Did you know that according to Statista, the number of smartphone users will reach 18.22 billion by 2025? Let’s face it, digital transformation is skyrocketing and will continue to do so. This swamps the mobile app development market with various options and gives rise to the need for the best mobile app testing tools.
To captivate an ever-growing consumer base, more and more businesses are investing in improving mobile apps. The competition in the market is cutthroat which is why an app needs to be perfect before it rolls out to the audience. That brings in the real need for an app test automation cloud.
Nowadays, users can make their lives easier in almost every aspect with a related mobile app for that purpose. However, does that mean they get a smooth and glitch-free experience? Most of the time, it’s a slappy UX, an unsatisfactory UI, or a lack of clarity that can drive users away. Hence there arises a need for UI testing.
Every mobile application must perform as per expectation. That makes mobile application testing more challenging. There are many devices, platforms, operating systems, and other parameters to take care of. You need one heck of a versatile testing tool just to break even. But isn’t the market already flooded? How are we supposed to choose? Fortunately, we have listed the important criteria that will tell you exactly how to choose the right mobile app testing tools. Let’s dive right in.
In this mobile app testing tutorial, let’s take a look at what is mobile application testing, why it’s important, and how to choose the right one for your business.
What is Mobile Application Testing?
Mobile application testing is the process of testing mobile apps for parameters such as functionality, performance, stability, and usability either manually or by using automation. Mobile app testing happens both manually and with the help of mobile automation testing frameworks and tools. The entire process, if performed correctly, helps QA teams ensure that the end product fulfills initial expectations and the set business requirements.
The best mobile app testing tools include the following processes:
Testing the performance of a mobile app across various operating systems and its versions.
Validating the performance and compatibility of an app with specific settings.
Testing how a mobile app appears in both landscape and portrait mode.
Conducting GUI tests for testing navigation buttons, dropdown, menu, and other components of its GUI for functionality.
Testing an application’s compatibility with Accelerometer, Gyroscope, GPS, and other sensors.
Mobile app testing types abound. It’s performed to test different features and functionalities of the app. Types of mobile app testing include:
Laboratory testing
Memory leakage testing
Interrupt testing
Installation testing
Security testing
Certification testing
Outdated software testing
Location testing
Crowdsourced testing
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Why is Mobile App Testing Important?
Only a thorough mobile application testing process can ensure smooth functioning throughout the user’s journey. It also enhances security and the overall quality of a mobile application, thus, affecting overall engagement.
It helps in the early detection of errors and bugs that prevents extra costs from adding up later. Mobile application testing also helps in minimizing the risk that comes with releasing a compromised app. When you release only top-notch apps, it protects and improves a business’s brand reputation by increasing app installations and positive reviews.
Here are the key benefits of using a mobile app testing tool:
- Up-To-The-Mark Functioning
During mobile app testing, QA professionals thoroughly check the seamless downloading of an application and whether it carries out interactions as expected. In other words, the best mobile app testing tools ensure the hassle-free functioning of the solution.
- Customer Retention and Loyalty
When customers get proper usability and functioning, they are more likely to return to the app and stay loyal. This improves the industrial reputation of a business and increases its customer retention rate. Of course, increased customer loyalty automatically means higher ROI. Mobile app testing tools might involve some initial investment. But the fact that they help avoid frequent redevelopments in a project also saves expenses.
- Better UI/UX Usability
During mobile application testing, QA professionals evaluate the entire solution from the users’ point of view. In a sense, they thoroughly use every feature and functionality of the app to understand how it fares in different situations. When they feel user emotions while using the application, it becomes easier to predict whether customers are likely to continue using the application or ditch it.
A test orchestration platform can come in handy to your team if you want to choose the best mobile app testing tools.
Why should you use the best Mobile App Testing Tools?
The best mobile app testing tools facilitate properly implementing the mobile app testing strategy. They also help reduce costs for the long hall by increasing the pace of execution, offering easy sharing of test results, and performing automation testing. Check out why you should use the best mobile app testing tools.
- Easy To Perform Cross Platform Tests
Testing using conventional methods can take a lot of time due to the wide variety of operating systems and devices. But mobile application testing tools can test for plenty of scenarios within a short time frame. Cloud testing solutions eliminate the hassle of purchasing many devices to test an app.
- Less Testing Time
Mobile app testing tools facilitate automatic testing of applications at different development stages. This allows QA professionals to devote more time to improving the app’s user experience since they get a chance to simplify their QA processes.
- Better Ticket Generation
The best mobile app testing tools facilitate creating a structured layout of app interface bugs. This way, you can instigate an early launch by quickly correcting errors.
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How to choose the right Mobile App Testing Tools?
The first step toward flawless mobile app testing is to select the right tool. Once you finish that, it’s time to set up the testing environment. The solution you consider should be highly reliable and offer various options, including support for different programming languages and great customer support. Here are the exact criteria you should look for before choosing the best mobile app testing tools.
- Ease of Learning and Use
There’s no point in having even the best mobile testing tools if they are not easy to learn or use. Since many team leaders and members will work with the chosen tool, the learning curve should not be steep. Language-specific libraries and drivers, as well as JAR files, helps make the best mobile app testing tools easy to use.
- Support for Various Programming Languages
Depending on the target audience, business needs, and budget, you can develop mobile applications in the programming language of your choice. But it’s always better to opt for a tool that facilitates writing effective test cases in different languages. Some of the most popular ones include JavaScript, Python, HTML, CSS, etc.
- Support for Cross-Platform Testing
Usually, there is a platform for which businesses intend a mobile application. You should always select the best mobile app testing tools based on compatibility with that platform, its different versions, and variants. However, an even better thing would be to opt for the best mobile app testing tools that facilitate multiple platforms to ensure cross-platform testing.
- Support for Different Application Types and Operating Systems
Web, native, and hybrid are the three primary apps your testing tool should support. There are plenty of cases in which businesses made various kinds of apps. If you opt for a tool that doesn’t offer support for different application types, then you’ll have to use multiple tools for testing on various applications. That would further waste precious time when resources you could utilize elsewhere.
Moreover, there are high chances that your app might have to undergo platform migration someday. That’s why it’s advisable to choose the best mobile app testing tools that work for all commonly used operating systems like iOS and Android.
- Integrations With Other Tools and Frameworks
Regardless of how inclusive the best mobile app testing tools are, they must be eligible for use with other commonly used frameworks and tools. After all, your QA team doesn’t deserve to spend time downloading and installing many third-party resources. Integrations with project management tools and ALMs are furthermore crucial.
Your chosen tool should have as many native integrations as possible, so connecting more workarounds to your toolchain won’t be necessary. When a testing tool integrates with the leading CI/CD tools, it helps achieve goals such as inspecting, recording defects, test execution, test management, and revision control. Some popular frameworks the best mobile app testing tools should integrate are Bamboo, Jenkins, GitLab, JIRA, and so on.
- Support for Codeless Tests and Different Types of Testing
Support for codeless testing is a boon for those team members who don’t have any programming skills but are competent enough to contribute to the QA team. Not only does codeless testing help these professionals use their potential, but this feature also reduces the time to execute repetitive test cases. It can be one of the best mobile app testing tools. Your tool should also facilitate different techniques, such as accessibility testing.
- Fulfillment of Code Requirements and Build Needs
The modern application development and testing scenarios are highly collaborative. This often leads to unauthorized access to the testing process of an application. The best mobile app testing tools often access the most vulnerable company and consumer data. Your chosen tool should boast high credibility and ever-evolving data security with on-time upgrades to protect against malware, viruses, and attacks.
Regarding security and privacy, the build and code of the software are primary matters of concern. QA teams should be careful not to export or share these outside the testing environment. In other words, the build and code shouldn’t be visible to any unauthorized or unknown entities. That is why you should choose the best mobile app testing tools that hold the security and privacy of the build and source code of the software in high regard.
Moreover, sometimes, security limitations and contractual agreements prohibit testers from accessing the software source code. Therefore, the best mobile app testing tools should also automate and test mobile apps without it.
- Support for Record and Playback
The best mobile app testing tools offer features such as record & playback. This helps keep track of all actions related to different test scenarios and alternate every aspect of it. Eventually, the testing team can churn out a higher number of tests, further expanding the test coverage.
Some features you should also consider include login and reporting of defects, filtering, considering the type, time, and priority monitoring and tracking bugs. This feature available in the best mobile app testing tools works best during the generation of quick test scripts according to the respective scenarios.
- Comprehensive Error Identification, Reporting, and Debugging
Whenever a failure occurs, your mobile app testing tool should create comprehensive reports pointing to the exact moment it failed. It should also provide data regarding the test conditions and test environment during failure to help developers rectify errors. It should also include screenshots of test steps and export reports in various formats to view on multiple devices.
- Support for Continuous Testing
Changes or modifications in the code can significantly impact the overall software. Mobile app testing should be able to test these changes readily. In other words, offering support for continuous testing is an integral part of an ideal framework. The testing world is speed-driven, and continuous testing is the only thing that can help QA teams maintain high quality and speed while meeting customer demands.
Great Object Identification and Recognition
Another factor affecting the impact of mobile app updates and modifications is object identification. Opting for the best mobile app testing tools with great object identification and recognition helps simplify test script maintenance. It also helps in the easy regulation of object libraries.
- Access Real Mobile Devices
Your app can be a native or hybrid, but how you test it matters the most. Testing your app on a real device cloud and monitoring its functioning is important to analyze real user conditions. It’s vital to release your app into production. When you use emulators and simulators, you cannot entirely replicate real-time conditions, be it incoming calls or battery strength. Hence tests dependent on them might not be suitable for the final release.
It’s possible to create a homegrown online device farm using the available devices in the market with different OS and versions. Buying and maintaining them isn’t easy since you need time, effort, and investment. Therefore, a viable option is to choose real device cloud platforms like LambdaTest.
With LambaTest real device cloud, you can test your dev and production apps and unblock your team by getting instant access to real Android and iOS devices, and reduce operational costs by eliminating the in-house device lab. You can even test your applications on the LambdaTest virtual testing platform of online APK emulators and iOS simulators.
You can easily run mobile automation testing and manual app testing on every latest mobile version. In addition, you can perform responsive testing on real devices to check how the app would render on different screen resolutions and sizes.
It also supports testing of mobile apps via Appium, Espresso, and XCUITest on the real device cloud.
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- Ensure Secured features
The best mobile app testing tools should be user-centric, with attention to detail over the build security and customer data. When you think about how collaborative mobile app development and app testing can be, you cannot realize how many chances build distribution provides to let unauthorized individuals access the app during vulnerable stages.
The same applies to every company data or personal data. Hence you need to ensure data security at every point. Upgrading their system against malware, viruses, and so on is a must.
LambdaTest security comes with SOC2 Type 2 compliance for its test platform and data centers. We also adhere strictly to GDPR compliance.
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Conclusion
The best way to increase the retention rate of your mobile application is to test out as many aspects as possible and fix bugs immediately. That’s exactly why businesses need to choose the best mobile app testing tools to be on par with increasing customer demands.
Picking the best mobile app testing tools can be a bewildering moment. But if you know the parameters to consider before making an informed decision, you can make the most out of your mobile app testing efforts.
Even though the pointers mentioned above don’t consider the end to parameters, you can use them as a solid base for further research. This helps build quality applications that enhance brand reputation while offering better service to users.
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