Mobile Testing: Where Should You Start?
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Mobile applications have become a necessity in this day and age. They must provide a high degree of quality and reliability because millions of users use them for shopping, entertainment, health, and financial purposes. To keep these apps working seamlessly and provide an excellent user experience (UX), you need mobile testing in place. Mobile testing is the process of ensuring that an app behaves in an expected way under different conditions, device types, and OS versions. Let us know about mobile testing and its importance in the current software industry.
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What is Mobile Testing?
Mobile testing is performed to validate the functionality, usability, and performance of a mobile application. It differs from web or desktop app testing because a mobile app needs to work across multiple devices, screen sizes, OS versions & network conditions. Mobile testing keeps these apps accessible, secure, and performant regardless of how or where they are used.
Key Areas for Mobile Testing
- Functional Testing: Tests the fundamental functionality of the app, like navigation, button clicks, or form submission, and whether the app does what it is supposed to do. Read: Functional Testing Types: An In-Depth Look
- Usability Testing: This involves testing the application’s UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience). We check that the app is simple, attractive, and straightforward to use. Read: UX Testing: What, Why, How, with Examples
- Performance Testing: This test measures the app’s load time, responsiveness, and stability under heavy user traffic and various network conditions. Read: What is Performance Testing: Types and Examples
- Security Testing: Important for apps handling sensitive data, security testing discovers vulnerabilities and verifies whether user data is safeguarded. Read: Security Testing
- Compatibility Testing: This validates your app’s functionality on various devices, OS versions, screen sizes, and network types. Read: Cross-browser Testing with testRigor
- Accessibility Testing: Ensures mobile applications are usable by people with disabilities by validating WCAG compliance, including support for screen readers like VoiceOver and TalkBack, sufficient color contrast, and accessible alternatives to gestures, as accessibility issues can now lead to app store rejection and legal non-compliance. Read: Accessibility Testing
Importance of Mobile Testing
The quality of a mobile application can directly impact user satisfaction, retention, and overall business success. Here’s why mobile testing is essential:
- Great User Experience: A thoroughly tested app gives a seamless user experience, reduces crashes, and helps in loading the content at a fast rate. This enhances the overall user experience and app usage.
- Compatibility Across Devices: Mobile users access apps on a variety of devices, with various hardware, screen size, and OS configurations. Compatibility testing across different devices mitigates the chances of negative feedback due to compatibility issues.
- Handling Different Network Conditions: While mobile apps are similar to desktop apps, they have to work under diverse network conditions—ranging from fast Wi-Fi to slow 3G or even offline. Network simulation is used in mobile testing to validate that the app can function with these fluctuations.
- Adhering to App Store Requirements: Apple and Google Play maintain high-quality standards. Depending on the application’s nature, it needs to pass specific functionality, security, and usability requirements. If these standards are not met, the app will either be rejected or removed from the store.
- Privacy and Security of User Data: Mobile apps tend to work with sensitive user data, everything from payment details to personal information. Data breaches can destroy user trust and brand reputation, so it is imperative that your security measures are stringent, and mobile tests should be a part of the process.
How to do Mobile Testing?
Mobile testing ensures that applications provide a seamless experience across various devices, operating systems, and network conditions. Given the complexities of mobile app testing, teams must employ a strategic approach, often combining multiple methods for optimal results. Here’s a breakdown of the main approaches to mobile testing, how they work, and when to use them.
Manual Testing
In manual testing, testers interact with the mobile application like real users to discover issues, errors, and usability problems. This enables testing for parts of the application that cannot be quantified and need human judgment, such as the overall UX and UI usability.
Manual Testing: Advantages vs Disadvantages
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Human Insight: Manual testers can evaluate user-friendliness, intuitiveness, and overall user experience in ways automated scripts cannot. | Time-Consuming: Testing features manually across multiple devices, OS versions, and screen sizes requires significant time and effort. |
| Realistic Feedback: Testers can identify elements that feel unnatural or unintuitive to real users, which automation may miss. | Limited Scalability: Each test requires human involvement, making it difficult to test many devices and configurations simultaneously. |
| Flexibility: Manual testing does not require setup or technical expertise, making it suitable for new or frequently changing features. | Prone to Human Error: Fatigue, repetition, and oversight can lead to missed defects or inconsistent results. |
Automated Testing
Automated testing is an approach that employs scripts and software tools to run tests on stages of development, eliminating the need for human interaction. It is best suited for repetitive test cases and allows testers to quickly validate functionality across a range of devices and configurations. Automation testing is particularly effective for regression testing, which is the process of running the same suite of tests each time the application is modified or upgraded.
Advantages of Automated Testing
- Less Time Required for Regression Testing: Regression testing requires testing similar features after an update, which can be automated and faster, leaving the tester with room to concentrate on many other human-dependent tasks.
- Parallel Testing Across Devices: Automated tests can be run in parallel on different devices, OS, and configurations. This provides higher coverage in less time as compared to manual testing.
- Broader Device and OS Coverage: Automated tests can execute on multiple devices and OS versions. It helps in making sure the software works and functions over a wide range of environments.
- Reduced Need for Manual Testing: Automated test cases can reduce the number of manual tests, as once they are created, they are reusable several times with minimal maintenance, reducing the cost over time.
- Time Savings Translated into Cost Savings: For large-scale projects or applications that require frequent updates, the time saved on repetitive testing tasks can translate into significant cost reductions.
- Long-Running Performance Tests: You can test an app’s performance for a long duration through automation to see how well it is handling resources, leaking memory, and consuming battery, which are the most important factors for mobile apps.
Real Device Testing vs. Emulators/Simulators
To ensure the app functions properly across different environments, teams use a mix of real and virtual devices, such as emulators and simulators. Both have unique benefits and limitations.
Real Device Testing
The testing is performed on real devices that will be used by the end users. This approach offers the most realistic test outcome because it reduces the controlled variables and takes into consideration scenarios such as the use of real hardware, battery usage, and network connection.
Real Device Testing: Advantages vs Disadvantages
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Accurate Testing: Testing on real devices provides the most reliable insight into app performance under real-life usage conditions. | Expensive: Building and maintaining a diverse real-device lab is costly, especially for teams that need multiple devices and OS combinations. |
| Hardware and Sensor Testing: Real devices allow validation of hardware-specific features such as camera, GPS, accelerometer, and fingerprint sensors. | Logistical Challenges: Managing devices, OS updates, storage, access, and availability requires significant coordination and resources. |
| Network Conditioning Authenticity: Testing occurs on real networks like 4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi, reflecting actual user connectivity conditions. |
Emulators and Simulators
Emulators (software that mimics the OS) and simulators (software that mimics the device) allow testers to mimic device configurations without the need for physical devices.
Advantages:
- Budget Friendly: Emulators and simulators come at a lower price than creating and managing a physical device lab.
- Accessibility: They’re readily available and simple to use, making them suitable for quick functionality tests.
Disadvantages:
- Limited Accuracy: Emulators and simulators do not always exactly mimic special hardware behaviors, like device heat or battery usage.
- Poor choice for Performance Testing: Virtual devices cannot be relied upon to give accurate results as compared to real devices in terms of performance under load or bad network conditions.
Read: Choosing the Best Mobile Testing Option: Real Devices vs. Emulators
Challenges in Mobile Testing
Mobile testing is not without its challenges. Mobile applications must operate across diverse environments, devices, configurations, etc. Managing these variables can be complex and will require effort. Here are a few of the key challenges:
- Device Fragmentation: Mobile applications must function on various devices with different screen sizes, hardware capabilities, and operating systems. Maintaining a broad device library to account for all configurations can be costly and logistically challenging.
- Network Variability: Mobile applications operate under various network conditions, from high-speed Wi-Fi to intermittent 3G or 4G connections. Testing under these conditions requires simulating network fluctuations and ensuring that the app behaves predictably.
- High Testing Costs: Maintaining a device lab or subscribing to cloud-based device platforms can be costly. Additionally, real-device testing requires investment in physical devices and their maintenance.
- Test Maintenance: Automated test scripts often require maintenance, particularly in agile environments where UI and functionality change frequently. Maintaining these scripts can be resource-intensive.
These challenges highlight the importance of selecting the right mobile testing strategy and tools to optimize testing efforts and mitigate common issues.
Mobile Test Automation
Mobile test automation has become essential for reducing the time and resources required to test applications. By automating repetitive tasks, teams can accelerate testing, allowing them to validate app functionality and detect issues quickly. A few benefits of mobile test automation are:
- Efficiency and Speed: Automated testing allows teams to run tests quickly and frequently, making it easier to catch issues early in the development process.
- Reduced Human Error: Automation reduces the chances of missing critical issues due to fatigue or oversight.
- Scalability: Automation allows teams to run tests across multiple devices, operating systems, and configurations, ensuring thorough coverage.
AI-Driven Mobile Testing
As mobile applications evolve rapidly with frequent UI changes and faster release cycles, traditional script-based automation struggles to keep up. AI-driven mobile testing focuses on validating user intent rather than technical implementation, making mobile test automation more stable, scalable, and accessible.
- Script-Based Automation vs AI-Native Testing: Script-based automation depends on fixed locators and UI structures, which makes tests brittle and high-maintenance. AI-native testing (like testRigor) removes this dependency by interpreting user intent written in plain language and executing tests dynamically.
- NLP-Based Test Creation: Using NLP, AI-driven tools allow test cases to be written in simple, readable English. This enables manual testers, product managers, and business users to contribute to automation without deep technical expertise.
- Vision AI for UI Validation: Vision AI identifies UI elements visually rather than through XPath or accessibility IDs. This makes tests resilient to layout changes, screen-size variations, and UI redesigns common in mobile apps.
- Self-Healing Tests Without Locators: AI-driven tests automatically adapt when UI elements change, eliminating the need to constantly update locators. This significantly reduces flaky tests and ongoing maintenance effort.
- Reduced Flakiness Through Intent-Based Testing: By focusing on what the user wants to accomplish instead of how the UI is implemented, AI-driven testing minimizes failures caused by timing issues, animations, and minor UI updates.
Tools for Mobile Test Automation
Below are some widely used mobile test automation tools, along with their advantages and disadvantages:
testRigor
testRigor is a generative AI-powered mobile test automation platform that enables teams to create and maintain mobile tests using plain English, eliminating the need for complex scripting or element locators. It supports both Android and iOS with a single test and is designed to reduce test maintenance while enabling faster, more resilient automation.
Advantages:
- Tests are written in plain English and are resilient to UI changes, significantly reducing flakiness and maintenance overhead.
- A single test works across both platforms without separate scripts or platform-specific locators.
- Enables manual testers, product managers, and business users to create and maintain automated mobile tests without coding expertise.
Appium
An open-source framework that supports cross-platform testing on both Android and iOS.
Advantages:
- Cross-platform, allowing teams to write a single script for Android and iOS.
- Open-source, with no initial cost.
Disadvantages:
- It requires technical expertise to set up and maintain it.
- Test scripts can be fragile and require frequent updates.
Espresso (Android) and XCUITest (iOS)
Espresso is Google’s official testing framework for Android, while XCUITest is Apple’s counterpart for iOS.
Advantages:
- Fast execution speed, as they are platform-native.
- Supported and updated by Google and Apple, respectively.
Disadvantages:
- Limited to specific platforms (Android for Espresso, iOS for XCUITest).
- Requires coding knowledge, which can make it less accessible for non-technical users.
Ranorex
It supports mobile, web, and desktop testing and offers a more comprehensive solution.
Advantages:
- Suitable for testers with limited programming knowledge.
- Comprehensive solution covering mobile, web, and desktop.
Disadvantages:
- Expensive licensing makes it costly for small or medium-sized teams.
- The tool may not fully support the latest mobile OS versions.
How testRigor Overcomes Mobile Testing Challenges
testRigor addresses many of the common challenges in mobile test automation, making it an exceptional choice for teams aiming to streamline testing processes. Let’s understand how testRigor is better than the rest of the tools.
- Minimal Script Maintenance: testRigor is based on generative AI and uses an natural language processing (NLP) approach, allowing users to create and update tests in plain English. This simplicity reduces the need for script maintenance and allows tests to remain stable even as the application’s UI changes.
- One Script for Different Platforms: Unlike other tools, where you need to write element locators based on Android or iOS, in testRigor, you just need to write one single script that will work for Android and iOS. There is no need to worry about managing two scripts.
- Cloud Execution: You don’t need to keep any physical devices for execution. You can run the tests on the testRigor device cloud in parallel, covering more devices in less time and helping to increase execution coverage.
- CI/CD integrations: testRigor integrates seamlessly with popular CI/CD platforms like Jenkins, GitLab and CircleCI, enabling continuous testing and reducing feedback loops in Agile and DevOps environments.
- Test Regulatory Compliance: testRigor is SOC2 and HIPAA compliant and supports FDA 21 CFR Part 11 reporting. testRigor understands your compliance requirements and helps you test them with its powerful features.
You can read this article to understand how to do mobile testing using testRigor: How to do mobile testing using testRigor?
Here is a video to demonstrate how: Mobile Test Automation
Conclusion
Mobile testing is vital for delivering high-quality applications that users trust and enjoy. Traditional tools often have limitations, including high maintenance, cost, and complexity. testRigor provides a unique generative AI-based solution, enabling teams to reduce script maintenance, access AI-powered resilience, and empower non-technical members. For organizations looking to enhance their mobile testing efforts, testRigor offers a solution that balances efficiency, accessibility, and thoroughness. By addressing common testing challenges, testRigor helps teams deliver high-quality mobile experiences that exceed user expectations.
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