latest app store rules before submission, while the platform’s flexibility allows for testing specific compliance criteria related to industries like healthcare or finance. Pcloudy’s regular updates keep testers informed of any changes to app store guidelines, reducing the risk of non-compliance.
In an increasingly competitive mobile app market, delivering a high-quality user experience is crucial to success. Testing your app across various dimensions—compatibility, installation, interruptions, localization, performance, usability, and conformance—ensures that it functions seamlessly and meets user expectations across different devices, regions, and conditions. Each type of testing addresses specific challenges that can impact an app’s performance, usability, or compliance with industry standards.
The challenges associated with these testing types can be daunting, but with cloud-based testing platforms like Pcloudy, teams can automate, scale, and simplify the testing process. From testing real-world interruptions to ensuring app store compliance, Pcloudy offers the tools and resources to ensure comprehensive mobile app testing without the hassle of managing physical devices or manual testing efforts.By incorporating these testing strategies, mobile app developers and QA teams can confidently release bug-free apps that provide a flawless user experience, leading to higher user satisfaction, increased app downloads, and long-term customer retention.
In today’s world mobile app testing is more crucial than ever. With over 7 billion mobile users worldwide, the landscape of app development is continuously evolving. As apps become more complex, they must cater to a diverse range of devices, operating systems, and network conditions. The introduction of 5G networks, Internet of Things (IoT), and AR/VR technologies have reshaped how users interact with mobile apps. Developers and QA teams are now focused on delivering seamless experiences, making mobile app testing an integral part of the development lifecycle.
At the core of app success lies quality assurance, ensuring that apps function as expected, offer optimal performance, and meet the security standards required in today’s fast-paced digital world. In this guide, we’ll explore how to address the key challenges in mobile app testing, the methodologies involved, and the role of advanced tools like AI-powered automation in delivering flawless mobile experiences.
The importance of mobile app testing cannot be overstated. Mobile users demand fast, responsive, and secure apps, and they have little tolerance for bugs or poor performance. In fact, research shows that 80% of users will abandon an app after just three instances of crashing. Moreover, the cost of fixing bugs post-deployment can be up to 30 times higher than addressing them during development.
Effective mobile app testing ensures that your app is not only functional but also performs well under various real-world conditions, such as different device types, network speeds, and usage patterns. Testing also protects against potential security threats that could lead to data breaches, which can erode trust and damage your brand. By rigorously testing your app, you can ensure that users have a seamless experience, driving higher retention rates and positive reviews.
Mobile applications have evolved significantly over the years, and is no exception. Today, apps must support a broad spectrum of use cases, ranging from simple e-commerce transactions to immersive augmented reality (AR) experiences. To meet diverse user needs, modern mobile applications come in several forms, each offering unique benefits and challenges for developers and testers.
Native apps are developed specifically for a particular operating system (OS), such as iOS or Android. They are written in programming languages native to the platform—Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android. Since they are designed to leverage the platform’s built-in hardware and software, native apps are known for their optimal performance and high responsiveness. They can easily access device features like cameras, GPS, and push notifications, giving users a rich and immersive experience.
However, developing native apps can be resource-intensive because separate codebases are required for each platform. Testing these apps also requires specialized tools and expertise for each OS, ensuring the app performs flawlessly across all supported versions.
Unlike native apps, web apps are accessed through a browser and are not installed on the device. Built using standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, they run on any device that supports a browser, making them highly versatile and cost-effective to develop. Users don’t need to download updates, as web apps are continuously updated on the server.
However, web apps often have limited access to device hardware and are not as fast or responsive as native apps. They also face challenges in providing a consistent user experience across different browsers and devices. Testing web apps requires compatibility and performance testing across different browsers and networks to ensure smooth functionality.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are an emerging trend in mobile development, combining the best of both native and web apps. PWAs are web-based but behave like native apps, offering features such as offline access, push notifications, and the ability to be installed on a user’s home screen. They are designed to be fast, reliable, and engaging, even in poor network conditions, making them a popular choice for businesses looking for a scalable solution.
The real power of PWAs lies in their ability to deliver a native-like experience while being platform-agnostic. This reduces development costs and time while maintaining a seamless user experience across different devices and networks. However, testing PWAs requires careful attention to how they perform in offline mode, their installability on various devices, and their integration with native features like push notifications.
Hybrid apps are a blend of native and web technologies. They are developed using web technologies like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, but are wrapped in a native shell, allowing them to be installed like a native app. This approach allows developers to write the app once and deploy it across multiple platforms, reducing development time and costs.
Hybrid apps offer a balance between performance and development efficiency, but they can’t fully match the speed and performance of native apps. This makes testing hybrid apps essential, focusing on how they perform across various devices, operating systems, and network conditions. Testing must also ensure that hybrid apps integrate well with native features and provide a consistent user experience across platforms.
Mobile app testing in presents new challenges, with the rapid evolution of devices, networks, and user expectations. Quality assurance teams must address the complexities of testing across multiple platforms while maintaining high standards for performance, security, and user experience. The following sections explore the key challenges QA teams face and how they can mitigate them.
One of the persistent challenges in mobile app testing is code-heavy scripting, particularly in tools like Appium. While Appium is widely used for automating mobile app tests, it demands significant programming knowledge to write and maintain scripts effectively. Complex scripting can lead to higher chances of errors, increased debugging time, and inefficiencies when managing test automation at scale. As mobile apps continue to evolve, simplifying test script authoring—either through codeless solutions or AI-driven automation—has become a key focus for modern testing tools.
Device fragmentation refers to the wide variety of devices, screen sizes, operating systems, and configurations available in the mobile market. Testing teams must ensure that apps function seamlessly across hundreds or even thousands of device-browser combinations. This fragmentation creates a time-consuming and costly challenge. A robust testing strategy must include device cloud solutions—like Pcloudy’s 5000+ device-browser combinations—to guarantee that apps perform consistently across different platforms and hardware.
Mobile apps need to perform well under diverse network conditions. Testing for network variability is crucial, as user experiences can be affected by factors like low bandwidth, signal drops, or fluctuating network speeds across 3G, 4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi. Performance testing must simulate real-world scenarios, assessing how apps respond to poor network connections, high latency, and other performance bottlenecks. This ensures the app remains functional and responsive under any condition, reducing the risk of abandonment due to poor performance.
In Agile environments, where development cycles are short, and new features are rolled out continuously, test script maintenance becomes a critical challenge. With each app update, test scripts need to be updated to accommodate new functionalities, interface changes, or API updates. In Agile frameworks, this can lead to “test debt”—where outdated scripts cause delays. Leveraging AI-powered self-healing scripts, which automatically adapt to changes in the UI, can significantly reduce the burden on QA teams, ensuring that automation testing keeps pace with the rapid delivery cycles in Agile development.
User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) testing play a central role in mobile app quality. Users expect apps to be not only functional but also intuitive and visually appealing. Testing must focus on ensuring that the UI remains consistent across different screen sizes, resolutions, and orientations, while also guaranteeing that UX elements—such as navigation flow, responsiveness, and interaction designs—meet user expectations. AI-based tools can now detect UI inconsistencies and automatically highlight areas for improvement, making the UI/UX testing process faster and more efficient.
Accessibility testing ensures that mobile apps are usable by people with disabilities, including those who rely on assistive technologies such as screen readers or voice commands. This form of testing is critical for compliance with regulations like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and WCAG 2.1 standards. Apps must be tested for readability, color contrast, keyboard navigation, and compatibility with screen readers to provide an inclusive user experience. Automated accessibility testing tools can help QA teams quickly identify and resolve accessibility gaps in their apps.
For apps that operate across multiple regions, localization testing is essential to ensure that the app adapts correctly to local languages, cultural norms, and regional settings. This includes verifying the functionality of the app when translated into various languages, ensuring correct date and currency formats, and checking compliance with local legal and regulatory standards. Localization testing also involves making sure that translated text fits within the UI design without causing layout issues.
With increasing data privacy regulations like GDPR in Europe and CCPA in the US, data privacy and compliance testing is now an essential part of mobile app testing. This testing ensures that apps handle personal data responsibly, implement robust encryption, and comply with legal standards for data collection, storage, and transmission. Testers must validate that sensitive data is not exposed, both during transmission and storage, and that user consent mechanisms are properly implemented. Ensuring data privacy builds user trust and protects the business from costly legal penalties.
AI-powered testing solutions have revolutionized how mobile apps are tested, making the process faster, more accurate, and more insightful. From reducing test script maintenance to enabling predictive analytics, AI helps QA teams tackle the complexity of modern app development.
Visual regression testing involves checking that changes to the app’s code do not impact its visual appearance. AI-powered tools have significantly enhanced this process by automatically detecting UI changes across different devices and resolutions, highlighting subtle visual discrepancies that manual testing may miss. AI can also categorize these visual changes by severity, helping testers prioritize fixes and ensure consistent user experiences across platforms.
AI in functional testing allows for the automated creation of test cases using natural language processing (NLP), making it easier for non-technical stakeholders to contribute to the testing process. Meanwhile, AI-driven security testing helps in identifying potential vulnerabilities and threats early in the development cycle, offering predictive insights that allow teams to address security risks before they manifest. This ensures that the app is secure from breaches and malicious activities without manual intervention.
Predictive analytics in mobile app testing leverages historical data to predict which areas of the app are most likely to encounter bugs. AI analyzes patterns from previous testing cycles and uses this information to optimize the order in which test cases are executed, prioritizing the areas most at risk. This proactive approach helps minimize post-launch bugs and reduces overall test cycle time.
One of the most powerful applications of AI in mobile app testing is self-healing test scripts. When an app’s user interface changes, AI algorithms automatically update the test scripts to accommodate the new UI without requiring manual intervention. This reduces the time spent on maintaining test scripts and ensures that the testing process remains efficient and scalable, particularly in Agile environments.
AI-powered tools can optimize test coverage by analyzing which test cases cover the most critical app functionality. AI can also prioritize test cases based on the likelihood of finding bugs, ensuring that the most important areas of the app are tested first. This targeted approach improves testing efficiency and guarantees more comprehensive quality assurance across the entire application.
Functional testing ensures that the app’s features and functionalities work according to the specified requirements. It involves testing all user interactions, such as inputs, buttons, and gestures, to ensure the app behaves as expected. Automating functional tests can accelerate this process, particularly in regression testing.
Usability testing assesses how intuitive and user-friendly the app is. It focuses on evaluating how easily users can navigate the app, complete tasks, and understand its functionality. The goal is to improve the user experience by identifying design flaws and optimizing app flow.
Performance testing checks how the app behaves under different conditions, including low battery, high user load, and poor network conditions. Performance testing ensures that the app remains stable, responsive, and performs well even under extreme conditions.
Security testing identifies potential vulnerabilities in the app, such as insecure data transmission or weak encryption. This type of testing is critical to protect the app from malicious attacks, data breaches, and unauthorized access.
Compatibility testing ensures that the app works seamlessly across different devices, operating systems, browsers, and network conditions. It addresses device fragmentation and guarantees that the app performs consistently on all platforms.
Shift-Left testing emphasizes testing earlier in the development cycle, integrating testing with development activities to catch bugs before they escalate. On the other hand, Shift-Right testing focuses on testing in production environments, ensuring that the app performs well under real-world conditions post-deployment. Both strategies are essential for continuous testing and quality assurance in Agile and DevOps workflows.
In modern Agile and DevOps environments, continuous testing plays a crucial role in maintaining quality across every phase of the development lifecycle. Testing is integrated into CI/CD pipelines, enabling teams to catch issues early and deliver high-quality software faster. Test automation ensures that regression tests, functional tests, and performance tests are executed automatically with every new build or feature update, reducing manual intervention and minimizing the risk of human error.
Tool Selection for Mobile App Testing
Choosing the right tools for mobile app testing requires careful consideration, especially with the rapid advancements in technology and the increasing complexity of mobile applications. Whether it’s automation, cross-platform compatibility, or AI-driven insights, the tools you select must meet the demands of modern app development cycles. Below are some critical factors to consider when selecting mobile app testing tools.
When selecting tools for mobile app testing, QA teams should evaluate the following key criteria:
Usability and Low-Code Options: As teams become more diverse, involving non-technical members in the QA process, tools with low-code/no-code capabilities are increasingly important for enabling broader collaboration.
Cloud-based testing has become a cornerstone of mobile app quality assurance, providing teams with access to a vast array of devices, operating systems, and network conditions without the need for physical infrastructure. Cloud-based testing offers several key benefits:
Collaboration: Teams across different locations can work in a collaborative testing environment, accessing the same devices and tests from anywhere, which is especially important for remote and globally distributed teams.
The rise of low-code/no-code tools is revolutionizing mobile app testing by enabling non-technical users to contribute to the QA process. These tools allow testers to create, manage, and execute tests using simple drag-and-drop interfaces or natural language, eliminating the need for complex coding knowledge. Key advantages include:
Pcloudy remains one of the most comprehensive and modern platforms for mobile app testing. Its suite of AI-driven features, cloud-based test infrastructure, codeless test automation and test management options makes it an essential tool for QA teams aiming to deliver high-quality mobile apps efficiently.
Mobile app testing demands a combination of AI-driven tools, cloud-based test infrastructure. Pcloudy stands out as an innovative solution that addresses the growing complexities of mobile app testing, offering a unified platform with advanced features that enable teams to deliver high-quality apps more efficiently.
In the dynamic world of software development, ensuring the reliability and stability of your application is of utmost importance. Unit testing stands as a first line of defense against bugs and errors, playing a crucial role in securing the application’s robustness. Let’s delve deeper into the intriguing world of unit testing, beginning with what it is and then exploring its indispensable role in modern app development.
Unit testing, a fundamental practice in app development, is the process of testing individual units or components of a software application. It is generally conducted during the development phase, primarily by developers, to validate that each unit of the software performs as designed.
A “unit” in this context refers to the smallest part of a software system that can be tested in isolation. It might be a function, method, procedure, or an individual module, depending on the complexity of the software. The primary goal is to validate that each unit functions correctly and meets its design specifications.
Below, we delve into the importance of unit testing in the realms of web and mobile applications:
Unit testing allows developers to identify bugs early in the development cycle, which not only saves time but also significantly reduces the cost of bug fixing. Early bug detection ensures that issues are nipped in the bud before they escalate to more critical stages.
With a well-established unit testing practice, developers can make changes to the code or refactor it with confidence. Unit tests act as a safety net, helping to identify unforeseen impacts of the modifications, thus ensuring the consistency of the application.
When developers write unit tests, it naturally leads to better code quality. Developers are more likely to write testable, modular, and maintainable code, fostering an environment of excellence in code craftsmanship.
Unit testing can significantly improve developer productivity. Since bugs are caught early, developers spend less time debugging and more time building new features. Moreover, the immediate feedback provided by unit tests helps streamline the development process.
When a unit test fails, it is much easier to identify and fix the issue, as you only need to consider the latest changes. This contrasts sharply with higher-level tests where a failure might be the result of a myriad of factors, making debugging a complex and time-consuming task.
Unit tests facilitate smoother integration processes. When integrating various components or modules, unit tests can quickly pinpoint issues at the unit level, making the integration process more efficient and less error-prone.
In web and mobile applications, security is paramount. Unit testing helps in identifying vulnerabilities at the code level, allowing developers to fortify the application against potential security breaches, thus safeguarding user data and privacy.
By ensuring the stability and reliability of web and mobile applications through unit testing, developers can significantly enhance customer satisfaction. A bug-free, smooth-running application is more likely to earn user trust and build a loyal customer base.
Performing unit testing is an essential practice in ensuring the robustness and reliability of your application. Whether you are working on a mobile or web application, incorporating unit testing into your development process can help you deliver a high-quality product. Here is a step-by-step guide to effectively performing unit testing on apps:
Before you start with unit testing, familiarize yourself with the codebase and understand the functionalities of different units. Having a clear picture will aid in writing more effective and relevant tests.
Set up a separate testing environment where the unit tests will be executed. This environment should be isolated from production to avoid any unintended consequences. Utilize unit testing frameworks suitable for your programming language to streamline the process.
3.1 Choose the Units to be Tested
Identify the critical components that need testing. Start with the core functionalities that form the backbone of your application.
3.2 Create Test Cases
For each unit, create test cases that cover various scenarios including edge cases. Each test case should focus on a single functionality.
3.3 Mock External Dependencies
Use mocking frameworks to simulate external dependencies, ensuring the unit is tested in isolation. This helps in pinpointing the issues more accurately.
Run the tests using the testing framework. Ensure to cover different cases including:
Positive Cases: Where the input meets the expected criteria.
Negative Cases: Testing with inputs that are supposed to fail, to ensure proper error handling.
Edge Cases: Testing the limits of the input parameters.
After execution, analyze the results thoroughly. If a test fails, investigate the cause and fix the issue before proceeding.
Integrate the unit tests into a Continuous Integration system to automate the testing process. The CI system should be configured to run the unit tests automatically each time code is pushed to the repository.
As the application evolves, continually update the test cases to mirror the changes in the application. Remove obsolete tests and add new ones for the newly added functionalities.
Maintain a well-documented record of all the test cases, including the input parameters and expected outcomes. This documentation will serve as a reference and aid in understanding the expected behavior of the application units.
Encourage collaboration in the team where code and test cases are reviewed by peers to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the unit tests.
Continuously improve your unit testing skills through training and learning. Stay updated with the latest trends and best practices in unit testing to enhance the quality of your tests.
The process of unit testing can be substantially improved by adhering to a set of best practices and methodologies. These practices not only streamline the testing process but also enhance the overall quality and reliability of the software product. Here are several strategies to consider for optimizing your unit testing efforts:
Implement a coherent and descriptive naming convention for your test cases. This facilitates easier identification and understanding of the tests, fostering smoother collaboration and maintenance.
Focus on testing individual units of code separately to isolate potential issues effectively. This strategy ensures that each component functions correctly in isolation, paving the way for a more robust application.
Whenever there is a modification in the code, ensure to create or update the corresponding unit test cases. This practice helps maintain the relevance and effectiveness of your test suite, allowing for the timely detection of issues introduced by the changes.
Prioritize the immediate resolution of identified bugs before progressing to the next development phase. Quick bug resolution minimizes the potential for escalating issues and maintains the stability of the codebase.
Integrate unit testing into your code commit cycle to foster a test-driven development environment. Conducting tests as you commit code helps in the early detection of issues, reducing the chances of errors proliferating through the codebase.
Concentrate your testing efforts on scenarios that significantly influence the system’s behavior. Adopt a behavior-driven testing approach to ensure that the application behaves as expected under various conditions, enhancing reliability and user satisfaction.
Leverage virtualized environments, such as online Android emulators, to conduct unit tests in scenarios that closely resemble real-world conditions. These environments offer a convenient platform to test the application under different settings without the need for physical devices.
Incorporate unit testing into a continuous integration (CI) pipeline to automate the testing process. CI allows for the regular and systematic execution of unit tests, ensuring that the codebase remains stable and bug-free as it evolves.
Promote the practice of peer reviews for both code and test cases. Reviews foster collaboration and knowledge sharing, enhancing the overall quality and robustness of the application.
A notable limitation of unit testing is its inability to verify all execution paths and detect broader system or integration errors. Since unit tests focus on individual components, they might overlook issues that only emerge during the interaction between different units or systems.
Unit testing might not be comprehensive enough to identify complex errors that are generally captured during integration or system testing. It is, therefore, essential to complement unit tests with other testing methodologies for a well-rounded verification of the software.
In light of the above discussion, it becomes unequivocally clear that unit testing stands as a cornerstone in safeguarding the integrity and reliability of software development. Steering clear of it is not only detrimental to the code quality but could potentially escalate the costs and efforts involved in the later stages of development.
Adopting a Test-Driven Development (TDD) approach further amplifies the benefits of unit testing. In this paradigm, developers construct tests before writing the corresponding code, thereby ensuring that the codebase develops with testing at its core. This not only engrains a quality-first mindset but also facilitates a workflow that is more organized and less prone to errors.
Moreover, the utilization of appropriate tools and frameworks can streamline the unit testing process substantially, making it less cumbersome and more efficient. These tools can automate various aspects of testing, helping to detect issues swiftly and reducing manual effort considerably.
As we navigate through an era where software forms the backbone of many critical systems, the role of unit testing in fostering robust, secure, and reliable applications cannot be understated. It emerges not as an option but a necessity, carving pathways for innovations that are both groundbreaking and resilient.
By embracing unit testing as an integral part of the development cycle, developers are not only upholding the quality and reliability of their applications but are also taking a step towards crafting products that stand the test of time, offering optimal performance and user satisfaction.
It is necessary to check cross-browser compatibility to ensure that the app is working fine on all the web browsers. Sometimes when you open an app on a web browser it might not look or feel convenient and there might be some issues like image/test overlapping, navigation, alignment, etc. These issues degrade the user experience which will eventually lead to low traffic and existing user attrition. This is why cross-browser testing is an integral part of the QA process and should not be avoided.
Automation has reduced the time and effort put into cross-browser testing by 80 percent. The only human work goes into writing the initial test script and selecting the tool. Let’s look at the reasons why we should automate cross-browser testing.
Run Multiple tests simultaneously: When it comes to regression testing and running multiple tests for an app, automated testing saves the day. So if your app is already in the market and you launch a new version then automated cross-browser testing helps you to deliver faster. When a new feature is to be launched in the app and the build is sent to the testing team, they will take some weeks to perform all types of testing. This time can be reduced to a few hours using Automation testing tools.
Improved test accuracy: Even the experienced testers can make an error while testing the app manually. Although in Automation testing the accuracy is very high and the detailed reports are recorded. Testers can review the testing process and create new Automated test with the help of those reports.
Save Time and Money: Cross-browser testing require repetitive tests and so it can be a boring and time-consuming process. These repetitive tests can be automated to save time, effort and return on investment. You just need to make sure that everything is included in the test script to avoid gray areas in the app functioning.
Better Test Coverage: The time taken to perform any web app testing is dependent on the type of feature or functionality you have to test. The length of the test affects the cross-browser testing process. For example, end to end testing can be difficult if done manually. It will take much time and effort to do so. This why automation testing can be used if you have to run the test on multiple devices with multiple browser-OS combinations.
There are many types of devices in the market with different screen sizes, OS versions, Browsers, etc. To create the desired test environment, you will have to have all these combinations and you will have to set up a device lab. This will take huge investments and efforts to maintain the lab. Also, there is an issue of geographically distributed teams accessing the devices. Apart from that, you will have minimum flexibility as scaling up or down will be difficult.
Advantages of Cloud-Based Cross Browser Testing
There are many Cloud-based cross-browser testing tools in the market which will help you achieve your testing goal without investing a lot. This is one of the reasons why cloud-based cross-browser testing is better than setting up a local test environment. Let’s have a look at some other advantages which will give you a reason to opt for cloud-based option.
Multiple Test Environment Support: Heterogeneity in the operating system versions, device screen sizes, browser versions makes it necessary to perform tests on many combinations of device/OS/browser. This means a lot of effort will be put in to test the functions of an app on multiple devices. This could be avoided by testing the app on a cloud-based device platform.
In the cloud-based testing platform, you will be able to select the devices of your choice and perform parallel testing on multiple devices without buying one. This will save you money and effort to put up a device lab. While running the test in parallel on multiple devices with different OS browser combination will save time, it will also increase the accuracy significantly as compared to testing the app feature manually.
All time access to resources: The testing team can access the tool at any time by just logging into the tool and selecting the devices according to the market research report on popular devices in the region. Testing can be performed at any time which means there is no foundation and this comes in handy when the deadline is near. Having all time access to the device cloud will contribute to continuous testing and ensure faster deployment.
Scalability: While handling multiple projects the team might have needed many devices at times and very few on some occasions. This means that most of the devices in your device lab might rarely be used and sometimes you might have to buy more to add in the environment. This improper management of resources can be avoided by using Cloud-based device platform. Here you can select the devices which you actually need to perform the cross-browser testing and as all the devices are virtual, there is no worry of managing the extra devices.
Collaboration: There are tools to communicate and collaborate with the team which impacts on your productivity in a good way. Test reports can be generated which are elaborate and provides all the information about the health of the app. These reports can be shared with the team online to analyze and resolve the issue.
Initial time and cost: To set up an actual device lab you will require dedicated cloud/network expertise and suitable infrastructure. On the contrary, if you use cloud-based platform for cross-browser testing then you don’t have to worry about the infrastructure and initial setup cost. Also, you will save a lot on maintenance cost and everything is preconfigured.
Comprehensive testing: To perform thorough cross-browser testing, you need a permutation and combination of mobile devices with different screen size, OS, browser, other features relevant to the app function. This will make a big hole in your pocket if you wish to buy that many devices. This is why cloud-based testing platforms are the best option.
There are three types of cross-browser functional testing, multi-browser testing, multi-version testing, and concurrent testing. Let’s get familiar with all three of them.
Multi-Browser Testing: The application under test is opened on different browsers like Chrome, Safari, Opera, UC Browser, etc to check if the app works consistently across all the browsers. The app feature can be tested on multiple devices of different configurations and browser combinations.
Multi-Version Testing: In this type of testing the AUT is tested with different versions of any browser to check if the functioning is smooth. So if your app supports chrome version 40.0.2214, then the app must be tested on all the versions of chrome after 40 to check the functionality. One tester can perform the task and multiple devices will be used to perform the testing.
Concurrent Testing: In this, the application under test is checked simultaneously on different web browsers. There are four variations of this testing – single browser distributed concurrent testing, multi-browser distributed concurrent testing, Multi-browser concurrent testing, and single browser and single browser concurrent testing.
Cross browser testing combined with cross-platform testing will ensure that the app works smoothly in any type of environment. Especially for web apps, cross-browser testing cannot be avoided. Studies have suggested that people uninstall the app after using it once if the UI is not user-friendly. Even the app ratings on App Store and Play Store are affected by the user experience, leading to a lower number of downloads. Enterprises can save a lot of money and build a good report among the users by proactively testing their app thoroughly.
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Here I bring to you the 5th blog in the DevOps series showcasing our learning while #scalingup. Read our previous blog to know about the bunch of tactics that we used at different times during our evolution to achieve a successful clockwork during our DevOps journey.
Proper optimized code review is something that many startups miss. Some take the easy way out and ignore it and others spend years discussing the best practices, conventions and styles without ever committing code. Both these are slightly over exaggerated examples of paths to failure, but I am sure you can relate to these if you have ever tried to answer the all important question about code review “Exactly how much code review should your team do?”
For perfectionists, the answer is that code should always be reviewed and you should always be refactoring code and improving it wherever you see a scope. I have worked in companies, where people used to spend almost as many hours reviewing code as much as they would writing them. There are some practices like pair programming, which has maximizing code review as one of the results. So this is not exactly a wrong direction of thinking. The problem however is that when you are working with time constrained environments like that of a startup, you will not have a luxury where you can keep revisiting and improving code beyond a reasonable amount of time. And I have seen that surprisingly many people altogether avoid code review because timelines are constrained. I don’t even need to mention how risky this is and how dangerous this course of action is. However it seems many people do exactly that.
In this blog post, I will attempt to throw light on our experiences in deciding how much is enough. We too, like other startups have a time constrained environment, and a few (thankfully only a few) customers who want every feature done yesterday. So as a culture, we too try to make sure that we finish everything faster. Development faster, Testing Faster, Deployment to various environments faster. But we do not ignore code review. We ensure that we do code review. We have a few principles that we followed to make sure that code review happens all the time, and is neither too less nor too much. Here are they. What we have seen is that if you follow all these steps, then you have a sane code review process and you can guarantee a stable flow of god code into your repository. These points are in no particular order of importance.
You should do code review: The first principle is not a lame attempt at a joke. The idea is that code review should happen come what may. Without this principle being followed, every other principle in this list breaks down. We use git-flow as one of our developer methodologies with git. One of the advantages of this system is that code review is built in. Unless code is approved by a designated reviewer, the code does not go to the next level be it Testing or Production. The Approver is as responsible for a piece of code as the original developer. This way the reviewer spends more time reviewing and the original coder also reviews and corrects his code in advance to preempt the reviewer. This adds more points in the system where code review can happen and makes sure that code always gets reviewed and the review is not forgotten.
Requirement Matching: Does your code do what the requirements ask it to do? Are we doing less? Are we doing more? A quick inspection reveals mismatches if any. This goes a long way in finding out if there are any problems in the code.
Readability: There is an apocryphal statement that says that code is written once and read hundreds of times. While the statement may not be accurate, you may write more than once, and may not read hundreds of times, you still do get the picture. The basic premise is that code does get read many far more times than it gets written. Also once written, your code will also be read for review, bug fixes, enhancements, etc and not always by you. Also in the IT Sector, jobs switches happen a lot, so a new person should be able to understand and work with the code as soon as possible.. So it makes sense that whoever looks at your code after you have left is able to understand your code well and can alter if needed and maintain the code well till the product lifetime completes.
Reviewability: A further subset of this is that the code should also be reviewable, you and your code should be able to convey to the reviewer what the code is supposed to do and what the reviewer is supposed to review.
Scalability: Will your code be able to stand frequent and/or continuous requirement changes in the future? Will it be able to handle a reasonable amount of requirement change without having to have to rewrite the entire thing? Overall applications are live, especially in the Agile era, your requirements are never frozen, and hence the code also should never be frozen. It should be able to handle changes in requirements. A word of caution here, do not overdo this. While your code should be able to handle requirement changes, you cannot (and should not) make your code so generic that it can handle the proverbial ‘everything under the sun’. Your code should be reasonably scalable. Too much scalability also is as bad as too little. How much to go down this path will depend on your specific business needs. However it is not a bad idea to talk about specifics to your business stakeholders. They can tell you how and more importantly how much a feature will be used. You can then decide how scalable you want the code for that feature to be. The process of arriving at how much is just right, takes time to set, but once done, you will thank yourselves for the foreseeable future.
Improvements: This is one of the basic purposes of code review. This answers the question, “Can we do the same thing in a better way?”. Better way could mean one or more among, faster performance, better readability, more modularity, and others. You need to keep asking this question in a code review. If you can, then your code review is not complete, if you cannot improve any longer, then probably the code reached here after many rounds of reviews. Or was copied from well reviewed code. Again this is one of those things that has the potential to be overdone, so think carefully how far do you want to go down this rabbit hole without losing your wits.
BNBR: This is lifted from one of the policies of Quora, It means Be Nice, Be Right. The point is that while reviewing , you need to be nice and be right. Being Nice First. The point of a code review is to see if things can be done better by putting multiple heads instead of one. It is not to hurt or massage egos. What can be done by just pointing out issues with data should not descend into a shouting match (verbally or through the keyboard). Make sure that your comments are politely worded and are correct.
Code Scanners: Before you give your code for review, your code should be scanned by tools to make sure that basic checks are done for issues like parenthesis matching, formatting, typos, indentation, naming convention etc. Your reviewers will have a tougher time navigating your code if you do not fix these. If your reviewer finds these issues and not a code scanner, then you have not prepared for your review well.
The Unhappy Path: The code works fine, but some scenarios were not tested. How do you know if your code is able to handle most of the basic errors or exceptions. Your review should make sure that this is in place well before time. Again you need to use this judiciously. You should not overdo it.
Timeliness: Your code review should have a deadline. You cannot indefinitely keep reviewing the code, your review should finish within a deadline. If you ship years late, how will better code help you ?
Dark Spots: Every reviewer may not be able to review all aspects of the code. So it is a good practice to tell in the review comments what aspects were reviewed and what were not, so that everyone knows the extent of the code review. If everyone says it looks good to me, but everyone only happened to review the naming conventions, then it probably was better if only one person reviewed. If each reviewer mentioned this small info, then everyone knows in advance if there were any dark spots in that particular review and they will be able to redress it.
Fatigue: Do not review too many pieces of code at a time. If you happen to be spending a long time reviewing, then probably the code under review is too large or you are reviewing too many PRs at the same time. Reviewing is a thought intensive process and you need to make sure that it is done properly. So please take breaks, if you are tired of reviews and are still somehow powering through that will reflect in the quality of the reviews. A rule of thumb is to not review more than 60 minutes at a time or around 400 lines of code at a time.
Checklists: One good shortcut is to use checklist to review a PR or a piece of code against. These checklists ensure that your mind does not wander, wondering what you have missed and you will also be reviewing against pre decided metrics.
Defects: What do you do with the issues you found ? Not every issue needs to be or can be fixed immediately. You have to decide what to do with each review comment. Whether you will be fixing them, ignoring them or putting back into your backlog. Make sure this is a separate backlog for technical debt.
Overall these are the things that we follow while doing code review. Many of these helped us a lot to make sure that we are reviewing just enough to keep our process wrooming along while at the same time, not ignoring major issues.
Test cases are the first step in any testing cycle and are very important for any project. If anything goes wrong at this step, the impact gets proliferated in the entire software testing process. This can be avoided if the testers use proper procedure and guidelines while creating the test case template.
In this blog, I am going to share some simple yet effective tips which you could use for writing effective test cases. These tips will save you time and effort while optimizing the use of resources.
Let’s have a look a the tips to write better test case template.
Domain knowledge in information technology means deep knowledge of business and operational dynamics, the risks involved and the opportunities in that particular project. It is required to follow the best practices in the domain.
It is better to break the test case into a group of smaller ones if it has too many steps. It would be easier for the developer to backtrack and repeat the test steps if an error occurs somewhere in the test script. If not done than there are high chances that the developer will miss the bug.
Before starting on the test case it is suggested confirm all the assumptions that apply to the test and the preconditions that must be met before execution. There can be data dependency or the dependencies on the test environment or any other test cases.
Relevant artifacts should be attached to the test cases. This can be done using a test management tool. At the time of product delivery, It will help to track the changes in the application. I will be easy to understand the flow of the function when there is a change at any step which will not be easy to relate otherwise.
While writing a new test case a tester can share test data wherever applicable to be used for the Test Case within the test case description or add with the specific test case step. This will save time as there is no need to look for the test data anywhere else.
If the values are to be verified then testers can specify the value range or describe what values are to be tested for a particular field. Choose a few values from each class which will give good coverage for your test. It’s better not to mention the real test data value but the type of data which is required to run the test. In projects where multiple teams use the test data and it keeps changing, mentioning only the type of data will be a wise choice.
Use a test management tool to manages your test cases instead of using a spreadsheet. There are many test management tools that can be used to organize the test cases in one place which will increase the productivity of the team.
It is better to refer to the specification document. Assumptions about the features or functionalities can lead to disagreements between the client and the developers. This gap between the client’s requirement and the application under development will impact the business.
To write tests which are easy to understand, we have to stop coding on autopilot and pay attention to the naming conventions. It is required to name our test classes, fields of our test classes, test methods and the local variables while writing automated tests for our application.
It does not matter which team member wrote the test, others will know what feature is tested under what scenario without even looking at the test code.
If the testers miss a bug or write test cases that do not relate to the real world scenarios then it’s just a waste of resources and time. The goal is to meet the customer’s expectations and that can be attained only if the testers think from the users perspective.
It is important to write well-defined test case verification steps covering all the verification points for the feature under test. To make sure that the test Case covers all the verification points match your test case steps with the artifacts given for your project.
Do test automation when needed as it will reduce the manual effort and save a lot of time. The test scripts should be written in such a way that they can be used afterward for some other project.
Create test case template which could be re-used in the future by other teams. Also, before writing a new test case for your module, find out if there are similar test cases written already for some other project. Doing this you will avoid any redundancies in your test management tools. Call the existing test case in pre-conditions or at a specific design step if there is a need for a particular test case to execute some other test case.
Test cases should include all the features and functionalities mentioned in the software requirement. Requirement traceability matrix will help in finding the untested functions of the application.
A test run is a collection of test cases that testers should execute in a particular order. Test cases are often grouped in test runs. It’s preferred to put preconditions at the beginning of a test run rather than inserting them into each test case.
Actually, only a few of the test cases need preconditions, so the field is often left empty. A test management tool will help to customize your forms and create a test case template which will save your time and effort when writing test cases. Another thing to keep in mind is to avoid writing the same instructions several times by moving repeated preconditions to a test run.
The test cases should be well defined with comments where ever needed so that any other software tester can work on it in the future. Whatever project you work on, when designing test cases, you should always consider that the test cases will not always be executed by the one who designs them. Therefore, the tests should be easily understandable and to-the-point.
In a scenario where the person who wrote all those test cases leaves for some reason and you have a completely new testing team to work with, the entire effort spent during the design phase could go down the drain.
In the description, the testers need to mention all the details about what is going to be tested, what needs to be verified, the test environment and test data.
The information mentioned below should be there in a well-written test case description:
All the test cases should be updated with the new requirements so it’s easier to execute them in the future if there is a need. Even if some other tester wants to use the test case he/she wouldn’t have to go through the details of the script.
The tester needs to have good domain knowledge and should write presentable test cases from the users perspective. A good test case template will make it easier for testers to write good test cases. If there are only a few test steps, consider making a checklist instead and have a look at some relevant test case examples before working on your test case. A test case example will be helpful in creating test case templates too. A test management tool will definitely help in improving the way test cases are created and managed.
In the year 2028, there will be around 7.8 Billion mobile users which accounts for 70% of the world population. More mobile users mean more apps and more competition and to lead the competition we need to make sure that our app is flawless. If nearly half of the bugs in your mobile app are discovered by the users, your app’s ratings are going to decline and so are the downloads. This is why the right choice of mobile app testing techniques must be followed in the decision-making process.
Today, the mobile app market is highly competitive. To be better every day and survive for long, the QA team has to follow a mix of plans that would be responsible for taking the right testing decisions. The testers have to formulate testing strategies to face every situation fearlessly and immaculately. Mobile apps have to be perfect before reaching to the end users so there have to be certain decisions to be taken regarding the testing plan. The following model of mobile app testing plans can be considered for better execution.
In the planning Stage, decisions like Selection of Device matrix, Test Infrastructure (In-house vs. Cloud, Simulator vs. Real device), Testing scope, Testing Tools, Automation (Framework/Tool) are taken. Since it is the first stage, it is the most important one as all the further stages would depend on these decisions. In the next stage which is execution and review, decisions regarding Test Case Design, Testing of user stories, testing types as per Sprint Objective, Progressive Automation, Regression Testing, Review and course correction are taken.
We are going to discuss the planning stage aspects more elaborately
It is an important factor, choosing the device as per your target audience’s behavior matters in decisions regarding resting. There are different approaches to the selection of the device matrix.
Determine the set of devices with your target operating System that will have the highest occurrence of accessing your application by using app purchase data and analytics. For Example- if you support both Android and iOS, and your application will be used across millions of Samsung, Google Nexus and Moto G devices but only thousands of iPhones, you prioritize testing on the Google Nexus and Moto G above the iPhone device. So, this test plan will consist of testing on devices which are prioritized by your market analysis.
This approach highlights the categorization of the devices based on certain mobile aspects which can be considered in formulating the testing strategy. The categorization goes as:
This is another element of the planning stage. This focuses on Strategizing on the Infrastructure components like hardware, software, and network which are an integral part of test infrastructure. It ensures that the applications are managed in a controlled way.
Choosing the right platform to test as per the testing needs is very important i.e whether to test on the Real device or an emulator or on the cloud
Testing on a real device is anytime more reliable than testing on a simulator. The results are accurate as real-time testing takes place on the device in a live environment. It carries its own disadvantages as it is a costly affair and not all the organizations are able to afford a complete real device laboratory of their own.
Pros:
Reliable- Testing on Real devices always gives you an accurate result
Live Environment- Testing on real devices enables you to test your application on the actual environment on which your target audience working on. You can test your application with different network technologies like HSPDA, UMTS, LTE, Wi-Fi, etc.
User experience- Testing on Real devices is the only way to test your Real-time User experience. It cannot be tested through Emulators or devices Available on Cloud.
Cons: Maintaining the matrix- You cannot maintain such a huge matrix of mobile devices in your own test lab. Maintenance- Maintaining these physical devices is a big challenge for organizations. Network providers- There are more than 400 network providers all over the world. Covering all these network providers in their own test lab is impossible. Locations- You cannot test how your application behaves when it is used in different locations.
The emulator is another option to test mobile apps. These are free, open source and can be easily connected with the IDE for testing. The emulator simulates the real device environment and certain types of testing can be run on it easily. However, we cannot say that the results of emulators are as good as those of real devices. It is slower and cannot test issues like network connection, overheating, battery behavior, etc.
Price- Mobile emulators are completely free and are provided as part of the SDK on every new OS release.
Fast- As Emulators are available on the local machine so they run faster and with less latency than Real devices connected to a local network or devices available on the cloud.
Cons:
The wrong impression- Even if you have executed all test cases on emulators, you cannot be 100 % sure it will actually work in the real environment.
Testing Gestures- Gestures like Pinching, Swipe or drag, long press using the mouse on simulators are different in using these gestures on real devices. We cannot test these functionalities on emulators. Can’t test Network Interoperability- With the help of Simulators you cannot test your application with different network technologies. Like HSPDA, UMTS, LTE, Wi-Fi, etc.
Mobile cloud testing can overcome the cost challenges like purchasing and maintaining mobile devices. It has all different sets of device types are available in the cloud to test, deploy and manage mobile applications. The tests run virtually with the benefit of choosing the right type device-OS combinations. Privacy, security, and dependency on the internet can be a challenge in this case but it has many benefits that can cater to different testing scenarios.
The organization can choose the right mix of above-mentioned platforms as every platform carries its own advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes a combination of real and emulators is preferred and sometimes all three can be considered as per the testing strategy.
Devices Availability- Availability of Devices and network providers is a big gain for cloud users. Maintenance- When you are using cloud services. Forget about maintenance. These providers take responsibility for maintaining these devices. Pay per use- You don’t need to buy a device. You only have to pay for the duration you use that device.
Parallel Execution- You can test your complete test suite on multiple devices.
Cons: Cost- Some providers are a bit costly
Nowadays, there are so many automation tools available in the market. Some are expensive and some are freely available in the market. Every tool has its own pros and cons. Choosing the right tool for testing would reduce the QA team effort providing seamless performance at the same time. We will discuss the best mobile app testing automation tools for iOS and Android platforms in 2018.
1. Appium: It is one of the preferred MAT tools by testers. It is open source and free tool available for Android and iOS. It automates any mobile app across many languages and testing frameworks like TestNG. It supports programming languages like Java, C# and other Webdriver languages. It provides access to complete back end APIs and database of the test codes. Top Features: -Appium supports Safari on Ios and Other browsers on Android -Many Webdriver compatible languages can be used such as Java, Objective-C, JavaScript to write test cases -Support languages like Ruby, Java, PHP, Node, Python.
2. Robotium: It is a free Android UI testing tool. It supports in writing powerful black box test cases for Android Applications. It supports Android version 1.6 and above. The tests are written in Java language and basically, Robotium contains a library of unit tests. Apart from this, Robotium takes a little more effort in preparing tests, one must work with program source code to automate tests. Robotium does not have play record and screenshot function.
Top Features: -The tests can be created with minimum knowledge of the project -Numerous android exercises can be executed simultaneously. -Syncronises easily with Ant or Maven to run tests.
3. Calabash: It is an open source MAT tool allowing testers to write and execute tests for Android and iOS. Its libraries enable the test codes to interact with native and hybrid apps. It supports cucumber framework which makes it understandable to non-tech staff. It can be configured for Android and Ios devices. It works well with languages like Ruby, Java, .NET, Flex and many others. It runs automated functional testing for Android and ios. It is a framework that is maintained by Xamarin and Calabash.
4. Espresso: It is a mobile app testing automation tool for Android. It allows writing precise and reliable Android UI tests. It is a tool targeted for developers who believer automated testing is an important part of CI CD process. Espresso framework is provided by the Android X Test and it provides APIs for writing UI tests to simulate user interactions on the target app. Espresso tests can run on Android 2.33 and above. Provides automatic sync of test actions with the app UI.
5. Selendroid: An open source automation framework which drives off the UI of Android native, hybrid and mobile web application. A powerful testing tool that can be used on emulators and real devices. And because it still reuses the existing infrastructure for web, you can write tests using the Selenium 2 client APIs.
6. Frank: Is an open source automation testing tool for the only iOS with combined features of cucumber and JSON. The app code needs not to be modified in this tool. It includes Symboite live app inspector tool and allows to write structured acceptance tests. It is tough to use directly on the device but is flexible for web and native apps. It can run test both on simulator and device. It shows the app in action by showing its recorded video of test runs.
Above are a few promising, popular and most commonly used and mobile app testing automation tools. Choice of tools certainly resolves many testing-related problems faster and efficiently. Implementing these tools requires skill and experience and so an organization needs to have a proper testing team in place to make all of this possible.
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