As mobile apps continue to be the major business enablers, all business sectors today are surrounded by numerous mobile apps. As smartphone usage has boomed around the world, businesses have continued to expand their operations by enabling mobile apps.
Mobile apps are being used heavily across industries as a result of the widespread usage of these smart devices.
What is Mobile Automation Testing?
Mobile application development includes testing all the key features of mobile apps on handheld devices, which is the main process involved in the development of mobile apps.
This includes the ability to load on a variety of browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices, as well as its functionality and usability.
In essence, mobile app testing is done with a variety of mobile automation testing tools to make sure the apps are flawless and perform well regardless of the load.
Automated testing of mobile apps is a type of mobile testing using mobile testing tools. Businesses can ensure that their mobile apps are bug-free if they leverage automated testing (e.g., app store or play store) before releasing to the market.
Importance of Mobile Testing
The number of smart phone users across enterprises of all sizes has resulted in mobile applications growing as a means of fueling business operations and enhancing customer service. The purpose of the task a mobile app user wishes to accomplish and the ease of its usage determine which app a user will download.
The app rating and review plays a key role for a new user to choose mobile apps today, as there are millions of mobile apps out there.
To ensure the app is fully tested with the use of effective mobile automation testing tools, it is primarily important to undertake mobile automation testing during the app development phase.
Automated tools are used to test mobile applications and ensure they work flawlessly.
Automation is a key component to achieving the following characteristics for businesses
App Functionality
App functional testing ensures that the mobile application conforms to the specification outlined in the design document.
App Performance
Mobile performance tests assess how well the app responds, where it runs in terms of serving clients, and how scalable it is when it is under loads of users.
App Security
When testing the application, data integrity, storage security, and checking the validity of any tainted inputs are verified.
App Usability
Testing apps for usability automation is especially important today because mobile apps that provide a great user experience are preferred more. Therefore, the automated accessibility test ensures users can successfully perform their intended tasks on the app.
App Accessibility
The accessibility and usability of apps is a mandate for today’s different-abilities population. For all users to have standardized accessibility, certain standards and regulations need to be followed. Automating the testing of mobile apps for accessibility is therefore a good idea.
Across Browsers, OS, Various Mobile Devices
It is crucial to conduct mobile testing using different test automation tools to ensure that apps work across browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices in a variety of scenarios such that they are easily accessible for different types of users.
With mobile test automation, businesses gain these major benefits on top of everything else:
- A more efficient testing process
- Improved coverage of tests
- A faster time to market.
In addition, flawless mobile apps ensure cost-effectiveness and fast return on investment. To ensure high-performing apps, mobile testing automation tools should be employed by businesses.
How Automation Works
As many mobile apps fail because the test automation strategy is not followed, it is not enough to build an app that has all the features. The following phases are necessary for the testing of mobile applications to be successful.
Phase 1: Effective Planning & Identification of Testing Types
To test mobile apps properly, it is important to select the right target devices. You should check whether the mobile application is native, hybrid, or mobile web.
In addition to back-end testing, proper planning should also include front-end testing. Testing types should also be categorized, as well as which functional requirements should be tested.
To ensure better app testing outcomes, devices with different sizes should be selected for testing.
Phase 2: Ensure Effective Test Case & Test Script Development
Each application function must be covered by test cases. The battery usage, speed of the app, and memory usage should be taken extra care of when considering test cases. It is crucial to develop automatized test scripts that can be reused and adapted to the needs of the project.
Phase 3: Plan for Test Environment Setup
Set up the test environment on the testing device by downloading, installing, and configuring the application. Before you start testing, you should also ensure the test version of the app has been established.
Phase 4: Perform Automated Testing
Appium, Selendroid, and other mobile test automation tools are used to automate testing for iOS or Android applications. These are tested to make sure all fundamental functions are working correctly.
Phase 5: Perform Usability & Performance Testing
To ensure a good user experience, usability testing should be undertaken once the basic functions have been tested. To ensure that the app performs flawlessly even when multiple users are logged in at once, performance testing should be carried out with mobile performance testing tools.
Phase 6: Perform Security & Compliance Testing
Tests are conducted to ensure that the application is secure and does not leak any data. Through SQL injections, session hijackers, etc., this is accomplished. It is also important to conduct compliance testing.
Phase 7: Perform Accessibility Testing
With the number of users accessing mobile apps globally today, it is also vital to perform accessibility testing to ensure that the app can be used by people with disabilities, by adhering to certain accessibility norms.
Phase 8: Perform App Testing Across Devices & OS
The app should be tested across multiple devices and operating systems, and all test scripts should be run across different devices & OS to ensure they run correctly across multiple devices & OS.
Top Tools and Frameworks for Automated Mobile Application Testing
Testing a mobile application can be done with different tools and frameworks. There are several popular ones, including:
Appium
Testing mobile apps with Appium, an open-source tool, is a popular practice. A developer can use Appium to test their iOS and Android applications, whether they are native or hybrid. Appium is not a stand-alone app.
The WebDriver interface is used to run the test cases. In addition to combining iOS and Android testing by using the same code, testers can reuse their existing source code.
Calabash
Testing mobile apps using Calabash is possible in multiple languages. .NET, Ruby, Java, and Flex are all supported. Native touch screen applications can be enabled using APIs by testers. It provides libraries that allow scripts interacting with native and hybrid apps to be programmed.
Selendroid
Mobile apps for Android are also known as Selendroid. Mobile application testing can be done with Selendroid for native and hybrid apps. Similar to Selenium for cross-browser testing, Selendroid can run parallel test cases on multiple devices.
Espresso
The Espresso testing framework is a great tool for automating the testing of User Interfaces (UI) of mobile apps, since application developers and app testers use Espresso extensively to test the user interface of applications before they are deployed.
An interaction may be recorded by developers when creating a scenario. To add assertions, developers must capture snapshots of the UI elements within the app and verify their behavior. As a result, they can use the tool to create UI test cases for testing their application.
Robotium
Android apps can only be tested using Robotium, an open-source test tool. Java is used to write the test cases. Black-box testing is one of the main reasons why Robotium is popular. An android tester can automate multiple activities and write a test case in a minimal amount of time with this tool.
These are just a few examples of other popular tools, such as Monkeytalk, Testdroid, Frank, and UIAutomator.
Sunvera Software develops next-level software applications from start-to-finish. Schedule a free 30-minute call with us to discuss your business, or you can give us a call at (949) 284-6300.
