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Jeroline | Posted on | 2 min Read

Challenges in Mobile App Testing

Mobile App Testing Challenges: A Comprehensive Guide

The mobile market has seen exponential growth over the past decade, largely driven by the mobile application industry. With more than 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide, mobile apps have become an integral part of our daily lives. This booming sector is expected to generate over $189 billion in revenue by 2020 through app stores and in-app advertising, and the demand shows no signs of slowing down. As mobile apps become more ubiquitous, the competition to create unique, high-performing apps has intensified.

Yet, as apps grow more complex and diverse, so do the challenges faced in ensuring their quality. Mobile app testing plays a pivotal role in meeting these challenges, especially as the industry evolves at a rapid pace. Below, we explore the common issues in mobile app testing and offer solutions to ensure apps remain competitive, reliable, and user-friendly.

1. Device Fragmentation: The Complexity of Multiple Devices

One of the most significant challenges in mobile app testing is device fragmentation. With countless manufacturers, models, operating systems, and screen sizes, testing across all devices is a daunting task. Android alone has a wide range of OS versions, with older versions still in circulation despite new releases. This fragmentation means that an app may perform flawlessly on one device but crash on another.

The Challenge

  • Operating System Fragmentation: Apps must function across multiple operating systems, such as Android and iOS. Even within these operating systems, there are variations in performance and compatibility across different versions (e.g., Android 10 vs. Android 12).
  • Device Variability: Different devices have varying processing capabilities, screen sizes, and resolutions, all of which can affect app performance.

The Solution

Testing on a range of real devices is the best way to ensure compatibility. This is where cloud-based platforms like Pcloudy come in. Pcloudy offers access to real devices with varying OS versions and configurations, allowing testers to check how their app behaves across multiple devices without needing physical access to each one.

Pro Tip: It’s crucial to prioritize testing on the most popular devices and operating systems to maximize your app’s reach.

2. Network Conditions: Testing for Real-World Scenarios

In today’s connected world, apps must perform well across a variety of network conditions. However, this introduces another layer of complexity in mobile app testing. Network issues, such as low bandwidth or weak signal strength, can drastically affect an app’s performance, leading to poor user experiences. According to studies, 53% of users will uninstall an app if it crashes, freezes, or has performance issues.

The Challenge

  • Network Fluctuations: Users frequently switch between Wi-Fi and cellular networks, both of which offer different speeds and signal strengths.
  • Latency and Packet Loss: Poor network conditions can lead to latency issues, dropped packets, or complete loss of connectivity, which can make even the best-designed apps frustrating to use.

The Solution

Testing apps under real-world network conditions is essential to ensure that they perform smoothly, even under poor network environments. Pcloudy offers network simulation tools that enable testers to replicate varying network conditions, from weak 2G signals to high-speed 5G or Wi-Fi, on real devices.

Pro Tip: Regularly test your app’s performance in low-bandwidth scenarios to ensure seamless user experiences in all conditions.

3. Choosing the Right Tools: Making or Breaking Mobile App Testing

The choice of testing tools can significantly impact the efficiency and effectiveness of mobile app testing. There are numerous tools available in the market, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Selecting the right one based on your app type (native, hybrid, or web) and testing needs is critical.

The Challenge

  • Tool Overload: The number of tools available can be overwhelming. Each offers different features for automation, debugging, performance monitoring, and security testing.
  • Incompatibility: Not all tools are suitable for every app type. For instance, some may work well for native apps but not for hybrid or web-based apps.

The Solution

To navigate this landscape, it’s crucial to evaluate tools based on your specific app requirements. Pcloudy supports a wide range of automation tools, such as Appium, Espresso, and Selenium, making it easier for teams to test apps across multiple environments.

Consider the following when evaluating tools:

  • App Type: Your chosen tool should support native, hybrid, and web-based apps.
  • Cross-Platform Support: Ensure that the tool supports Android, iOS, and other potential operating systems like Windows.
  • Cloud Integration: Leveraging cloud platforms for test automation allows teams to access devices and results from any location, improving collaboration and efficiency.

4. Screen Size Variations: Ensuring Consistency Across Devices

Mobile devices come in various screen sizes, and ensuring that your app displays correctly on all of them can be challenging. Apps that look perfect on a large-screen phone may appear cluttered or disjointed on a smaller device.

The Challenge

  • Pixel Density: Different devices have varying pixel densities, which can affect the sharpness and clarity of app content.
  • Layout Adjustments: App elements need to adjust dynamically to fit various screen sizes without compromising user experience.

The Solution

Adopt responsive design principles to create adaptable UI layouts. This approach ensures that your app looks good on all screen sizes, from small smartphones to large tablets. Testing your app on real devices of varying screen sizes is crucial, and platforms like Pcloudy allow for testing on multiple screen configurations to ensure a seamless experience.

Pro Tip: Focus on adaptive designs rather than pixel-perfect layouts, as adaptive designs scale more effectively across different screen sizes.

5. Types of Mobile Apps: Native, Hybrid, and Web

Mobile apps come in three main forms: native, hybrid, and web-based apps. Each type requires a unique approach to testing.

The Challenge

  • Native Apps: Developed for specific platforms (iOS or Android), native apps tend to offer better performance but require separate testing for each platform.
  • Hybrid Apps: These apps combine elements of native and web apps. While easier to develop and maintain across platforms, they often face performance and compatibility issues.
  • Web Apps: Running in browsers, web apps must be tested across multiple browsers and operating systems, making compatibility a primary concern.

The Solution

Each app type comes with its own set of testing challenges, and it’s essential to customize your testing strategy accordingly. Pcloudy supports testing for all three app types, allowing teams to ensure that their apps meet the required standards of performance, usability, and functionality.

6. AI-Powered Test Automation: The Future of Mobile Testing

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing mobile app testing by automating complex testing tasks, generating test cases, and predicting defects. AI-driven testing can significantly reduce time and effort, allowing testers to focus on more critical aspects of app development.

The Challenge

  • Resistance to Change: Many teams are still reliant on traditional testing methods, hesitant to adopt AI-powered testing solutions.
  • Implementation Complexity: Integrating AI testing into existing workflows can be challenging without the right expertise or tools.

The Solution

AI-powered test automation, like the solutions offered by Pcloudy, helps automate repetitive tasks such as regression testing, bug detection, and performance analysis. AI-driven bots can create test cases, execute tests, and analyze results, enabling faster releases and higher accuracy.

Pro Tip: Embrace AI-based testing early to stay ahead of the competition. Automating repetitive tests frees up resources for more creative problem-solving.

7. Security and Compliance Testing: Safeguarding Data and Trust

In an era where data privacy and security are of paramount importance, ensuring that your app is secure and compliant with regulations is vital. The increasing number of cyberattacks and data breaches highlights the need for robust security testing.

The Challenge

  • Security Vulnerabilities: Apps are often vulnerable to attacks such as data leaks, insecure storage, and unauthorized access.
  • Compliance Regulations: Apps must comply with regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS, depending on the region and industry.

The Solution

Incorporate security and compliance testing into your QA process. Test for data encryption, authentication, and security vulnerabilities. Pcloudy offers features like biometric authentication testing and encrypted device communication to ensure that your app meets the highest security standards.

Pro Tip: Regularly update your app’s security protocols to keep up with emerging threats and regulations.

8. Usability Testing: Ensuring a Seamless User Experience

Usability testing focuses on how user-friendly your app is, evaluating its ease of navigation, intuitive design, and overall user experience.

The Challenge

  • User Expectations: As mobile users grow more tech-savvy, they expect apps to be easy to use and navigate.
  • Cross-Platform Usability: Usability can differ across iOS and Android devices due to interface design differences.

The Solution

Conduct usability testing on real devices to gather feedback from real users. Cloud-based platforms like Pcloudy allow for real-device usability testing, providing insights into the app’s user experience across different devices and operating systems.

9. Battery Usage: Avoiding Power-Hungry Apps

Battery consumption is a critical factor that can impact app usage and customer retention. An app that drains battery quickly is likely to be uninstalled by users.

The Challenge

  • Performance Optimization: Apps that use GPS, background processes, or frequent notifications can quickly drain battery power.
  • Device-Specific Impact: Battery usage can vary across devices, especially those with older hardware.

The Solution

Test for battery efficiency on various devices using real-device cloud testing environments like Pcloudy. Analyze how your app consumes battery power and optimize where needed to ensure it runs smoothly without excessive battery drain.

10. Memory Leaks: Preserving Device Performance

Memory leaks occur when an app uses excessive memory, causing performance issues like slowdowns or crashes. This can lead to a poor user experience, especially on devices with limited resources.

The Challenge

  • Resource Management: Apps need to manage memory effectively to avoid crashing or slowing down the device.
  • Device-Specific Issues: Memory management can vary depending on the device’s hardware.

The Solution

Implement memory profiling tools during your app’s development and testing phases. Regularly test your app on different devices using Pcloudy to identify and fix memory leaks.

11. Geolocation Testing: Apps that Depend on Location

For apps that rely on geolocation features, such as navigation or ride-hailing apps, ensuring that location services work across different regions is crucial.

The Challenge

  • Location Variability: GPS performance can vary based on the user’s location and the accuracy of their device’s GPS hardware.
  • Testing Across Regions: Simulating different geolocation scenarios can be difficult without access to real devices in those regions.

The Solution

Use cloud platforms like Pcloudy to simulate geolocation testing on real devices in different geographic regions. This ensures your app’s location services work accurately across the globe.

12. App Localization: Adapting for Global Markets

Apps often need to be localized to different languages, currencies, and cultural contexts. Ensuring proper localization is essential for expanding into global markets.

The Challenge

  • Text Expansion: Some languages, like German or Russian, take up more space than English, which can break layouts or text boxes.
  • Cultural Sensitivity: Localization isn’t just about language—it’s also about ensuring that the app’s design and functionality make sense in the target culture.

The Solution

Conduct thorough localization testing, focusing on the user interface, translations, and regional features. Pcloudy allows testing in real-world scenarios for apps localized into multiple languages and regions.

13. Accessibility Testing: Meeting User Needs

Accessibility testing ensures that your app is usable by people with disabilities, such as visual or hearing impairments. Ensuring your app meets accessibility standards is vital for inclusivity and can be a regulatory requirement in many regions.

The Challenge

  • Regulatory Compliance: Many countries have strict accessibility regulations, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the U.S. or the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) in Canada.
  • Wide Range of Disabilities: Apps must be tested for a range of disabilities, including vision impairments, hearing impairments, and physical disabilities.

The Solution

Use accessibility testing tools to check your app’s compatibility with screen readers, voice commands, and other assistive technologies. Test your app on different devices using Pcloudy to ensure it meets accessibility guidelines.

14. Interruption Testing: Handling Disruptions Gracefully

Interruption testing evaluates how well an app handles interruptions like phone calls, text messages, or low battery alerts. These interruptions are common during real-world app usage.

The Challenge

  • App Stability: Apps must be able to handle interruptions without crashing or losing user progress.
  • Consistent Experience: Interruption handling should be seamless across different devices and operating systems.

The Solution

Perform interruption testing on real devices to evaluate how your app reacts to common disruptions. Cloud platforms like Pcloudy allow testers to replicate interruptions during active app sessions, ensuring smooth recovery and minimal disruption.

15. App Store Compliance: Ensuring Successful Submissions

Each app store (Google Play, Apple App Store) has specific guidelines for app submission. Failing to comply with these guidelines can result in rejection, delaying your app’s release.

The Challenge

  • Guideline Variations: App store guidelines differ between platforms, and ensuring compliance with both can be time-consuming.
  • Performance Criteria: Stores often have performance benchmarks that apps must meet to be approved.

The Solution

Before submitting your app, ensure it meets all necessary guidelines. Test your app’s experience, security, and overall quality on multiple devices and operating systems using Pcloudy to minimize the risk of rejection.

Conclusion: A Holistic Testing Strategy

Mobile app testing involves overcoming a wide range of challenges, from ensuring compatibility across numerous devices to handling network variability, memory leaks, and accessibility. A successful testing strategy combines real-device testing, cloud-based automation, AI-driven test automation, and comprehensive security testing to deliver a high-quality app experience.

Pcloudy provides a robust cloud-based platform for mobile app testing, offering access to real devices, network simulation, and AI-powered automation. By adopting a well-rounded approach to testing, you can ensure

Jeroline | Posted on | 2 min Read

7 Types Of Mobile App Testing

Introduction

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

Key Compatibility Factors

 

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:

 

  • Operating System Versions: iOS, Android, and their various versions.
  • Device Models: Different devices (phones, tablets) from manufacturers like Samsung, Apple, Huawei, etc.
  • Screen Sizes & Resolutions: Apps must adapt to a variety of screen sizes and pixel densities.
  • Internal Hardware: Testing on devices with varying memory, processor speeds, and storage capacity.

Challenges and Solutions

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

Key Focus Areas

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:

  • App Installation: Testing how the app installs under different conditions, such as with limited storage or in different installation locations (e.g., internal memory, SD card).
  • App Updates: Ensuring that the app updates smoothly without causing data loss or crashes.
  • Uninstallation: Verifying that uninstallation removes all app data and does not leave residual files.
  • Post-Installation: Ensuring the app launches properly after installation and functions as intended.

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge:

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.

Solution:

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

Common Interruptions to Test

 

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:

  • Incoming calls and SMS notifications while the app is in use.
  • Battery low, battery removal, or plugging the device into charging.
  • OS updates that occur while the app is running in the background.
  • Network disconnection and reconnection
  • Device shutdown or reboot while using the app.

Interrupt Testing Process

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge:

Replicating real-world interruptions, especially across different devices, OS versions, and network conditions, can be difficult to reproduce consistently.

Solution:

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

Types of Localization Testing

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:

  • Linguistic Testing: Ensures that all text in the app is properly translated and adapted to the target language. This includes avoiding mistranslations or phrases that don’t make sense in the local context.
  • Cultural Testing: Ensures that content is culturally appropriate. Some symbols, colors, or phrases may have different meanings in various cultures, and testing ensures nothing offensive or inappropriate is presented to users.
  • Cosmetic Testing: Verifies that the layout and design elements fit well with the localized content. For example, languages like Arabic and Hebrew, which read right-to-left, require changes to app design.
  • Functional Testing: Ensures that the app functions correctly in the localized environment, including handling local date formats, currency, and special characters.

Challenges and Solutions

 

Challenge:

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.

Solution:

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

Key Areas in Performance Testing

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:

  • Device Performance: Testing how the app behaves on different devices, with a focus on start-up time, memory consumption, and battery usage. High memory or battery consumption can lead to users uninstalling the app.
  • Network Performance: Testing how the app handles different network conditions, such as slow or unstable connections. This includes testing the app’s ability to manage packet loss, network delays, and connectivity interruptions.
  • Server/API Performance: Testing how efficiently the app communicates with the server and processes API requests. Slow or inefficient API calls can degrade the user experience, especially in data-heavy apps.

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge:

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.

Solution:

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

Important Usability Factors

 

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:

 

  • Navigation Ease: Testing the workflow to ensure users can easily navigate through the app with minimal effort. Complex workflows or unintuitive navigation paths can frustrate users.

                                Example of Navigation Path

  • Design & Layout: Verifying that the app’s design is user-friendly, with clear, well-organized content. Elements like finger-friendly buttons, minimal text entry, and intuitive visual cues are essential for a positive user experience.
  • Response Time: Ensuring that the app responds quickly to user inputs without lag or unnecessary delays. A slow response time can lead to a poor user experience and high uninstall rates.
  • User Engagement: Testing how well the app engages users emotionally. A successful app should be smart enough to predict user actions, offer personalized experiences, and keep users motivated to continue using it.

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge:

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.

Solution:

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

Key Conformance Testing Areas

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:

  • App Store Guidelines: Every app marketplace, like Google Play or Apple’s App Store, has specific guidelines covering areas such as user interface (UI), privacy policies, content restrictions (e.g., nudity, violence, cultural sensitivity), and data protection. Failure to comply can result in app rejection or removal from the store.

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.

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge:

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.

Solution:

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.

Conclusion

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.

Suyash Dubey | Posted on | 2 min Read

Mobile App Testing Strategies

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.

Mobile App Testing Strategies

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

Device Matrix:

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.

Approach 1- Selection of Devices based on market research.

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.

Approach 2: Categorize the devices based on Key mobile aspects

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:
Mobile device categorisation

Test infrastructure

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.

Real device, Emulators or Mobile cloud-Where to test?

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

Real Devices

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.

Emulators

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.

Pros:

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.

Testing on Mobile Cloud

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.
Mobile cloud

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.

Pros:

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

Automation Tools for Mobile App Testing on Android and iOS

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.

Suyash Dubey | Posted on | 2 min Read

Basics of Appium Mobile Testing

[xyz-ihs snippet=”quickLinks-Appium”]

Appium is an open source mobile app UI testing framework. You can test all types of mobile apps and perform automation test on physical devices as well as on emulators and simulators. Appium mobile testing does not have a dependency on mobile device OS and it supports cross-platform app testing as a single API works for both Android and iOS. Appium supports many popular languages like C, PHP, Python, C#, Java, Ruby, JavaScript, etc.

What is Appium Mobile Testing?

When Appium is installed then a server is set up on your machine that exposes the REST API. It receives a command request from the client and executes that command on Android or iOS mobile devices. Then it responds back with an HTTP response. It uses mobile test automation frameworks like Apple instruments or UIAutomator2 to drive the UI of apps.

Approaches to Test Automation

There is two approaches for mobile test automation, Image-based and Object-based approach. Let’s understand both in detail.

Image-Based Approach for Test Automation

This technique of object identification is based on the image processing attributes of the objects in the Application Under Test (AUT). Example: Automate user options like “click, type, drag-drop, mouse actions, etc.”

Visual verification of the expected output

• Not dependent on the platform underneath
• Can be used to automate emulators as well as a real device.

Image based approach

The object-based approach of test automation

This technique of test automation is based on recognizing the nativity of the objects in AUT. This nativity reorganization process for each individual object in the application is carried out using different attributes that are assigned to the object.

It is used to extract the application object identifier with its properties from the actual native operating system source code, just like the developer used. This is an accurate and fast method to recognize the buttons, lists and other objects used by the application.

One drawback of the object-based approach is that the recognition of the individual attributes of the object involved restricts these techniques ability to function in test scenarios that require third-party application access. This reduces the automation coverage of utilizing this technique.

Object based approach

Which approach should we choose?

As we have seen, both approaches have their pros and cons. To get better results, you can merge both approaches and think about devising a hybrid test automation solution.

The combination of OCR (image based) and native (object-based) approach allows users to build a single script that will be portable across different devices. It will make your automation robust and efficient and allows the users to confidently detect the relevant native and GUI defect within the mobile application.

Appium Overview and Architecture

Appium is an HTTP server that manages WebDriver sessions. On iOS devices, Appium proxies command to a UI automation script running on Mac Instruments environment. Apple provides an application called instruments which are used to do a lot of activities like profiling, controlling and building iOS apps. It also provides an automation component where you can write some commands in JavaScript which uses UIAutomation APIs which interact with the app user interface. Appium mobile automation uses these same libraries to automate iOS apps.

Appium Overview and Architecture

The Webdriver Script sends a command in the form of HTTP (JSWP) to the Appium Server. Then the Appium Server will then decide as per the request which driver should be initiated. So, in this case, the Appium Server will initiate the XCUITest driver and it will pass the request to the WebdriverAgent which is an IPA (WebdriverAgent.xcproj) developed by Facebook. WebdriverAgent is responsible to send the command to the Application Under Test (AUT) to carry out the actions in the app. Then the response will be sent to the Webdriver Script through the Appium server.

Only iOS 9.3 and above version are supported by the XCUITest Driver. You can find all the capabilities for XCUITest Driver in the link mentioned below.

https://github.com/appium/appium-xcuitest-driver

UI Automation Server flow diagram

The situation is very similar in the case of Android where Appium proxies command to a UIAutomator2 test case running on the device. UIAutomator2 is Android’s UI automation framework which supports running JUnit test cases directly into the device into the command line. It uses Java as the programing language but Appium will make it run from any of the web drivers supported languages.

To answer the question “what is Appium automation?”, let’s have a look at the Appium philosophy.

Appium philosophy
Appium mobile testing is required for proper execution of continuous integration as it speeds up the overall testing process. Appium mobile testing helps to run the repetitive test which would take more time to perform manually. This is why appium mobile testing is the preferred choice for the developers when it comes to test automation.

In the next blog, we will learn more about Appium mobile testing and how to install/configure the Appium setup on a windows machine.

Related Articles:

Priyanka Charak | Posted on | 2 min Read

Top 5 Tips for Successful Mobile Application Testing

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.

Priyanka Charak | Posted on | 2 min Read

5 Best Practices App Testing Companies Must Follow for Success

App Testing Companies Must Follow

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

5 Best Practices App Testing

 

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

 

mobile app development life cycle

 

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

 

crowd source

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Shivani Sinha | Posted on | 2 min Read

Future trends getting bigger for mobile apps in e-commerce industry

Future Trends

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

A Rising Influx of Mobile Shoppers

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

 

Mobile App Testing Trends
Source: Invesp report

 

More Prevalent Storefront Apps

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

 

emarketer

 

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

 

report
Source: Poqcommerce.com

 

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

 

Boom of app adoption in Indian market

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

 

India's App Market is Booming

 

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

 

Conclusion

 

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

 

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

 

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

Avinash Tiwari | Posted on | 2 min Read

Welcome to pCloudy 5.0

pCloudy 5.0

 

pCloudy is a unified mobile app testing platform which is trusted by its users for its excellent performance. We have more than 30,000 users across the globe, and we have received an overwhelming response for our platform. From bot testing to crowd testing, pCloudy has always been a front runner in the market. And with the launch of pCloudy 5.0, we are up for the challenge once again. It is a re-imagined and re-worked upon platform created in-line with intelligence to meet the market demands and accelerate delivery.

 

Let us have a look at what’s new here:

 

 

 

Features

 

a. iOS Connect
b. Automation Studio
c. Follow Me

 

a) iOS Connect: One of the very powerful features that we added is the iOS Connect. The major challenge iOS developers had been facing was the debugging of their iOS apps because of the difficult Apple guidelines regarding building any utility . We are proud to say that we have been successful in cracking that.
With iOS Connect, you can connect to an iOS Device which is present remotely and access the device as if the device is connected to your computer. With iOS Connect we are bridging the gap for the iOS development life cycle.

 

iOS Connect

 

b) Automation Studio: It is another promising feature that can revolutionize mobile app automation. We now have an in-built automation studio in pCloudy platform where you can access the devices to record your test scripts and execute it in parallel on multiple devices without writing any code.

 

There’s something more to it! If you already have your projects on Appium you can record your new workflows and export it to Appium Java format. This new integration would not only enable every user to start creating Automation scripts but it will also help Appium users to speed up their Automation. This makes pCloudy truly a Unified app testing platform.

 

Automation Studio Launch

 

c) Follow me: It is again one of the ‘wow’ features of pCloudy 5.0. This feature can speed up your App Testing exponentially. Follow me allows you to test your apps on 3 unique device while performing your test on only 1 device, thus saving your testing time multi-folds.

 

Follow Me

 

Re-Imagined UI

 

It has been designed to give a leaner, simpler and faster user experience. The look and feel of the pCloudy platform has been transformed keeping in mind the requirements, usability and ease of our users. All the pages have been made more intuitive. To simplify, we have grouped the actions together to save your time in figuring out the next step.

 

a. True Collaboration
b. Global File Storage
c. Comprehensive reports at a single stop
d. Test Scheduler

 

a) True Collaboration: We have introduced a powerful feature on our revamped Device Interaction page. Now, you can take the screenshot of the action you are performing and see the screenshot next to the device. But, the icing on the cake is that you can edit the screenshot, save it and log a bug directly to the JIRA enabling true collaboration between the developers and testers.

 

UI Design

 

b) Global File Storage: Heeding to the demands of our users we have reduced the clicks to perform any action on the File browsing /storage page. The file uploaded once will be available across all the different locations we have. It will also allow sharing of files across teams.

 

Global File Storage

 

c) Comprehensive reports at a single stop: Now, to make the user experience simpler and faster, we have placed all your reports at single stop be it manual or automation across all locations. Not just that, you can see all reports in the same format with much detailed information. Raising bugs after analyzing reports is also possible from here.

 

comprehensive-reports-at-a-single-stop

 

d) Test Scheduler: We have re-designed this page based on a Guided interface where the interactions are more thoughtful, straightforward, and guide you to the next step. It needs zero learning to run automation scripts on multiple devices.

 

Test Scheduler

 

pCloudy 5.0 is another breakthrough for us. After launching pCloudy 5.0, it is time to get feedback on a larger scale. We’re going to continue improving the UI, the navigation, and add some futuristic features to make your app testing simpler and faster. While we do that, we’d love to continue getting feedback.

Avinash Tiwari | Posted on | 2 min Read

Certifaya – AI Powered App Testing

pCloudy’s Certifaya

 
The emergence of mobile applications for everything around us is mind boggling to say the least. All the things you would want- “There is an app for that”.

With consumers spoilt for choices, it’s a critical task to the people who are responsible for the quality of these mobile applications. Smallest of glitch and user’s are ready to click uninstall.

In order to ensure that your customers have the best of experience with your app, it needs to work on hundreds of mobile devices with various screen sizes, varying OS and different user conditions. Time consuming and exhaustive task.

Isn’t it critical to accelerate this process?

To churn out better apps faster, developers need deeper insights faster then ever.. This is where machine learning algorithms come in. They are analytics driven which makes it easier to look for patterns and monitor your app for issues, like crashes, memory spikes, high CPU, slow response time, battery drain and many other key parameters.

So, the question is, can Machines and intelligent technology become the newest buddy for you? Yes, we say. Let’s the new tech churn out data for you, and you focus on analyzing, fixing and delivering faster to the world.

Let’s see what’s up our sleeves.

A Single Click Automated App Certification with bots

pCloudy has developed a Single click App certification feature within its platform.

 

 

How pCloudy’s Certifaya makes a difference?

Simplicity is at the core of pCloudy’s Certifaya platform. All users need to do is to upload their app and ask the platform to run a test. Within minutes Certifaya spits out your report after monitoring, finding critical issues and presenting in the form of detailed blocks, screen grabs and videos of the sessions. The users also get recommendations to quickly fix the issues.

 

 

Developing apps quickly but with best of quality is mission critical. Bots make a huge difference here. Certifaya bots are designed for

Running Crash Test Scenarios: Bots run the crash test covering several installation/un-installation scenarios along with random events on the App, that too, on multiple devices. The best way to do a sanity check.

Swift and Deep Exploratory Tests: Smart bots crawl the App automatically and navigate through the App path like any human would do, collecting loads of relevant data for the App.

With above two tests, you get a comprehensive report on the App’s functionality and performance on multiple devices within few minutes. Have a look at a sample report. Gone are the days when you are churning out builds and waiting for hours to get a feedback.

Keep in mind that the best practices in the industry are evolving at a quick pace. Cloud adoption has accelerated quick testing practices.

Give your existing Testing practice power of Certifaya and accelerate your testing like never before.

 

Try now, your first run is free.

Avinash Tiwari | Posted on | 2 min Read

Tips To Use Devices More Effectively

pCloudy Platform

 
This article explains the options available on device page. These options will help you use the devices effectively on pCloudy platform. pCloudy is a feature rich platform and supports whole lot of features to ease your device interaction. There are many single click options to speed up your testing on devices. On connecting to a device, You will see many icons in the top pane.

Lets understand what each of these icons/features does for you.

 

Device icons

 

1.
Camera

Capture high resolution screen shots with the skin of the device

2.
landscape and portrait devices

Change the orientation of the device to Landscape and portrait

3.
Cross Browser Testing

Open the browser from the list of preinstalled browsers

4.
Keyboard

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

5.
Battery

Check the stack trace (crash logs) if the application is crashed

6.
Cursor
Navigate the application with the buttons
7.
zoom in zoom out

Zoom in/out the device shown on the screen

8.
zoom default icon
Reset the zoom level to bring the device to default size
9.
re-connect to a device

Click to Re-connect if the device shows black screen

10.
Extend Device Session

Extend the session if the device is available

11.
Wake Up

Wake up the device from sleep mode or push the device to sleep mode

12.
Stop Device Session
Release the device back to the cloud

 

pCloudy’s Device Settings tab has lot of commonly used features and device interactions. Some of the key features to test are Network, Location and Audio.

Lets see those in details.

 

mobile device settings

1.
Reboot Device
Reboot the device remotely
2.
Toggle Wifi

Switch ON/OFF wifi

3.
Adjust Volume
Adjust the device volume
4.
Manage Apps

Manage your apps on the device

5.
Network Profile

Throttle network to simulate different network conditions

6.
add google account
Add Google account
7.
Set Phone Location

Teleport the device – Set any location of the earth on the device

8.
Settings

Open Device settings on the device

9.
Open play store on mobile device

Open play store on the device

10.
open developer options on website

Open developer options on the device

11.
Inject Audio

Send audio commands to the device for testing applications which supports audio commands