Insufficient mobile app testing can lead to a significant loss of revenue for businesses. According to recent studies, software errors cost companies in the US an astonishing $2.41 trillion annually, while accumulated technical debt has risen to $1.52 trillion. Moreover, non-compliance with GDPR/CCPA and other policies can result in multi-million dollar fines, making mobile software testing a crucial step that must be integrated into the entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to ensure the tech team prevents critical bugs during release.

Types of Mobile App Testing

In recent years, the approach to mobile software testing has undergone significant changes. Today, it's not just about running a set of tests before release; they must be integrated into the SDLC. Below, we'll explore the types of testing used in our projects.

Manual testing remains the primary approach for tech teams to implement app quality assurance. This involves human experts who evaluate the product from the end user's perspective (often without using predefined scenarios). This allows them to quickly identify issues that can significantly degrade the final product's user experience, such as overly confusing navigation, overloaded screens, ambiguous wording, difficulties with data entry, and so on.

Automated testing is another approach that allows teams to speed up the verification of functionality that is too resource-intensive for manual testing (usually this applies to scenarios with repetitive tasks, large volumes of input data, frequent releases, or simply when speeding up software testing is needed). It's best to combine continuous integration and testing stages so that each update is checked before production.

Best Practices for Effective Mobile App Testing

Our main practice is developing a release readiness checklist for each build. This includes automated test coverage for key user scenarios, load test results, security reports, coverage on target user devices, and usability testing. Along with that, we also follow the next guidelines for mobile development projects:

  • Test early and often. Our QA experts are involved in the project long before the first line of code is written. Furthermore, they closely interact with software engineers and designers, which allows us to run acceptance criteria tests during each iteration.
  • Use a combination of automated and manual testing approaches to ensure comprehensive coverage.

Choosing the Right Testing Tools

A mistake in choosing testing tools usually results in either unnecessary costs for the manual stage or overall poor product quality. Based on our practical experience, we've settled on the following ones:

Appium is a nearly one-size-fits-all solution that we frequently use when testing cross-platform applications. We particularly appreciate its unparalleled flexibility: it's suitable for complex enterprise-level apps with extensive functionality that require running synchronous tests across multiple platforms.

Espresso is a proprietary Google product used by Android development teams. Its main advantage is its high test execution speed and seamless integration with Android Studio. In our practice, we use it on Android-based projects with frequent releases where there's a pressing need to test new features ASAP.

XCUITest is the default choice for iOS app testing, as the solution itself was developed by the Apple team. It integrates with Xcode, enabling end-to-end testing of user interfaces and app behavior in a highly realistic environment.

Cloud testing platforms are also an essential part of our toolkit. In addition to the aforementioned testing frameworks (Appium, Espresso), we frequently use cloud testing platforms like BrowserStack, AWS Device Farm, and Firebase Test Lab – for example, in projects with a global audience. The main benefit of this approach is the ability to ensure comprehensive device and OS compatibility without having to purchase and maintain them in real life.

By following these best practices and using the right testing tools, you can ensure that your mobile app provides an exceptional user experience and stays ahead of the competition.