A quick guide to Mobile Application Testing

In an era of information technology, the evolution of mobile phones from simple tools for communication to a gadget that can do nearly everything, whether it is online ordering, availing home service, or cab services. Its surge in demand has exaggerated its advancement in terms of technology and accuracy in its performance. It gives rise to the need for an accurate Mobile App Test. The market is indeed crammed with mobile applications of various types, which has led to an increase in demand for skilled application developers. 

Mobile Application Testing’s aim is to provide the best experience to their customer and tends to make the application more interesting, innovative and free of any bugs or glitches. Thus, the above accomplishment can be done through adequate Mobile Application Testing. In this blog, we will offer our readers a quick guide on mobile application testing. 

Introduction to Mobile Application Testing

In simple words, “Mobile Application Testing” is understood as the process performed for quality assurance purposes of hand-developed mobile applications before being released to the app store or public market. The mobile application development lifecycle tends to be shorter than desktop applications, and it must be dependent on mobile application testing for its success. Basically, it tests the application in three areas-functionality, consistency and usability to meet the functional and non-functional requirements, business needs and user perception. It amplifies the efficiency and reliability factor of the application. 

Significance of Mobile Application Testing 

How does a user generally decide on which application to download for their purpose in the app store? It is mainly done by going through the reviews and ratings associated with the functionality and reliability of the application. This has made Mobile Application Testing crucial as it alleviates any issues and ensures smooth running. In today’s times, the increase in different types of mobile phones varies on operating systems like Android and iOS, sizes and processing capacity. 

This necessitated compatibility of the application with all available smartphones than ever before. The sound Mobile Application Testing process can ensure compatibility efficiency. Further, different internet service providers require the working of applications in each one of them to reach large numbers of users. Hence, stable Mobile Application Testing can aid in establishing connectivity for different internet service providers across the board. 

A basic approach to mobile application testing 

Mainly, there are two approaches for mobile application testing- Manual and automation testing. 

Manual testing

It is a human process addressing user experience. The evaluation of the functionality, security and usability of the applications is performed through the medium of the user in a comprehensive process. This ensures that the application stands in the value of user-friendliness. However, manual testing is mainly time-consuming as time is invested in recognizing bugs. Thus, as a thumb rule, only 20% of the testing is done manually with the use of alpha and beta releases and the rest, 80%, are automated. 

Automation testing 

It automates the mobile testing process by setting up arrays of test cases. For example, automation of tedious manual testing cases, simple automated cases, test cases for most often used functionality, test cases impossible to perform manually and test cases with predictable results. Some of the basic advantages of the automation testing approach are a surge in testing efficiency, improved regression test case execution, saving time, and allowing the repetition of test cases in different devices with the parallel running of the test scripts. 

Apart from the above approach, there are other different stages of mobile application testing explained in the below sections:

• Functionality testing 

• It is done to note whether the created application meets the standard requirement and expectations of the developer. 
• Say, for example, you have to launch an application; the initial step you have to perform is to conduct a functional test. 
• It checks the user interface and flows along with the product discovery and checkout process. 
• Performance testing 

• The mobile application needs to be performed in difficult situations like low battery and connectivity. Performance testing involves testing in poor conditions. 
• For example, if you have created an application for your blog page without involving coding. The target audiences of the application will mainly go through your pages while traveling or working with the use of their cellular internet connection, which has a slower speed than Wi-Fi. 
• The first question that will strike your mind is whether your application provides an optimal experience. To answer this, you require to do performance testing in difficult conditions. 
• Usability testing 

• This approach validates and checks the user experience of an application. 
• It involves testing the parameters like response time, intuitiveness and mobile navigation ease. 
• It explores the placement of buttons, CTAs and menus. 
• Security testing 

• The major threat to a developed application is malicious hacking attempts. It can deploy on any application with weak security. 
• Ranging from social engineering efforts to injection hackers and SQL, the attackers can exploit various vulnerabilities of an application. 
• With security testing, a gamut of cybersecurity practices involving penetration testing and reconnaissance is done that snip any security issues. 

Features need to be included in the Mobile application testing checklist.

• Graphical User Interface (GUI)
• Compatibility of an app across platforms, OS, and browsers
• Security vulnerabilities
• Memory usage
•  App navigation
• Network compatibility
• Battery consumption

Different types of tests depend on various applications.

• Web application

These are web applications accessed by native browsers like chrome and supported by the selenium test framework. 

• Native application

These are definite to android, windows, blackberry and iOS. Mainly built into IPA binary file and tested with XCUITest framework or Appium. Example, Facebook 

• Hybrid application

These are a combination of native and web applications which can be accessed by nearly all the operating system’s particular capabilities. 

Explore Mobile Testing Tools categories. 

The availability of a large number of devices and configurations made the Mobile Application Testing difficult and required cross-checking. A host of debugging tools for testing the application is available to smoothen the process. They are classified into different categories: real devices, emulators and simulators.

• Simulators: For Mobile Application Testing, simulators are virtual devices that do not mimic the OS or hardware and imitate the basic hardware and software features of a real device. 
• Emulator: It is also a virtual android device that sets up the environment for app testing mimicking the hardware or OS configuration of the device. 
• Real devices: It is a mobile app testing environment providing instant access to various iOS, android and different mobile devices. 

Which one should you opt for, Mobile Application Testing?

Emulators and simulators have issues as they form false positive and false negative results that adversely impact the ROI of the organization. They may fail to cover all the features of the application. On the other hand, the real device offers an advantage over the two based on QA testing. Therefore, it is not suggested to rely on one tool for testing; instead, all three options must be chosen according to the testing requirement. 

Different tools used for Mobile Application Testing 

You can use the below tools for mobile application testing. 

• Appium: It is an open-source testing tool that allows UI tests on devices in different software testing platforms. We can reuse the codes in diverse testing environments. It supports code-writing tests for languages like Ruby and Python. 
• Espresso: It is a native framework for android automated testing. It is open source, which allows developers to use it easily. It enables you to write reliable user interface tests for androids. It also provides fast, fast feedback on the changes made in codes and thus allows us to move to the next feature and defect fix faster. 
• XCUITest: It is a UI testing framework that helps in developing UI tests that highlight the user’s interface with the mobile application. It is intuitive for the developers because it runs from XCode IDE. This tool has been instrumented, and it works directly at the object level leading to a lowering of maintenance efforts that may occur secondary to changes done in the application. 

View on the way to test mobile applications 

Improve Mobile Application Testing with LambdaTest

LambdaTest is a test automation cloud that provides access to almost everything needed to build a mobile test plan: 

• It performs live testing of the mobile application in different devices to debug based on Emulators/Simulators or online real device cloud.
• Can test any type of application like hybrid, native, and web. 
• Selenium test automation script can be run across the online selenium grid of the iOS mobile browser, android, and desktop. 

Conclusion 

The global mobile application market is enhancing with technology. The crucial approach towards the success of an application in the public market is the performance of mobile application testing. It ensures bug fixes and meets the standard and demands of the market. 

Exploring mobile application testing can be difficult. However, being aware of the parameters and process can help in the efficient launch of an application. Even though the points covered do not address all aspects of Mobile application testing, you can utilize the information to get started with it.