Mobile application testing is essential to release high-quality mobile applications into the market, but the real challenge comes when ensuring that the mobile app works on both Android & IOS platforms. Mobile testing enables us to catch bugs like application crashes, UI issues, functionality issues, etc. Most assume that desktop testing & mobile testing are similar but they are quite different. Here, we are going to discuss the complexities and industry-proven standard procedures to follow when testing mobile applications.

Mobile Application Testing Process

Mobile Application Testing can be done either by automation or a manual testing process. It's a process that builds application software by testing it for its functionality, usability, and consistency.

Andriod Testing Process

(Note: The diagram above shows the extra steps that we’ve plugged into the Continuous Integration process.)

Complexities in Mobile App Testing

Though desktop & mobile app testing have similarities like functionality, security, and end-to-end testing, it is to be noted that they aren’t the same. Desktop testing includes browser compatibility, functionality, security, end to end testing, etc. Whereas mobile apps testing includes version level, OS level, compatibility, functionality, user interface, performance, application crash, security, network, etc.

Key Challenges in Mobile App Testing

Conversion of undertaking applications is a major challenge in global organizations, as the invested time and money to build the same application high & does not match with ROI.
Security is always a concern and continues to haunt the safety of the user data.
Each mobile OS has different UI rules and guidelines. Ensuring that each mobile app is developed in accordance with the rules and guidelines is challenging.
Making sure mobile applications are contextually aware is one of the challenges.
Rushing to meet build release dates increases the pressure on teams to quickly fix bugs in applications.
Network issues (like varying bandwidths) demand enormous testing complexities to ensure that the application functions in various environments is working at all speeds.
Functionalities working in one OS version works in another version of the same OS too.
Looking at the growth and unique solutions of the mobile industry, companies started to empower their organization's growth by adopting mobile applications. The complete volume of mobile applications makes the entire process complex.

Automation Testing Tools

Some of the popular mobile testing automation tools in the industry are:

Appium
Robotium
MonkeyRunner
UI Automator
MonkeyTalk
Testdroid
Calabash
Frank
SeeTest

Before discussing mobile testing, first we need to know about the types of mobile applications.

Types of Mobile Applications

The choice of mobile app testing processes is purely based on the type of mobile application. So, the tester must know which type of mobile app one is going to test. They are categorized into three different types:

Mobile web applications: web applications you should open with the mobile browser. In software industry standards we should check mobile browser compatibility.
Native applications: Native mobile applications are developed on a platform like (IOS, Android, Windows 10 mobile, Blackberry, etc.)
Hybrid applications: They are installed on a device, just like any other application.

(Check out comparison between different types of mobile applications development)

Factors to Consider for Testing Mobile Web Application

Applications built for mobile browsers.
It can be accessed by entering the specific URL in mobile browser.
UI should fit the mobile browser.
No Installation/Un-installations involved.
No Upgrade involved.
Browser-Based Application users always expect connectivity.
Network speed and coverage become an important test case.

Factors to Consider for Testing Mobile Native

Applications which are shipped as in-built software with the mobile device
If devices are not launched yet, a prototype of that device model is given by the device manufacturer.
No Downloads involved.
No Installation/Un-installations involved.
Automatic upgrades can be done.
Testing of these applications in prototypes is very critical
They deal with the very core data and functions of the device.
If anything goes wrong, the core database might get corrupt.
They cannot be uninstalled/deleted ever.
Crashes can cause severe damage to ROM.
The only way to remove these applications would be to flush ROM and then upgrade.

Factors to Consider for Testing Mobile Hybrid Application

The app should install on preferred Android/IOS mobiles.
The app should not crash while using.
App UI should display the same in all devices.
App security should consider.
Network speed and coverage become important.
The app should provide minimum functionalities even in case of offline.
Should consider both (Android & IOS) OS-level like (Android 10, Pie, Oreo, Nougat, Marshmallow, Yukon, Hope, Fatsa, Emet, Bursa, etc.), as few functionalities wont not work.

About Author

Naga_Lakshmi-removebg-preview Naga Lakshmi Kodumuri works as a Senior Software Engineer at V-Soft Consulting and has more than 5 years of IT experience in Software Testing and around 2 years of experience as an Automation QA Engineer using Appium. She is experienced in Web & Mobile App (Android & iOS) testing, GUI, Functional, Integration, System, Ad-hoc, Usability, Data Base, Smoke, Regression and Retesting. In her testing career, she gained good knowledge in Selenium IDE, WebDriver and Appium automation Testing Tools.