Mobile App Testing: Key Factors You Must Consider
The tech industry is rapidly growing with the latest technologies and applications day-by-day. The rise of mobile applications has changed the whole perception of things around us. The lifestyle of people improved drastically with the usage of smartphones, and mobile apps happened to be the cherry on the cake. Mobile app development services play a vital role in the growth and development of these apps.
Today, you can accomplish any task through a mobile app all thanks to the increasing growth of various smartphones. These apps offer enormous convenience to people and therefore, they carry out their various tasks with just one click on their device.
Similarly, business enterprises have started taking advantage of these technologies to grow their trade and reach their target audience. It has brought a remarkable change in the perception of doing business as a whole. You will find apps for a variety of businesses such as a cab-hailing app, food delivery app, shopping app, and many more. All of these have made a striking impact on the overall market.
Mobile app developers make sure that these applications provide the desired output and serve the defined purpose of the relevant business. To achieve this goal, they carry out a set of processes and testing is one of them. Yes, you read that right. Mobile app testing holds a significant place from the time of development to bringing it to the market.
What is Mobile App Testing?
Mobile app testing is crucial for determining the performance of a particular application. It involves testing of those applications and websites that target mobile device users. They may include native or hybrid apps or websites that will be viewed on mobile devices.
Moreover, it enables enterprises to build applications that are scalable and accessible across multiple platforms. Mobile application testing can be done either with automation or manual testing techniques. Mobile apps have become complicated with their increasing use. Therefore, it is crucial to have end-to-end testing for these applications. It ensures that it is downloadable effectively, works seamlessly, and gives the same kind of experience across various devices.
Mobile app testing can be done with the help of cloud technology, mobile simulators, and actual mobile devices. Let us understand all these means of testing, along with their benefits.
Cloud Technology
A lot of people use cloud technology for mobile app development and testing as well. For this purpose, they can leverage a cloud-based mobile device lab. The cloud offers some significant benefits for mobile app testing as below.
- It helps in reducing the cost of infrastructure and improves the quality of the application
- It ensures faster performance of applications being tested
- Also, it helps in bringing applications faster in the market
When you leverage cloud technology for mobile app testing, you need to consider some key points that may include the device matrix & technology, security challenges while transferring data, and support offered for software & devices.
Businesses can utilize cloud technology for testing because it helps ensure scalability across various platforms, devices, and operating systems. They need to consider these things to avoid incurring costs & rectify them post the launch of the application.
Simulators
Mobile simulators have popularly been used for mobile app testing by developers for a long time. A mobile simulator is primarily, a tool or software application that acts like the actual environment or the device for testing mobile apps.
Mobile simulators provide numerous benefits as below.
- It is easy to implement them and serves the best cost-effective solution
- Simulators come free, so you do not need to purchase any of them online
- You can quickly install applications on these simulators and do testing on multiple simulators effectively
- One of the essential benefits is that your testing is not interrupted by network issues, and thus, it gets faster and better
- Testers can get full access to the local storage on a simulator, which helps them have a better understanding of the behavior of an application in the local storage environment
- Simulators offer the ease of installation and promote faster time-to-time market
Testing on Real Devices
When you develop a mobile application, it is critical to know its performance and scalability across various devices. Simulators have proved to be effective in the initial stage of testing. However, they have a few limitations. Therefore, many believe that testing mobile apps on real devices can give effective and desired results.
Utilizing real devices for mobile app testing can be an expensive option and requires considerable investment. Today, you can witness that the market is undergoing rapid changes with the launch of updates each day. In this situation, it is challenging for business enterprises to keep their devices updated. However, if you want to deliver user experience and handle issues beforehand, then testing on the latest versions of devices has to be the preferred option.
Today, several independent testing companies provide a mobile lab that you can leverage for various testing requirements. It is a cost-effective solution for enterprises where they do not need to worry about upgrading versions and devices. Moreover, the mobile labs are available at any point in time according to the testing needs. In this way, you can measure the behavior of your business-critical applications.
Mobile app testing has become an integral part of different app development. It is critical for enterprises to ensure the desired performance and scalability of a particular app. Moreover, they also need to ensure that it fulfills the requirements of the business.
However, there are certain things you need to consider while testing your mobile applications.
FACTORS AFFECTING MOBILE APP TESTING
Choice of Mobile Devices
Mobile app testing on real devices involves the right selection of mobile devices. It is critical for business owners to do so because they need to ensure that their applications serve the desired purpose on the target devices. Moreover, it also helps in determining the performance of a particular app in relevance with its target audience or users.
Selection of Simulators or Real Devices
Simulators serve the purpose of effective testing in the initial stage of mobile app testing. Whereas, real devices offer a real environment for hard testing of applications for their performance and scalability
Cloud Testing
When you leverage cloud technology for testing, you can effectively reduce the testing cost and rapidly bring the app to the market.
Network
If you want to test the actual performance of your mobile application, then you need to examine it under varying network conditions. It will help you determine whether your app will offer the desired output or not. Moreover, by doing so, you can make it functional across challenging network scenarios.
Performance
You can test the performance of your application with the help of automated testing. It also helps in verifying its behavior by applying load or stress.
Manual/Automated
Manual and automated testing, both are critical when it comes to testing a mobile application. Both of these testing techniques have their benefits, which contribute to the success of a particular application after being launched in the market.
Conclusion:
For any business that plans to develop and deploy a mobile app needs to understand the significance of Mobile App Testing. It gives an assurance that their planned app will effectively reach their target audience and cater to their needs & contribute to their growth and development.
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