As mobile applications provide substantial opportunities that are now thoroughly integrated into our daily lives, it is critical to ensure their efficiency and an outstanding user experience. However, there are several unique aspects to testing mobile apps that can easily lead to typical errors. Mobile application testing includes not only verifying that the app works as intended but also checking for usability, compatibility, performance, security, and even network variances to provide users with a consistent experience across devices and platforms.
This blog covers some of the frequently encountered test scenarios when testing mobile apps and their solutions. An Appium tutorial will teach you the fundamentals of automated mobile testing if you’re new to practice. Let’s now examine the most prevalent issues and how to avoid them for efficient and fruitful testing.
Ignoring Device Fragmentation
Testing mobile applications is a very hard task because of device fragmentation. Unlike desktop programs, mobile apps have to be one with a wide variety of devices out there, everyone having different screen sizes, operating systems, hardware, and system resources. Testing a mobile app on a small number of devices will result in you unintentionally passing over problems with other devices.
How to Avoid This Pitfall?
1. Test on real devices and emulators both: Emulators are important for early-stage testing, but they do not fully simulate the experience of genuine devices. Set aside time for testing on real devices to get a better understanding of how your app operates.
2. Prioritize popular devices: Identify the most popular devices and platforms among your app’s target audience. Begin testing with those devices and progressively on to other models.
3. Use Device Clouds: Device cloud services enable remote access to a diverse variety of real devices, allowing teams to address device fragmentation without acquiring hundreds of devices.
LambdaTest is one such AI-driven cloud testing platform that is available for use. It allows you to perform manual and automated testing of your mobile applications and PWAs over 3000+ environments. It also allows users to perform cross-device testing across variety of browser versions and operating systems.
You can run automated tests with tools like Appium on LambdaTest. New to Appium? Check out this Appium tutorial.
Disregarding Network Conditions and Performance
Network conditions are rarely constant in the real world. Users may hop between high-speed Wi-Fi and low-speed mobile networks, have inconsistent access, or even completely disconnect. Testing mobile apps primarily in a steady network environment might result in a worse user experience after the app goes live.
How to Avoid This Pitfall
1. Test under different network conditions: Simulate different network speeds and loss conditions (such as 3G, 4G, and offline mode) to observe how your software reacts.
2. Implement Network Throttling: Many testing systems provide network throttling to simulate various network circumstances, allowing testers to uncover issues such as slow loading times or timeouts.
3. Evaluate offline capabilities: If your app has offline functionality, check that it works as intended when network connectivity is lost and smoothly syncs data when the network is restored.
Not Testing for Different OS Versions
Mobile operating systems are constantly updated, and users’ OS versions vary among devices. For example, some users may have the most recent iOS or Android version, while others may have many upgrades behind. Testing exclusively on the most recent OS version may result in an app that does not function properly on previous versions.
How to Avoid This
1. Test on many OS versions: Identify the operating systems with the greatest usage rates in your target audience and assure compatibility with them.
2. Automate regression testing: Automated solutions such as Appium aid in running uniform tests across OS versions. An Appium tutorial may walk you through the process of setting up automated tests and verifying app performance across many operating systems.
3. Plan for new OS releases: Make sure your staff is informed of the future OS releases from Apple and Google. To address compatibility concerns ahead of time, try beta versions of these OS upgrades as they become available.
Ignore Platform-Specific Behaviours
iOS and Android have different design standards, navigation styles, and behaviours. Designing and testing an app to perform similarly on both platforms might be frustrating for users who are accustomed to the distinct experiences provided by their different operating systems. Testing mobile apps without considering these changes might result in uneven user experiences and worse user retention rates.
How to Avoid This
1. Follow the platform design guidelines: Teach your team about the Material Design Guidelines for Android and the Human Interface Guidelines for iOS. Make sure to ensure the app’s navigation and icons and animations are platform-suitable.
2. Test for Platform-Specific Functionality: For example, in Android you are to have back buttons, but in iOS it’s swipe motions. By testing for platform-specific behaviour, you ensure all users have a consistent, easy-to-understand experience.
Focusing Only on Functional Testing
It’s essential that functional testing takes place, but that’s just a piece of the puzzle when it comes to testing mobile apps. Usability, speed, security, and accessibility become an increased necessity for testing mobile apps. Failing to overlook these areas means they increasingly become security risks, can negatively affect performance, and create usability concerns that all have the potential to negatively impact the user’s happiness.
How to Avoid This
1. Test nonfunctional first: In addition to functional testing, allocate sufficient time and resources for performance, usability, and security testing.
2. Consider Accessibility Testing: These accessibility features, like screen readers and changing text sizes, are needed for users with impairments. But when you test to make sure your app complies with accessibility rules, that means your app is more accessible to everyone.
3. Regularly Monitor App Performance: The performance testing tools like Firebase Performance Monitoring and AppDynamics allow you to get insight about app performance to see what is going on and in case of any problem prior to getting into the end user.
Inadequate Test Automation Strategies
Test automation is quite useful for increasing productivity and scalability in testing mobile apps. However, depending too much on automation without a clear plan might result in high expenses, poorly designed tests, and gaps in coverage.
How to Avoid This
1. Identify appropriate test cases for automation: Automate repetitive, high-volume tests that cover essential app functionalities while leaving exploratory and usability testing to manual efforts.
2. Use reliable tools and frameworks: Appium and Espresso are mobile-specific tools that support both Android and iOS. Refer to an Appium guide to learn how to set up automated testing and get the benefits.
3. Update Automated Tests Regularly: Your automated test cases should grow alongside your application. Regular updates to your test suite guarantee that it appropriately reflects current functionality and finds regressions.
Skipping Security Testing
Security testing is a must with the increasing number of data breaches and security threats facing mobile applications in particular involving sensitive information. If security is ignored, your app can get breached with vulnerabilities that will cause your data to be compromised and damage your brand reputation.
How to Avoid This
1. Conduct Regular Security Assessments: It should be audited regularly to check for vulnerabilities such as data breaches, bad authentication, and encryption issues.
2. Implement the OWASP Mobile Security Best Practices: There exists the OWASP Mobile Security Project with its standards for securing mobile apps from common vulnerabilities. Using these tips can prevent security problems.
3. Integrate security testing into CI/CD: Include security checks in your continuous integration and deployment pipeline to detect vulnerabilities early in the development process.
Ignoring Battery and Resource Consumption
Mobile users are aware of their battery usage and data consumption, and an app that drains the battery or consumes too much data is likely to irritate them. Testing mobile apps without analyzing battery life and data consumption might lead to a high uninstall rate.
How to Avoid This
1. Monitor battery consumption: Test your app’s influence on battery life under different use situations, such as extensive data processing or background tasks.
2. Optimise resource usage: Limit resource-intensive processes and investigate lightweight alternatives to reduce the effect on system resources. Profiling tools can help you find places where you can improve your app’s performance and minimise battery usage.
Inconsistent Test Environments
Testing in inconsistent or unstable environments can distort test results, especially if various testers or teams use different device settings, operating system versions, and network setups. This mismatch might result in false positives, overlooked defects, and delays in deployment.
How to Avoid This
1. Create a standardized testing environment: Define and record a uniform mobile testing environment, including operating system versions, screen sizes, and network conditions.
2. Use Cloud-based Testing Platforms: Testing using cloud-based systems provides a constant and controlled environment, allowing testers to concentrate on discovering defects rather than debugging setup concerns.
Poor Documentation and Reporting
Even the most effective testing procedures might fail if documentation and reporting practices are lacking. Poor documentation can impede team collaboration, result in unnecessary effort, and make it harder to interpret past test findings or recreate problems.
How to Avoid This
1. Document the Test Cases and Results: Maintain extensive documentation for each test case, including setup instructions, predicted outcomes, and actual results.
2. Use a centralised reporting tool: Many testing systems, such as JIRA, have reporting capabilities that serve to speed test case management and increase team visibility.
3. Encourage collaborative reporting: Utilize collaborative technologies to exchange discoveries, discuss thoughts, and resolve difficulties quickly. This promotes a common understanding of the app’s quality across all team members.
Conclusion
Testing mobile apps is a continuous process that needs balancing functionality, performance, security, and user experience across several devices and operating systems. By avoiding these typical errors, you may provide a solid basis for a dependable and scalable testing procedure.
Using technologies like Appium and following an Appium lesson to improve your automation abilities can help you streamline your testing efforts and provide a better experience for your users. Testing might be difficult, but by proactively addressing these problems, you can assure a high-quality product that matches the demands of today’s mobile-first customer.
