Inspect Elements Using Appium Desktop

Appium Desktop is a point-and-click desktop application that allows you to run the Appium server and inspect the UI structure of mobile applications. When integrated with Pcloudy, Appium Desktop enables you to launch live Inspector sessions on real devices hosted in the cloud and remotely interact with your app.

This setup helps testers visually identify UI elements (buttons, text fields, views, etc.) and generate automation-ready actions before writing Appium scripts.

What Is Appium Desktop?

Appium Desktop is an open-source GUI application available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It brings together two essential Appium components into a single interface:

Appium Server
Runs the Appium automation server required to execute tests.
Appium Inspector
Allows you to inspect the app UI hierarchy and retrieve properties of UI elements such as resource IDs, XPath, accessibility IDs, and more.

For beginners, Appium Desktop simplifies the initial setup by removing the need to manage these components separately.

caution

Please ensure you download Appium Desktop version 1.21 for compatibility with this process.

Advantages of Using Appium Desktop

Using Appium Desktop with Pcloudy provides the following benefits:

Simplified setup for running Appium Inspector sessions on real devices
Support for configuring desired capabilities using presets
Ability to switch between native app view and web view during inspection
Built-in action recorder and code generator for faster test creation

Installation

To download and install Appium Desktop, refer to the guide below:

Access The Appium Guide

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure the following are available:

Appium Desktop installed on your system
APK (Android) or IPA (iOS) application file
A valid Pcloudy account

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Start an Inspector Session

Open Appium Desktop.
Click Start Inspector Session.

2. Select Pcloudy as the Cloud Provider

Click Select Cloud Providers.
Choose Pcloudy from the list.
Click Done. You will be redirected to the Pcloudy desired capabilities screen inside Appium Desktop.

3. Enter Pcloudy Credentials

Provide the following details:

Pcloudy Host
Pcloudy Username
Pcloudy API Key

4. Configure Desired Capabilities

Set the desired capabilities to specify:

Platform (Android or iOS)
Device details
Application details
Session configuration These capabilities inform the Appium server about the device and app you want to automate.

note

By default, the device booking duration is 10 minutes.
To extend the session, update the desired capability as shown below: Pcloudy_DurationInMinutes = 30

5. Start the Session

Click Start Session after completing the configuration.
Once the session starts, log in to your Pcloudy account.

6. Access the Live Device

Navigate to Reports → My Active Session in the Pcloudy dashboard.
Click the Live View icon under the Action column. The device will connect based on the configured desired capabilities, and the application will launch automatically.

7. Inspect UI Elements

In Appium Desktop, click Select Element to begin inspection.
Click any UI element on the device screen (for example, a button). Once selected, the element’s attributes and available interactions will be displayed.

8. Perform Actions

Appium Desktop supports the following interactions:

Tap
Send Keys
Clear Select an interaction to perform the corresponding action on the live device.
For example, selecting Tap will trigger a tap action on the chosen element.

9. End the Session

Click the X icon in Appium Desktop to end the session.

note

Ending the session automatically releases the device from Live View.

Summary

Using Appium Desktop with Pcloudy allows you to visually inspect mobile app elements on real devices, validate locators, and simulate interactions before writing automation scripts. This approach reduces trial-and-error, speeds up test development, and improves script reliability.

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