Exploring the Role of Automation in Mobile App Testing

Organizations are now entirely turning to mobile applications as a significant mode of expanding their business and reaching their niche audiences.  In fact, for a long time, mobile device usage has been expanded to perform everyday activities. Such dependency on mobile gadgets and the rapid development of mobile hybrid and native applications has made mobile app testing a crucial part of the app development process.

Mobile app testing plays a vital role in ensuring a positive user experience, and automation testing has emerged as a game-changer in this domain. This article explores the pivotal role of automation in mobile app testing, shedding light on its advantages, challenges, and best practices.

Statistical Scenario

According to Statista, the no. of smartphone mobile network subscriptions globally hit almost 6.4 billion in the year 2022 and is estimated to go beyond 7.7 billion by the year 2028. The United States, India, and China are the nations with the huge no. of smartphone mobile network subscriptions.

Due to the upsurge in mobile gadgets, the demand for mobile applications has grown substantially worldwide. The additional survey reflects that the global mobile application market is booming, with income anticipated to hit USD 613 billion by the year 2025.

What is Mobile app testing?

Mobile app testing is the method of checking and validating the performance, functionality, usability, security, and quality of the mobile app. Simply, mobile app testing can ensure that the mobile application meets the user’s technical requirements before its release in the market (Play Store for all Google or Android-based handheld devices and App Store for iOS devices). This type of testing is essential for identifying and fixing glitches, bugs, and other issues that might affect the user experience. Mobile app testing can be performed both manually and through automated testing tools.

Test automation is a mobile app testing technique wherein automated testing tools are used for testing varied types of mobile apps developed for handheld devices. Generally, there are three main types of mobile applications, i.e., hybrid, native, and web apps, and automation testing can be performed for all mobile application types. Mobile test automation guarantees the proper functioning of these applications and enhances their usability, quality, performance, reliability, and security. There are multiple advantages to leveraging automated mobile application testing for businesses.

Why Is Mobile App Testing Automation Significant?

Providing a reliable app experience across multiple devices is vital. Users expect prompt, seamless interfaces, and every digital experience reflects your business brand — so mobile app testing should be integrated as an integral part of your test strategy.

The prime objective goal of developing mobile applications is to expand the business and reach a huge no. of users globally. But, what if developed mobile applications are faulty and challenging to use by the user? There is a higher chance that the end users will uninstall the applications. This is something any company wouldn’t like their user to switch to their competitors. Therefore, comprehensive mobile app testing is significant as it gives full information on the application’s functionality.

In short, when you run mobile app testing, you can find potential flaws and bugs that can impact the overall quality and functionality of the mobile applications. Those errors could be easily fixed at the earliest, giving users satisfaction with the mobile applications. Therefore, mobile applications must be perfectly and early tested before they are released to the end users.

Role of Test Automation in Mobile App Testing

The mobile arena is incredibly perplexing. Between distinct devices, OSs (operating systems), and generations, there are 1000s permutations and combinations to test. But with mobile test automation, you can rapidly scale your tests and boost test coverage to fast-track delivery. Some of the roles of mobile app testing are cited below:

1. Improved Speed and Efficiency: Automation considerably accelerates the test process by implementing test cases faster than manual testing. With the capacity to perform testing concurrently on multiple platforms, devices, and configurations, test automation allows rapid feedback loops, reducing time-to-market for specific apps.
2. High Test Coverage: Mobile apps must function flawlessly across various operating systems, devices, and screen sizes. Manual testing may struggle to cover this broad matrix comprehensively. Automation enables QA specialists to generate and execute numerous test cases, guaranteeing comprehensive test coverage and finding potential issues across multiple scenarios.
3. Stability and Reusability: Automation confirms consistency in test implementation, eradicating the variability introduced by manual testers. Scripts for testing can be reused across varied builds, dropping redundancy and allowing effective regression testing. This consistency improves the reliability of the test process, resulting in extremely reliable outcomes.
4. Early Detection of Bugs: Automation facilitates and smoothens the early detection of flaws by incorporating testing into the application development pipeline. CI (Continuous Integration) and CD (Continuous Delivery) procedures are flawlessly integrated, allowing rapid feedback on code alterations. Detecting and addressing glitches in the early phases of app development assists in minimizing the entire expense of bug fixing.
5. Scalability: As mobile apps progress and new traits are added, the test suite requires scale. Automation enables easy scalability by allowing the implementation of a huge no. of test cases without a proportional increase in resources. This scalability is essential for managing the complexity and intricacy introduced by recurrent updates and feature improvements.
6. Cost Cutting: While there is an initial investment in building automated test frameworks and scripts, the long-term rewards count for noteworthy cost savings. Automated testing can be performed 24/7 without the requirement for manual intervention, resulting in highly effective resource employment and controlling the complete expense of testing.

Core Challenges and Best Practices

1. Test Maintenance: One of the critical challenges in test automation is the maintenance of test scripts as the app progresses. Frequent updates and modifications to the app might necessitate corresponding modifications to test scripts. Accepting a modular and well-structured test framework aids in reducing maintenance efforts.
2. Device & Platform Fragmentation: The diversity of operating systems and mobile gadgets poses a challenge for automation. Executing a strong app test strategy that embraces a blend of actual devices and simulators/ emulators can help fix this challenge. Prioritizing tests on famous platforms and devices can also optimize resources.
3. User Experience and Usability Testing: While automation is outstanding for regression and functional testing, it may fail to evaluate aspects such as usability and user experience. Merging automation with manual tests for such aspects guarantees a holistic assessment of the mobile app.
4. Security Testing: Automated testing must complement manual security tests to detect vulnerabilities that automated test scripts may overlook. Security is a crucial facet of mobile application development, and a combination of manual and automated testing is crucial for comprehensive test coverage.

Mobile App Testing on the Cloud-centric platform

Mobile application testing on the cloud has been an extremely beneficial approach for a long time by the QA analyst. You can leverage the true capability of mobile app testing on cloud-based platforms as it provides testers and developers access to multiple Operating Systems, devices, and tools. You can rapidly test mobile applications across multiple environments.

Real-device tests on the cloud enable end-users to access actual gadgets (iOS and Android devices) directly from the desktop browser. This ensures the smooth functioning of mobile applications across multiple platforms. You can leverage mobile application testing by running tests in cloud-based testing platforms like LambdaTest.

LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform that lets you run manual and automated tests at scale with over 3000+ real devices, browsers, and OS combinations. this platform also allows you to run mobile app testing and provides both virtual device cloud and real device cloud for real-time browser and mobile app testing. You can perform testing on an online device farm and Operating System. Some of its exciting traits comprise debugging, visual regression tests, and real-time tests.

 Core Features:

• With the one-click upload trait, you can .zip and upload.ipa, .apk, and .app files in a single click for hassle-free and instantaneous app testing.
• You can test your mobile applications locally before you drive them into a real or live environment.
• LambdaTest’s comprehensive test logs and insights will aid in deploying quality builds rapidly.
• Mark bugs or errors straight on the LambdaTest platform or incorporate them with Continuous Integration/ Continuous Deployment tools as required.

You can run both automated and manual mobile app testing on LambdaTest.

Support for XCUITest, Espresso, Appium, and More

LambdaTest offers comprehensive support for multiple test framework counting. LambdaTest allows you to run automated app testing on a real-time device cloud using Espresso, Appium, and XCUITest. Such testing frameworks enable you to write automated test scripts for your mobile application testing, improving the efficiency and speed of your test process. Irrespective of your preferred framework, LambdaTest guarantees seamless and flawless incorporation and implementation of your test scripts on their platform.

Automated App Testing on Real-time Devices

You can also perform test automation on mobile browsers using the Appium testing framework.

Let’s glance at the easy steps to follow to automate mobile app testing.

1. Register free on LambdaTest and sign in to your account.
2. From the Dashboard, click on the Real Time menu item.

1. Click on Desktop or Virtual Mobile under the Web Browser Testing section if you want to perform browser testing, Or you can click on Virtual Mobile under the App Testing section if you want to perform real-time testing over a mobile device.

4. To perform Real device testing, click on Real Device from the dashboard.

5. Click on App Testing-> click on the Andriod or iOS icon -> Upload->select the device, name, and version -> Click on Start.

To learn more about performing real device testing, refer to the LambdaTest support document to commence with app automation.

Conclusion

Test Automation has become indispensable in the realm of mobile application testing, revolutionizing the way apps are verified for usability, functionality, performance, security, and compatibility. While there are challenges to overcome, the rewards in terms of speed, efficiency, and reliability make automated testing a key component of modern software development practices. By implementing best practices and staying up-to-date with technological improvements, testing teams can harness the full potential of automation to deliver top-quality mobile apps to users around the globe.