How to Test Mobile Application: Strategy and Tutorial

Find out more about testing mobile apps. This tutorial will teach you how to test mobile apps. This article will cover mobile testing strategies and key stages in mobile application testing and quality assurance services.

Due to the rapid growth of the use of smartphones and the development of mobile apps, testing is an essential requirement in order to deliver high-quality and timely mobile applications.

Types of Mobile Testing

There are generally two types of testing that can be done on mobile devices.

Hardware Testing

This includes the device’s internal processors, internal hardware and screen sizes, resolution or memory. It also includes radio, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and radio. Sometimes, this is called “Mobile Testing”.

Software and Application Testing

It tests the functionality and applications that run on mobile devices. This is known as “Mobile Application Testing”, to distinguish it from the previous method. There are a few key differences in mobile applications that you should understand.

• Native apps are designed for mobile platforms like tablets and smartphones.
• Mobile web apps allow users to access websites from their mobile devices using different browsers, such as Chrome or Firefox.
• Hybrid apps combine native app and web application. They can be used on mobile devices as well as offline. They are created using web technologies such HTML5 or CSS.

These are a few of the basic differences that distinguish them:

• Native apps are compatible with one platform, while mobile web apps can be used on multiple platforms.
• Native apps are created in platforms such as SDKs, while mobile web apps are made with web technologies like HTML and CSS.
• Installation is required for native apps. However, it is not necessary to install mobile web apps.
• Native apps can be updated via the App Store or Play Store, while mobile web apps require central updates.
• While many native apps do not require an Internet connection, mobile web apps do.
• Native apps work faster than mobile web apps.
• App stores such as Google Play Store and App Store are used to install native apps. These apps can only be accessed through the Internet.

What is Mobile Application Testing

Because of this, testing mobile apps on mobile devices can be more difficult than testing web applications on the desktop.

• A variety of mobile devices are available with different screen sizes and configurations, including trackballs, virtual keypads (touch screen), hard keypads and virtual keypads.
• Many mobile devices, such as HTC, Samsung and Apple, are available.
• There are many mobile operating systems such as Android, Symbian and Windows.
• There are many versions of such as iOS 5.x, iOS 6.x and BB5.x. BB6.x is also available.
• Different mobile network operators such as GSM and CDMA.
• Frequent updates (like Android-4.2, 4.3 and 4.4, iOS-5.x and 6.x) are recommended. This is to ensure that no app functionality is affected by each update.

Mobile application testing is important as well, because the clientele can be in the millions for a particular product. A product that has bugs is not appreciated. This can lead to irreparable brand damage, legal issues, and monetary losses.

Mobile App Testing Strategy

It is important that the test strategy ensures that all quality and performance guidelines have been met. Here are some tips:

• Selection of the devices – analyze the market to determine the most popular devices. This decision is largely dependent on the clients. To decide which handsets to test, the client or app builders must consider the popularity of particular devices and the marketing requirements for the application.
• Emulators – these are extremely helpful in the initial stage of development as they allow for quick and efficient testing of the app. Emulator is software that can run in different environments without affecting the original software. It replicates the features of the real system and works with them.

Types of Mobile Emulators

• Device Emulator – provided by device manufacturers;
• Browser Emulator – simulates mobile browser environments;
• Operating systems Emulator – Apple offers emulators for iPhones and Microsoft for Windows phones.

Mobile App Development: Why is it Important?

Apps must be tested on various operating systems and mobile devices in order to ensure compatibility, usability, and consistency. Automation testing is a great way to create applications that can be scaled and are accessible on multiple platforms.

Manual testing can be costly, time-consuming and error-prone. Automation is a great way to automate repetitive tasks such as regression testing and performance testing.

Automated testing allows testers to quickly test the latest updates or modifications in an application for bugs, errors, or vulnerabilities. It also helps them:

1. Run parallel tests on multiple devices;
2. Reuse the tests;
3. Get enhanced coverage;
4. Achieve a better ROI.

Mobile Testing on Real Devices or Virtual Devices?

Companies want apps that work on all devices. They prefer to test on real devices. QA teams often have confusion about whether to test the app on real devices or on emulators.

Real devices are required to verify the app’s performance. Real devices are the real mobile devices the end user would use to run your app. They can provide exact results and allow testing under the same conditions as the end-user.

Testing on Real Devices

There are many benefits to testing on real devices, such as:

• Real-life conditions are ideal for testing.
• Tests on real devices help recreate the actions of the customer
• Real devices can be used to test payment gateways.
• High-level testing of AI games can be done on real devices
• When releasing new versions or models of smartphones, real devices are used primarily.

Real device cloud is used by many companies to improve their testing and produce high-quality apps. It offers a mobile testing environment that includes a variety of iOS and Android devices, with different OS versions, screen sizes, and other features.

Testing with Virtual Devices

Mobile testing is not only done on real devices. QA teams also use virtual devices to conduct mobile testing.

• Virtual Devices – Virtual device is a software program that simulates most of the key features on a real mobile device
• Simulators – Simulator runs programs that were designed for another OS and only emulates software.

When testing the external behavior of the mobile, such as making calculations or transactions, emulators are preferable. Simulators, on the other side, are less reliable than emulators. They are not suitable to debugging.

Simulators and Emulator have limitations. You can subscribe to a device cloud, or device farm, if you’re interested.

Conclusion

The performance of your mobile app is crucial to the success of your business. It’s impossible to create mobile software of high quality in just a few hours. To provide the best customer experience, you must follow a series of steps. Plan ahead before you publish your app to the marketplace. These strategies will help you choose the right testing method for your application. These tips will allow you to successfully test your mobile app. We’re happy to assist you in this area.

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