How to do Mobile App Testing – Tips, Tools and Challenges

From food and finance to entertainment, everything is done with mobile apps, and there is a flood of apps out there. Their users are growing every day and there will be around 7.41 mobile app users by the year 2024. For a better user experience, mobile app testing is crucial and its importance is increasing day by day. We have compiled a complete guide for you, explore it in detail to get the best results. What is Mobile App Testing Process? Mobile app testing is a process of checking any mobile application for its proper functionality, usability, compatibility, and performance. The testing process has a broad range of evaluation techniques to make sure the app meets user requirements and business expectations. To make sure your app performs perfectly, it is tested for: Mobile App Vulnerability Testing – Why is it Important? As the heading indicates, the whole purpose of mobile testing is to work on the vulnerability of applications and avoid poor reviews. App’s lousy functionality and crashes can also be avoided. Additionally, you get the following benefits: Different Types of Mobile Apps There are different types of mobile applications and you need to be clear about which one you are going to test. The three major categories are: Native Applications: developed and built using specified SDKs for a specific platform and its operating system – could be Android, Windows, iOS, etc. They have reliable performance and a faster user experience. Their maintenance, however, can be costly. They have a solo platform affinity but can run offline. Web Applications: a web version of an application that runs on different browsers like Firefox, Chrome, etc. They have a cross-platform affinity and don’t need any installation but a wireless internet connection is a must. Hybrid Applications: a twinning of web apps and native apps with native APIs. They take comparatively less time to develop and have a low budget. In terms of performance, however, their speed isn’t as good as native apps. Stages of Mobile App Testing Process To ensure detailed mobile app testing, there are different stages you have to go through. Stage 1 – Documentation Testing: This is the initial non-functional phase of your mobile app testing, done before the development starts. It helps with the estimation of testing coverage, effort, resource tracking, etc. The testers are handed out navigational charts and screen layouts, and other pictorial or written information to report on the application’s procedures, functions, and results. Whatever inconsistency you find in this documentation will ultimately impact the development. Common documented artifacts include: Stage 2 – Functional Testing: As the name shows, functional testing is to see if your app is performing the tasks to intend for it to perform. It is where the completeness of your defined requirements gets checked. The testing works on the overall accessibility and usability of the app and makes it error-free. Included with this, are a few necessary factors given below: Stage 3 – Usability Testing: Here, you will work to ensure convenience for your user and make it easy to use. Three criteria involved in usability testing are: Here we have provided a useful checklist for quality testing: Stage 4 – User Interface (UI) Testing: First impressions do leave an impact. A user interface is where the user interacts directly with the app so it should be structurally intuitive and visually appealing. Here is a brief checklist to work on: Stage 5 – Compatibility Testing: Compatibility testing checks the application’s optimal performance on different devices. Here you will be working on: Each configuration must be handled in a step-by-step process. Stage 6 – Performance Testing: At this point in mobile app testing, you have to check how your application behaves and performs with different workloads. It involves: Load Testing – application’s response time to different requests to see if it fulfills the normal user load requirements. Stability Testing – application’s operability for long hours of usage. Stress Testing – focused on the application’s working capacity. Volume Testing – application’s behavior to an expanded volume of data. Can the application cope with the planned volume of load? Concurrency Testing – checks how the application performs with multiple users and what the limit is. Stage 7 – Security Testing: Security and privacy of users’ data is our priority. To ensure protection, we analyze different security risks and get rid of any chances of viruses, unauthorized access, hackers, etc. The following are the measures included in this testing: Stage 8 – Recovery Testing: A crashing or freezing application gets the user frustrated, which is why recovery testing is a crucial step. Here you will be testing your app’s ability to recover from any potential hardware or software failures and working on: Stage 9 – Localization Testing: Here you test your application’s adaptability to different locations. Check the following features of your software for the specified locations: Stage 10 – Confirmation and Regression Testing: Now that you have identified any possible bugs from the above-mentioned steps, fix them successfully. Run them again to confirm you pass without any bugs. Verify the changes. Stage 11 – Beta Testing: Before the final release of your product in the market, check the beta version of your application for any problems. Beta testers should be people who have already worked with similar types of apps. You can consider this an additional stage for mobile app testing, but it is important. Stage 12 – Certification Testing: Congratulations! Your program is now ready to be certified by the stores like Google Play or the App store. Your application should comply with the terms of use and licensing requirements. This compliance is achieved through certification testing. What’s different about web testing? Mobile apps and web apps are built differently. Users’ interaction and experience with web apps are also different. Mobile applications are more complex and built for different platforms and OS versions, as a result, their testing is vigorous. Web testing aims to deliver a smooth user experience on different browsers.

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