A Quick Guide to Mobile Application Testing

Smartphones are advancing at a rapid pace, and so are mobile applications. That’s why there has been a significant increase in the demand for mobile app developers. The market is indeed brimming with mobile applications of all kinds. Today, you can find an application for almost anything — whether you need to shop for clothes or find a doctor.

In this cut-throat and competitive market, every company is aiming to provide the best-in-class applications to their customers. Applications need to be innovative and interesting, and in order to make an application effective and free from any glitches, mobile app testing is a crucial step in the process.

What Is Mobile Application Testing?

Mobile application testing is conducted to understand the functionality, usability, and consistency of applications. It is important to understand that mobile app testing is entirely different from web and software testing. There are certain things you need to consider before you perform mobile testing. Here are some essentials that are required during the process:

• Turning on/off GPS
• Screen resolution
• Screen orientation
• Devices’ manufacturer
• OS
• Type of application

What Are the Different Types of Mobile Applications?

Different types of mobile applications require different types of testing. Hence, it is essential to understand the type of apps before starting the testing process. Mobile apps are broadly categorized into three types:

• Mobile Web Applications: These are web pages that are optimized for mobile phones.
• Native Apps: These are apps that are developed for a particular platform, such as Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows, etc.
• Hybrid Apps: These apps are a combination of both native and web apps.

Emulators or Simulators – Which Is Better?

Emulators and simulators are often used in mobile testing. These are tools that can emulate or simulate the environment and behavior of mobile devices. People often confuse emulators and simulators as the same, but they are both in fact extremely different.

In mobile application testing using emulators, applications can run on the gadget without any modification. Emulators are the device replacement of the mobile phone. In contrast, simulators cannot imitate the hardware but can create a similar environment to mobile operating systems.

Hence, simulators are largely preferred to test mobile applications, and emulators are much better for mobile web application testing.

What Are the Stages of Mobile Application Testing?

The process of mobile application testing goes through a series of steps. Here are the various stages of mobile application testing:

Stage 1: Documentation Testing

This is the preparatory stage in which you need to detect the needs and demands of the application. Documentation testing is where you need to find and resolve initial discrepancies. This phase is completely dedicated to analyzing the requirements of an application.

Stage 2: Functional Testing

At this stage, you need to test whether the application is working according to the expectations and specifications. During functional testing, you need to keep the functionality of the app in mind and ensure that it is performing the intended task. The basic things you need to test are installation and running, field testing, functionalities, device resources testing, update testing, and user feedback testing.

Stage 3: Performance Testing

Application constancy and reaction are tested in this stage. There are certain testing attributes that need to be tested, such as load, stress, stability, volume, and concurrency testing. The performance of your app is measured in this stage.

Stage 4: Security Testing

The security of your app is extremely important, and you need to validate its security features. This stage will analyze the risk of hackers, viruses, and unauthorized access. This is the most crucial stage that needs to be conducted with utmost care.

Stage 5: Recovery Testing

This stage will test the application’s ability to withstand failures of software or hardware. Recovery testing is meant to determine whether the application will be able to recover from the failures without any damage.

Stage 6: Beta Testing

In beta testing, you offer your application to beta users for testing. These users will validate the functionality, usability, reliability, and computability of the application. Once the beta testing phase is over, the application often goes live. Here are the things you need to consider:

• Number of beta testers
• Testing duration
• Shipping
• Demographic
• Testing cost

The Bottom Line

Testing a mobile application before taking it to live is extremely important in gaining customers’ trust and interest. Make sure to choose between emulators and simulators to test your application in the right method.

We briefly covered all the phases of mobile application testing that can help you get started with improving your apps. Mobile testing can be a strenuous and prolonged process, but once you know the nitty-gritty, you can get through it easily.