Mobile device usage has increased globally in the recent decade, with Statista expecting 1.5 billion smartphone users by 2040. As a result, it’s clear to see how present and future backend teams will deal with enormous mobile app testing challenges. Mobile apps are in high demand due to affordable data and the increasing digital transformation of businesses. Large corporations are now aggressively investing in this area, necessitating a better mobile app testing solution.

People spend an average of 3-4 hours per day using mobile applications, making them an essential component of our everyday micro-moments. Apps for mobile phones play an important role in everyone’s professional and personal lives. Remember, it’s a competitive marketplace, so if your consumers uninstall your app, they’ll have lots of other options.

Crashing, freezing, slow load times, unintuitive navigation, and privacy breaches are all examples of critical bugs that may cause a user to uninstall your app right away. A good reputation accompanies you, whereas a negative reputation follows you about for a long time.

As a result, in order to give the best user experience, it’s critical to have your applications tested. Mobile testing is critical in the development of a mobile app to ensure a smooth user experience and operation.

1. The Testing Pyramid for Mobile Apps

The traditional pyramid structure for mobile app testing does not apply to mobile test automation. Despite web or desktop applications, mobile apps include a variety of devices, sensors, and network configurations that necessitate a unique set of testing activities.

The test pyramid for mobile apps has four tiers, each with manual and automated stages. Manual testing is the most important layer of the pyramid, as it provides a solid foundation for any mobile app project. It is followed by end-to-end testing, beta testing, and a topmost part of unit testing. Unit tests and end-to-end tests are the same tint, indicating automation testing, whereas beta tests and manual tests have a different pattern, indicating manual testing. The beta-testing layer is a recent addition to the pyramid, but it is critical to the success of any mobile app project. In order to meet the high requirements of mobile users, this layer must be included in every mobile project in order to receive quick feedback from your clients.

For beta testing, you may either employ a crowdsourcing strategy or ask your coworkers to beta test early versions of your app to provide valuable input.

Unlike online applications, mobile apps cannot be tested separately for each device. To get the small unit to work, other APIs, levels, or systems may need to be simulated or mocked in some circumstances.

Unit tests are at the very top of the pyramid. It’s not as simple to write unit tests for mobile apps as it is for backend or web applications. There are so many APIs and inputs that an app might access that mocking all of them to develop efficient unit tests is extremely tough and time-consuming.

2. Types of Mobile App Testing

Here are some of the types of mobile app testing:

2.1 Unit Testing

UNIT TESTING is a type of software testing that examines individual software units or components. The goal is to ensure that each unit of software code works as intended. Unit testing is carried out by developers throughout the development (coding) phase of an application. Unit tests are used to isolate a part of code and ensure that it is correct. A singular function, method, process, module, or object might be considered a unit.

Unit testing is the first level of testing performed before integration testing in the SDLC, STLC, and V Model. Unit testing is a type of White box testing that is often done by the developer. Though, in the real world, due to time constraints or developers’ resistance to testing, QA engineers also perform unit testing.

2.2 Functional Testing

Functional testing determines whether or not the functionalities meet the requirements. It tests user interactions with the app, such as installing it, logging in, playing a song, checking an account balance, and other common user workflows.

Functional testing is a time-consuming and complex procedure because it interacts with the app’s UI elements, database layer, network layer, and more. To get the most out of it, you’ll need a good mix of different types of functional testing.

2.3 Regression Testing

Regression testing, as the name implies, verifies that new feature updates, patches, or configuration changes haven’t resulted in new regressions, or problems, in both the functional and non-functional parts of a mobile application system. Regression testing ensures that any changes made by the development team are reflected in the final product.

With each software update, many software as a service (SaaS) providers will update their features or add new functionality to their offerings. These businesses will do regression testing to guarantee that new feature additions have no impact on their core product.

2.4 Performance Testing 

The practice of determining how a system performs to a specific workload or task is known as performance testing. Performance testing examines an application’s speed, stability, and scalability. It takes place on both the client and server sides.

On the server side, it monitors response times, streaming resource-intensive packets, message delivery delays, and application crashes, among other things.

On the client side, it looks for common inconsistencies in application behaviour across platforms and handsets, as well as memory and CPU usage, loading speed, and battery concerns.

2.5 Security Testing

As security can be a business-critical issue—for example, when hackers steal client information—and its essential aspect of the mobile app development and testing process. Mobile app security testing is a broad topic that necessitates expertise in a variety of fields, including client-server communication, software design, and system architecture. Security testing is best performed by professionals due to its complexity and the particular skill set required. Manual or automated penetration testing with man-in-the-middle attacks, ethical hacking, scanning, and software auditing are some of the techniques used.

Penetration testing is a technique for detecting security bugs in software that provide access to its functionality and data. On the market, there are various open-source and enterprise solutions that can test your application for common issues.

2.6 Usability Testing

Real users test the app’s features and functionality during usability testing. The main focus of this testing is on how easy and quick it is to use an app, how straightforward onboarding is, and how satisfied users are with the whole experience.

In a test environment, users are given tasks and encouraged to think aloud while attempting to do them. To improve the app’s user experience, they look into several habits of users such as attitudinal, preferred, and situational.

2.7 Compatibility Testing

A compatibility test ensures that a software program works properly across a variety of browsers, databases, operating systems (OS), mobile devices, networks, and hardware. Compatibility testing is a type of non-functional software testing that examines elements such as usability, dependability, and performance in order to verify that programs are trustworthy and that customers are satisfied.

Compatibility tests are essential for programs to run smoothly. They should be carried out as soon as a build is stable enough to be tested.

2.8 End to End Testing

End-to-End Testing is a mechanism for determining whether an application’s flow is working as intended from beginning to end. End-to-end tests are used to detect system dependencies and guarantee that the correct information is delivered between different system components and systems. The entire application is put through its paces in a realistic environment, including communication with the database, network, hardware, and other applications.

2.9 User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

User acceptance testing (UAT), known as beta testing, is a process in which real users test a product before it is released. It lets consumers test your app to see if it’s user-friendly, works as expected, and can perform tasks in real-world scenarios (or not). Project managers, developers, the QA team, and stakeholders are usually present for the final check during UAT.

3. Mobile App Testing Challenges

Here are some of the Mobile app testing challenges:

3.1 Device Dispersion

Mobile apps must provide a consistent experience across a variety of devices and operating systems. Any updates to the hardware or software that may cause problems for its customers should be quickly addressed by QA engineers. From network provider settings to battery charge levels, teams must account for everything. When some mobile users continue to use outdated versions of an OS or device after new ones are released, fragmentation becomes a problem.

There are a lot of test cases when you test every combination of device, OS, and network parameters. This necessitates development teams obtaining and maintaining an ever-growing pool of mobile devices. These difficulties are significant hurdles for mobile app developers.

3.2 Third-party integrations and application complexities 

For analytics, crash reporting, and SMS service, many mobile applications need third-party integrations. These apps depend primarily on third-party integrations or hardware components to provide a consistent user experience and functionality. Throughout the test scenario, test teams must transition between multiple personas (or devices). The amount of work necessary to thoroughly test the application grows as a result of these complicated use scenarios.

3.3 Numerous Data Connections

The majority of the apps rely on mobile data connections (Edge, UMTS, 3G, and 4G) as well as wifi.   It’s possible that a user’s connection type will change as they move about. However, some carriers censor the internet at their discretion, resulting in devices being connected without really connecting to a service (messaging or calling through apps). Even if connectivity APIs for mobile platforms have been defined, the real-world scenario cannot be replicated, and difficulties may arise. Because not all carriers enable unlimited data amounts, it’s critical for the QA team to test bandwidth utilization.

3.4 Battery life and processing capacity

Mobile applications with gaming or video streaming components can quickly deplete battery life. Throughout the day, users use a variety of apps, and various processes operate in the background without our knowledge. All of this necessitates CPU cycles, which burn power and cause the batteries to deplete. To understand the impact of iterations on a mobile application, a dedicated mobile device lab is used. It analyses any detrimental effect on how the program uses phone memory, how quickly users can navigate through a feed, and battery consumption provided by engineers.

4. Major Mobile Testing Practices

4.1 Choose the Appropriate Device to Perform Testing

A suitable device for mobile testing should be analyzed and chosen based on a number of variables, including the use of mobile apps on tablets and smartphones, as well as the target audience’s use of popular mobile devices. This list should also include what screen sizes and OS versions the mobile app will likely need to support in order to meet the target audience.

4.2 Perform early testing and specify the scope of the test in considerable detail.

It is critical to start the mobile testing process as early as possible in the development phase. It is necessary to develop and implement a proper testing plan.

Mobile testing should be done concurrently with development at every level of the app development process to help detect faults and fix them early on, lowering expenses. If bugs are discovered during the production stage, it will take a long time and a lot of money to fix them.

4.3 Test on Real Devices

Though testing on emulators and simulators is helpful and useful for mobile testing, but it is equally important to test the app on real mobile devices. This sort of real mobile devices testing ensures the test results are delivered in real-time which becomes very effective for the mobile app success.

4.4 Perform Interface, Functional and Usability Testing

Interface testing is necessary to ensure that buttons, text inputs, screen validations, navigation validations, and device orientation validations, among other things, are all valid. Functional testing is necessary to ensure that your app is tested on the most common devices used by your target audience and that all of the requirements specified in the requirements document are met. Before the app is really pushed to production, it is critical to test for all functions across the app to find any minute functionality flaws and limit them.

Basically, first-time app users should participate in usability testing on the mobile app to gain a first-hand understanding of the software, which can be targeted at baby boomers and other members of the older generation.

The resulting mobile app should be user-friendly and have an intuitive user interface that provides a positive user experience with simple navigation flows. As a result, the intended mobile app success is achieved, as it provides excellent usability.

The resulting mobile app should be user-friendly and have an intuitive user interface that provides users with a positive user experience through easy navigation routines. As a result, the mobile app achieves the required success by providing excellent usability.

4.5 Use Performance and Security Testing for the App’s success

Today’s users want mobile apps that load quickly, thus performance or load testing is essential. Memory leaks, picture size requirements, speed, stability, and scalability of the software under stress are all examined in various stages.

This type of load testing ensures that the app runs smoothly even when a large number of people use it or log in, and that they are able to complete all of the app’s functions without interruption.

With so many cyber-attacks taking place these days, a security component is an absolute must. Any sensitive data being sent or received that needs to be encrypted should be tested in the mobile apps. To ensure that the app is free of threats and vulnerabilities, thorough security testing should be conducted. Such thorough security testing assures that mobile app transactions are safe and secure.

4.6 Automate Mobile Testing Process

To save time & expense, it is preferable to automate your mobile performance, security, and functional testing. Automating testing with mobile testing tools improves speed, reliability, and code reuse, allowing you to swiftly re-test different scenarios. To do efficient mobile automation, you can use a variety of mobile testing tools.

4.7 Examine the Battery Consumption

Maintaining and ensuring that the battery consumption of the mobile app is as low as possible is a top concern. It is critical for testing teams to ensure that the software is built to keep the processor active for a brief period of time. Battery consumption is an important element that people consider when purchasing smartphones these days, and this element should be considered when testing the mobile app.

5. Conclusion

In recent years, the number of mobile devices has exploded, and for organizations across domains, mobile apps have become the primary means of conducting business. To ensure that end users love and cherish utilizing these mobile apps, they must function smoothly and seamlessly. Due to the extremely competitive industry, any type of mobile application must maintain a high level of quality. A user can praise or abandon an app with just a few clicks and swipes.

End consumers will select only those mobile apps that perform well, so thorough end-to-end mobile app testing is critical.

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