With approximately 3 million apps registered on the Google Play Store and about 2 million apps written on the Apple App Store, the mobile app domain is expanding like never before! With a market that is becoming increasingly complex, an app development agency must be able to create an app that fulfills the expectations of a cost-conscious client. App testing is an essential aspect of the mobile application development process. It contributes to the delivery of high-quality products in a shorter time frame. App testers must engage in mobile automation testing to ensure that their app performs well before handing it over to the client. So in this blog, we will delve into the depth of mobile automation testing and how it contributes to speeding up app development.
What do you understand by the term mobile automation testing?
Mobile automation testing is a technique that identifies the flaws in the design, the barriers to performance, and functional issues in a particular application. These days, most testing processes are automated to make the app development process more accessible and manageable overall. These tools carry out predefined actions on the application. It includes testing the app’s UI/UX, loading speed, usability, functionalities, security, and performance across various browsers, operating systems, and devices.
Why should you Automate Mobile App Testing?
Understanding the various Android devices available and the different operating systems and testing scenarios can quickly become overwhelming. Traditionally, an app development company would use a quality assurance team to perform testing, but this requires many people, each with their device configuration. On the other hand, automating App tests allows them to run on the same devices your app will be running on in production. It ensures that they function as expected in all real-life scenarios, except that they are all software emulated, so no physical device is required.
Types of Mobile Apps You Must Test
You should test your app for expected functionality, reliability, and usefulness after launch to ensure that it works with the highest quality solutions. However, having an idea regarding which particular category of apps to test among a wide range of apps is also critical.
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Application of Hybrid mobile apps
It appears to be a native app on our devices, but it is a web app built with web technologies. The device’s browser engine helps transmit and process HTML and JS for these applications.
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Applications that are Native
These are the applications specifically designed for the Android or iOS mobile platforms, where you can install and run them through the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. The particular category also includes cross-platform native applications built with frameworks like Flutter.
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Responsive web Applications
You can use the web application through a mobile browser. Progressive Web Applications (PWAS) and Responsive Site Versions are the two types of web apps (RSVS).
How does Mobile Test Automation contribute to Speeding Up App Development?
Several organizations are investing in mobile app testing, and this figure must rise in the future. As a result, the high demand for mobile application developers will increase more and more. They have a significant contribution to helping streamline the overall operations of the company. App testing forms an important stage in the mobile application development process that can aid in delivering high-quality products in a shorter time frame. It does so by boosting up the critical aspects of the process.
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Easy and effective CI/CD integration
Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery imply the more specific factors that go together with automated testing. It is because, in the CI/CD pipeline, a developer commits to a source code that needs testing. Doing so efficiently and quickly is impossible without automated testing. The ultimate success of your mobile application depends on the environments your end-users will access. So, it is critical to test the entire system in environments similar to production environments. Furthermore, these automated mobile testing methodologies include performance and functional tests. You must implement the technique to ensure your application behaves and performs as expected.
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Reusing the test scripts
The main benefit of reusing the test scripts is that you don’t have to write test scripts for each project. You can use the same test scripts on multiple projects. However, creating an automated test suite may appear complicated at first. However, once you define the test suite, it is simple to reuse test cases for other projects and test cases. Not to mention that the test engineers will grow tired of manually running the identical suites repeatedly. It increases the likelihood of human error affecting the testing process and slowing down the development of your app. An automated testing tool inspects the application’s data tables, memory, file, and program state to ensure that the designed product performs as expected.
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Better coverage of the test arena
During manual testing, long tests are frequently left unattended. However, automated testing paves the way for implementing a more significant number of application-specific tests. It results in increased test coverage. Furthermore, as test coverage increases, more features can be tested, resulting in a higher-quality application. Performing a test against such a large amount of data can be nerve-racking with manual testing, but it is simple with automated testing. Furthermore, mobile automation testing allows developers to write detailed tests validating complex use cases.
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Increase scalability and operating performance
By using automated testing technology, you can put yourself in the shoes of your app’s users to ensure its high quality. This test automation evaluates app responsiveness, scalability, readiness, and operating capacity. Because Only after testing the application across multiple platforms, environments, and devices can a fully functional product release itself to the market. Mobile automation testing allows you to execute a large number of tests at the same time. You can run complex and lengthy test cases resulting in a fault-free end-product, which is impossible to achieve if you manually test the app.
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24×7 testing facilities
Running automated mobile tests allows you to compare actual results to expected results. Because automated tests don’t require much human intervention, you can run them at night and get results the following day. Developers or testers do not need to sit and manually run tests while waiting for the tests to finish and display results. Furthermore, you can repeat the mobile automation testing with minimal effort, leading to increased team productivity.
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Early identification and fixation of bugs
A mobile automation testing tool allows testers to run more tests at different stages of the app development lifecycle in less time. It enables QA teams to identify bugs and resolve issues, reducing time to market. It also reduces person-hours, allowing you to save money on development. Furthermore, teams can focus on developing better apps and user experiences rather than wasting time looking for errors. Automated testing can accelerate app development due to quick test execution and repeatability.
Factors to consider while automating your mobile test app
Creating a strategy from scratch to execute mobile automation testing is critical. A typical step-by-step mobile automation testing procedure includes the following key elements.
The following KPIs to consider when testing mobile apps:
- The response time in max
- The response time on average
- The rate of error generated
- The request volume at the leak
- The throughput in average
- Concurrent active users per device and operating system
Furthermore, the top priority must be evaluating the app’s critical functions for lead generation.
Simulating a real-world testing environment is effective if you act on the basic parameters of an operating system. It allows the testers to understand the interface’s look and feel. QA specialists commonly use system emulators to expedite the app development process. You can also describe various packet scenarios critical for the app’s dependable performance. Once you ensure that all necessary features are operational, you must delve deeper and test less critical systems.
While testing, it is critical to keep the latency and bandwidth of a carrier network in mind. Because mobile devices connect to the internet via third-party carriers, network latency and bandwidth can vary. A QA specialist can optimize the app’s performance and improve user experience by keeping carrier network differences in mind. It is critical to pay attention to data writing, reading, and deletion because these actions are known to halt the app’s performance completely. QA specialists use data generation tools to match database records with those used in the test environment system.
Selecting the right Mobile Test Automation tool to Speed Up your App Development
Numerous mobile app automation testing tools are available, but not all are appropriate for every tester, app requirement, or app agency. We have identified a few critical factors to consider when selecting the tool.
- Platform Coverage Test– The best app testing automation tools should support all major mobile and tablet platforms, particularly iOS and Android, which control 99 percent of the mobile market.
- Compatibility– You must ensure that the app testing framework you select is appropriate for your app development process: how efficient is it in a CI/CD environment? Can developers access test results data while developing apps and many more?
- Usability– App testers should be able to learn the app testing automation framework quickly and easily. The easier it is to know, the more productive your team will be when creating test cases.
- The User Interface– Is the app automation tool user-friendly enough for app testers to quickly set up, run, and monitor app test cases?
- Analytics and Reporting– Testing app agencies must be able to track the performance of their mobile app tests. The app testing tool should generate detailed reports on how often an app started or finished successfully without error during a given period.
Wrapping Up
As the demand for mobile devices grows, millions of apps are flooding the market. LambdaTest, mobile app testing cloud can help you get things done faster. LambdaTest’s online real device cloud and virtual testing platform of online APK Emulators and simulators may be used to test your native mobile apps. Eliminate your in-house device lab entirely to save money.
Despite the high level of competition and demand, your product must be bug-free, intriguing, and one-of-a-kind. Testing mobile apps can be time-consuming, but automation makes it much more manageable. Test automation is an ongoing process. Its primary goal is not to eliminate manual testing but to improve your existing test suites and reduce the number of test cases you run manually. Nevertheless, mobile automation testing plays a significant role in speeding up the app development procedure.
Author Bio: Vixit Raj is Product Growth and Communication Specialist in LambdaTest : The Cross Browser Web App Testing Platform. He is an E&C engineering graduate and in the digital marketing domain for the last 5+ years. He always tries to stay updated with the latest advancements in technology, product growth, software testing and coding.
