5 Sep 2022
Mobile app testing is the procedure used to examine the consistency, usability, and functioning of mobile applications. You can manually test an app on a mobile device or use automation.
There are several reasons why mobile testing is vital. For conducting business, mobile apps are crucial. Additionally, testing mobile apps is essential to ensure that they function properly.
You can approach these mobile testing types in a number of different ways. The three types of testing mentioned here are manual, automated, and continuous.
Automating mobile app testing is essential for accelerating testing and increasing test coverage across platforms and test scenarios. Although automating mobile app testing is notoriously difficult, most test cases can be done thus.
Automation can be erratic and time-consuming when performed improperly, making the setup work not worthwhile. To maximize the ROI of your automation, you should avoid doing this.
There are numerous advantages to test automation that you’ll enjoy when done strategically. These include greater risk mitigation, quicker bug detection, increased test coverage, and quicker time to delivery.
Having said that, it is advised that you start off slowly if you’re new to automating mobile app testing. Try not to automate every single task at once. In actuality, not all of your tests will ever be automated.
So where should you begin from? It is advised that one must begin automation on the three distinct test cases. These are unit tests, integration tests, and functional tests when you are testing mobile applications. Your top priority for automation should be these tests, and for someone just getting started, they provide a fantastic place to start.
1. Unit Testing
The quickest type of testing is unit testing. These tests are usually inexpensive to fix, highly reusable, and simpler to troubleshoot.
2. Integration Testing
This type of testing ensures that all modules and interfaces function as intended. The testing process is sped up and feedback is received more rapidly when these tests are automated.
3. Function Testing
Another testing category that should be given priority for automation is functional testing. You may evaluate how well your app works across different devices, operating systems, and other differences by automating functional UI testing. This is crucial given how fragmented the mobile landscape is.
After deciding which tests to automate first, you must choose an automation framework.
You have many options for automated mobile app testing.
Pick one that is trustworthy, supports your goals, connects with your toolchain and ongoing procedures, and enhances the team’s skill set.
For your consideration, below are a few test automation frameworks.
1.)Appium
An open-source framework is called Appium. It is the top framework for testing mobile applications. The vibrant community surrounding Appium can be useful for individuals just getting into automation.
2.)Espresso
Espresso is another free and open-source mobile testing framework. However, this foundation is exclusive to Android. It was developed by Google and is great for testing Android UI.
3.)XCUITest
The open-source testing framework XCUITest is exclusively available for iOS apps. It was created and is now maintained by Apple, and it works great for automating UI tests for iOS. A developer-friendly framework for unit and functional testing is called XCUITest.
4.)Quantum
The open source framework known as Quantum was developed by Perfecto. It is a framework for BDD testing. This implies that learning how to code is not necessary for writing test scripts. Quantum is perfect for teams without coding expertise because it allows you to construct test flows in plain language.
A few choices must be made once you’ve chosen a framework and are prepared to run your tests. The first has to do with the platforms you’ll use to conduct your tests. Do you plan to run your tests on actual hardware or on virtual ones like emulators and simulators? Or, will you combine the two?
Virtual Tools
Mobile app testing virtual hardware includes:
iPhone simulators
the Android emulators
You may test the essential features and UI design of iOS apps using iOS simulators. Similar to this, Android emulators let you test the fundamental app functionality and UI design of Android apps. Simulators imitate rather than mimic the actions of a real device when it comes to emulation vs. simulation.
Virtual device testing is quick, even quicker than testing on actual devices. Teams enjoy using them for this reason. Never mind but testing on virtual devices does have certain disadvantages, though.
When compared to actual equipment, virtual gadgets have less testing flexibility. App performance cannot be evaluated because you cannot test genuine device characteristics on virtual devices, such as battery life.
If virtual devices are the only ones employed in your testing plan, bugs may get through due to the limited testing capabilities.
Real Devices
Real hardware and actual, physical devices are used during testing on real hardware. This includes necessary environment-based testing, such as testing of gestures and certain carrier configurations or special sensors.
In order to use real devices in mobile testing:
1.)Test the app in various contexts and locations around the globe.
2.)Try out different OS versions, environmental factors, and rival apps.
The use of both physical and virtual devices is complimentary. Use of both varieties of platforms in your mobile app testing strategy is therefore advised as a best practice. Based on the construction phase, tests should be distributed between emulators/simulators and real devices.
Generally speaking, it is advisable to employ virtual devices in the early stages of development and real devices in the later stages.
Running smoke tests, unit tests, and other quick validations against virtual devices from the developer environment makes a lot of sense in the early sprint phases while the features are still taking shape.
The best course of action is to launch the entire testing scope concurrently against real devices later on in the build phase when the coverage needs and the quality insights are stronger.
The decision of whether to run tests locally or in the cloud is another factor to take into account while running tests.
For a number of reasons, we advise conducting testing in a cloud-based setting. On-premise testing is more constrained in general. Teams can have more flexibility with cloud-based solutions, among other advantages.
It is perfect for remote teams or people who work from home because it can be accessed from anywhere.
24/7 accessibility is provided.
More easily scalable than on-premises solutions are clouds.
It can aid in extending test coverage for both test scenarios and devices.
New releases can be accessed more quickly this way.
Compared to on-premises systems, clouds are safer.
in addition.
Author: Akash Upadhyay
5 Sep 2022
