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Introduction to Mobile App Testing

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

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.

Understanding Modern Mobile Applications

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

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.

Web Apps

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)

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

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.

Key Challenges in Mobile App Testing

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.

Code-Heavy Scripting

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

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.

Network and Performance Issues

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.

Test Script Maintenance in Agile Environments

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 and User Experience Testing

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

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.

Localization Testing

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.

Data Privacy & Compliance Testing

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

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.

AI in Visual Regression Testing

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 for Functional and Security Testing

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 for Bug Prevention

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.

Self-Healing Test Scripts

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-Based Test Prioritization and Coverage Optimization

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.

New Testing Methodologies

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 and Shift-Right Testing Strategies

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.

Continuous Testing and Test Automation in CI/CD Pipelines

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.

Criteria for Selecting Mobile app Testing Tools

When selecting tools for mobile app testing, QA teams should evaluate the following key criteria:

  1. Cross-Platform Support: Ensure the tool supports testing on both iOS and Android, along with compatibility for hybrid, native, web, and progressive web apps.

  2. Automation Capabilities: Tools must support test automation for faster and more efficient testing cycles, especially in Agile and DevOps environments.

  3. Integration with CI/CD Pipelines: Select tools that easily integrate into continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to enable automated testing with every new release or code update.

  4. Scalability: As mobile applications grow, the testing tool should be able to scale, supporting a wide range of device-browser combinations and providing features like cloud-based testing for efficiency.

  5. AI & Machine Learning: AI-powered tools are crucial for reducing manual effort, offering features such as self-healing test scripts, predictive analytics, and automated test case generation.

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.

The Role of Cloud-Based Testing

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:

  1. Scalability: The ability to test on thousands of device-browser combinations on-demand allows teams to expand their testing coverage without the need to invest in physical devices.

  2. Geographic Testing: Cloud testing platforms enable QA teams to simulate different network environments, device configurations, and even geographic locations, ensuring the app works well across regions.

  3. Cost Efficiency: By eliminating the need for physical devices and labs, cloud-based testing dramatically reduces costs while offering the flexibility to perform real-time testing at scale.

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.

Low-Code/No-Code Testing Tools

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:

  1. Increased Collaboration: Low-code/no-code tools democratize testing, allowing non-developers like business analysts and product managers to participate in the testing process.

  2. Faster Test Creation: These tools enable rapid test creation, shortening the time required to build test cases and reducing the burden on technical QA teams.

  3. Better Test Maintenance: As applications evolve, low-code/no-code tools make it easier to update and maintain tests, ensuring they stay relevant without requiring in-depth programming skills.

  4. Broader Accessibility: By lowering the technical barrier, teams can test more frequently, increasing overall test coverage and improving app quality.

Why Choose Pcloudy?

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.

Conclusion

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.

Successful 5 Tips

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

1. Real environment testing is a must

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

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

 

Mobile Devices for Application Testing

 

2. Testing Automation

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

 

Automation Testing

 

3. Functionality testing

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

 

4. Performance and Load Testing

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

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

 

5. Choice of Mobile app testing tools

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

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

 

Conclusion

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

Mobile App Testing Tools to Improve App Quality

 

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

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

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

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

 

Introduction:

 

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

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

Preparing for Manual Test

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

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

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

Performing Manual Test remotely

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

(Note: Click on any image for enlarged view)

Search device using filters


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

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

Device Information


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

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

How to Install the application on the Remote Mobile device?

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



Install APK on  Device


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

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

Device Logs


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

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

Select an app


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

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

Performance Metrics


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

Device Settings


You can perform below actions on the remote device:

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

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

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

Other key features during manual tests

Key Features

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

Reporting

Report


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



All Reports


Running test automation remotely

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

Automation Testing

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

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



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

Device for automation testing


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

APPIUM Test Automation

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

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

appium test automation

LIVE VIEW

Live view for automation
Live view – To see the automation happening on devices

Live View on devices


Automation Test Reports

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

Automation test reports


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

Appium Reports


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

Performance Analytics


Opkey Integration

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

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

OpKey Integration

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

run the automated scripts

Advance Features:

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

Conclusion

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

Introduction to iOS TestFlight

TestFlight is an online service used to distribute and test beta iOS applications. Developers can use Test Flight to evade the Apple’s bitter binding procedure for testing new versions of their apps. It provides over-the-air installation, testing, tracking and managing of Beta apps. In simple words, TestFlight acts as a link between the developer, the tester, and the Apple Developer Center.

How is it useful?

  • Distribution of the app over-the- air to Testers
  • Tracking and managing testing using TestFlight’s dashboard
  • Receiving feedback from testers to improve the app
  • To obtain reports about the device models, OS version used while testing the App
  • Automatically records any crashes the testers encounter and sends it to the Developer

This tutorial will walk you through integrating TestFlight into your own apps.

What do you need to start?

You have to have your certificates, app ID, and provisioning profiles in place before distributing your apps using Test Flight. Here’s the list of items you need:

  • A Developer ID to login to your developer account.
  • A Certificate for Distribution to export builds and distribute apps
  • An App ID
  • A Device UDID
  • Ad Hoc Provisioning Profile to distribute your app on testers devices
  • Sign your app with a valid ad hoc provisioning profile

These items will help you obtain an .ipa file that can be distributed for testing in iOS devices with UDIDs mentioned in the provisioning profile of the app.

Uploading your app for Beta Testing

Open up your project in Xcode, make sure you have a correct Bundle Identifier and that you’ve chosen the correct Distribution Certificate:

Choose Product\Archive from the top toolbar:

Once Xcode finishes archiving your project, click the shiny blue Submit to App Store… button:

Choose your development team

Hit Submit

Wait for your build to upload. Once done you will receive a “Submission Successful message”

Inviting Testers

Choose the Right Testing Platform

 
As a mobile app maker, how sure are you about the success of your app? A small failure to recognize bugs can cost you thousands of dollars! A small mistake can turn you into a big failure among the users. Now, the question is, how to choose the best platform for testing.

Every mobile application is created differently from the other and the right platform to test can be the most important reason for your app’s success.

Right Testing Platform for Your App

 

Choosing the right platform among the various competing ones require a set of clear evaluation.

  • The nature of the targeted audience for your app. This will define the device matrix you should be targeting for your App Testing. Does that platform provide right device matrix for your testing needs?
  • Cloud based vs in-house setup – Does you testing process allow Apps to be allowed on outside cloud? Does your App have functionalities which work with in a secured network?
  • Type of Testing required for your App – Whether your current testing is manual or automated? Does your App require non-functional Testing?
  • Reliability and Scalability of the platform- Can it scale with your needs? Can the platform integrate with your existing tools and frameworks?
  • Return on Investment

 

Criterion

Description

Device Fragmentation

Can the platform handle you need of devices?

Availability

How critical for you instant availability of devices. Is you testing planned?

Automation

How much of testing is done using Automated scripts? Does the platform support the Automation tool that you are using or planning to use.

Type of Testing

What all functional features that you need to test? Does your App require non-functional Testing?

Extensibility ( integration with in-house frameworks)

Can the platform integrate with your in-house frameworks ( Automation, Test Management , Bug Management etc..)

DevOps

Can the platform support DevOps? Can it integrate with your build systems/dev IDEs or continuous integration systems.

Security

Can you upload your app on an external cloud? Does you App require interaction with your internal server?
Usage level and Cost

What is the usage pattern of your test and developing team and what is your budget?

 

Market Share: Andriod VS iOS

 

pCloudy provides the necessary tools for convenient, effective and immediate mobile app testing. Our device is based on cloud and it enables continuous development and testing on real devices. Our unique debugging feature recognizes potential errors that will significantly reduce costs and time. Our platform provides single-click access to end numbers of real Android and Ios devices.

To experience the best with your app, we have developed three different types of cloud environments for you.

Public Cloud

With pCloudy’s publicly accessed cloud, you can perform tests directly from your browser. You won’t get confused to choose between manual or automated because both are available in our public cloud environment. We allow our users to test on a comprehensive list of real IOS and Android devices. You can also test your app over various network conditions like 2G, 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi. You can either configure your own browser or choose from our wide range of pre-installed browsers.

Private Cloud

This option is similar to our public cloud environment, except it comes with additional benefits of personalized security and dedicated access. Here, we would provide you a host of devices in our enterprise grade data center and you can choose your own device. If you have a geographically distributed team, then they will have secured devices over a browser. We make sure that your data is safe on our platform, as we allow only authorized team members to access.

On-premise cloud

In this option, we provide you with the necessary hardware and give you the freedom to set up your own secure device lab. You will have complete control of your own on-premise lab.

In addition to have exactly the same features of our public cloud, on-premise model contains supplementary benefits. On-premise cloud gives you the freedom of plug-in with your existing set of devices and provides you access to a geographically distributed team. Manual and automated- both the testing techniques can be used and with a simple plug-in, you can access it from any rack. Also, there is no limit for the number of devices which can be linked!

At the end of the day, the developer has to choose the best platform for his app. But choosing the right one saves so much of hassles.