According to estimates, mobile devices will hit $18.22 billion by 2025. Because of the escalation in mobile devices, the demand for mobile applications has risen substantially globally. Another survey by Statista exhibited that the worldwide mobile application market will hit $613 billion by 2025.
Therefore, ensuring that an application provides a lasting result throughout every OS version and device is crucial. Teams can validate apps for uniformity, performance, and accessibility across a variety of platforms as well as operating systems with the aid of mobile app testing.
Mobile app testing is a well-known process where the created mobile applications are evaluated for their efficiency, functionality, usability, and safety. Conducting such testing helps ensure that it meets business and technical needs.
What are the types of mobile app testing? What's the role of quality assurance in mobile app development? Let's discuss everything in detail!
Types of Mobile App Testing
There are various mobile app testing types that every app developer and tester is using nowadays. All these successful mobile app testing strategies ensure that the application fulfills the maximum standards. These are the best types of mobile app testing:
Functional testing
It ascertains if an application operates appropriately. Such type of mobile application testing crosschecks that the components are trustworthy, responsive to their desired usage, and comply with the requirements. The leading types of functional testing are unit testing, regression testing, sanity, smoke, and integration testing.
Performance testing
It means the way your application works under distinct network conditions, loads, and memory usage. This testing method contains stress testing, load testing, and speed testing.
Compatibility testing
It ensures the application works as desired throughout several devices, OSs, and networks. It inspects compatibility with different resolutions, screen sizes, and OSs.
Security testing
It plays a significant role in app usage and download. In case the app users don't feel protected and stay worried about their privacy while using your mobile app, they may uninstall your app from their devices.
In this type of testing, you may crosscheck the cookies, file caching, safeguard against breaches, logins & passwords, and an encryption system.
Usability testing
You must ensure that the application you have built is easy to use and user-friendly. Therefore, usability testing includes verifying the user interface, navigation, and user experience.
Know here the Objectives of Unit Testing and Functional Testing
Vital Tips For Effective Mobile Testing
Mobile application testing is challenging if you're a newbie developer or tester. Therefore, to help you do mobile testing, these are the best tips for effective mobile testing:
1. Understand what you're willing to obtain
Before commencing the test, you should have a comprehensive plan of what you want to achieve. Therefore, list down everything you need to assess and what you should do for the success of your application.
2. Understanding the category of Your mobile app
Every mobile app has 4 variations, including native, hybrid, progressive, and web apps. All these apps must provide good entertainment, business, and communication value.
3. Employ test automation for efficiency and productivity
With an efficient mobile test automation framework, it's possible to accelerate the testing procedure without forgetting the high precision and credibility you need. You should opt for automated testing instead of manual testing.
Know here The Significance of QA In SDLC: Why Quality Assurance Is Essential in IT
Challenges in Testing Mobile Applications
The use of mobile devices has increased dramatically during the past ten years. In 2040, there will be more than 1.5 billion individuals with smartphones, according to Statista's forecasts. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine the significant mobile app testing issues faced by the present and future backend workers.
Moreover, the number of smartphone mobile network subscriptions globally will exceed 7.8 billion by 2028. USA, China, and India will be the countries with the maximum number of mobile network subscriptions.
With this rise in mobile devices and mobile-OS-browser combinations, there are some real challenges in testing mobile applications, which are the following:
Device fragmentation
It's one of the biggest challenges that an app development team encounters. Device fragmentation implies an app being operated on several OS combinations and devices. Here come the QA teams!
The role of quality assurance in mobile app development means the team needs to test compatibility in different OSs and versions of similar OSs. Additionally, it is frequently associated with Android-based devices because many independent producers offer their own "re-skinned" operating system variations.
Mobile network bandwidth
It's a significant part of mobile app testing. Users anticipate quick mobile applications, which the backend team has to provide. Data communication is also severely handled by a program that struggles to deliver immediate outcomes.
When data is sent between the end user and the server, a mobile application that hasn't been evaluated and tailored to fit the bandwidth of an array of users may lag. To comprehend how quickly their apps and mobile-friendly websites respond to different network scenarios, the testers should preferably analyze them.
Mobile app security
Mobile app security is the most vital concern for an app developer or a quality assurance team. The development of technology has made safety breaches more prevalent. However, the likelihood can be significantly reduced if the application is extensively evaluated.
Any software that must be tested for security requires extensive data collection and evaluation. It is more complex than desktop or web apps because mobile applications can take multiple shapes.
Best Practices For Mobile App Testing
As you have understood the mobile app testing challenges, it's high time to shed light on the best practices for mobile app testing:
Building a testing strategy
Developing successful mobile app testing strategies means planning for automation. Streamlining testing with automation involves the different types of evaluations to be conducted, the platforms & devices to be examined, and the anticipated outcomes.
Benefit
The mobile testing strategy is a vital part of the QA process. It assists in fixing bugs before your apps reach users. Creating successful mobile app testing strategies helps you provide the best quality user experience and features to every mobile user.
Selecting the right tool
You must opt for the right tool for mobile app testing that upholds the particular requirements of your project. Before choosing a tool, you need to assess the features and compatibility platforms with the development workflow.
Benefit
Choosing the right tool for mobile app testing helps the development team streamline tests effectively. This is how they can deliver the anticipated outcomes.
Evaluating on real devices
It's crucial to examine mobile apps on real devices instead of depending entirely on emulators or simulators. It will help identify issues based on real-world usage cases, such as network connectivity, device compatibility, and battery life.
Benefit
Real device testing lets QAs and developers test the mobile app's performance, usability, and functionality on physical devices. It's essential because it aids in discovering issues that might not be seen during testing on simulators.
Performing daily regression assessment
Conducting automated regression evaluations frequently ensures that any modifications or updates to the program don't adversely affect its current operation.
Benefit
Regression testing aids in discovering the bugs and resolving those in time. It also helps you optimize the way the program works.
Everyone's daily existence now revolves around their mobile device. As it expands, more of its various applications become apparent. Folks use it for a variety of purposes, including amusement and shopping.
In summary, meticulous preparation, close monitoring of specifics, and a dedication to excellence are required for mobile application testing. Developers, as well as testers, can build mobile applications that are lightning-fast, safe, and easy to use while adhering to the best principles and being mindful of the difficulties.