A Definitive Guide For Testing Mobile Applications (12 Best Practices)

Testing mobile applications can make or break the success of an app. Imagine this: You’ve just launched your app to the public, and users are eager to try it out. But once they open the app, they quickly discover a glitch that prevents them from moving past the splash screen.  No matter how well your app is designed, problems like this often occur when an app is released without proper testing. Unfortunately, users don’t care about your app’s design or development—they just want it to work! If you’d like to avoid this type of scenario, keep reading. This article will offer valuable insights into mobile app testing to help you achieve your objectives.

NUMI's product design services can help you learn about and implement mobile app testing to improve your next project. We work with app design agencies to improve the usability of their products and enhance user experience and satisfaction. 

What is Mobile Application Testing?

Mobile application testing refers to examining the operations, usability, functionality, performance, and security of the mobile app to ensure it meets quality standards. This process delivers a high level of convenience and functionality for users. 

Testing includes: 

• Devices
• Operating systems
• Screens of different sizes
• Network conditions
• Other factors

Thorough testing eliminates artificial errors, bugs, or issues in the application before it is released to the public. 

How Mobile App Testing Works for Application Development

Mobile app testing helps to meet quality expectations and locate errors by correcting flaws, failures, and problems before releasing an app to customers. This process helps prevent a user experience with crashes, freezes, or mistakes that may lead to: 

• Low ratings
• Bad reviews
• Unsatisfied users

Enhancing User Experience 

Testing is the key to ensuring the app has a simple, easily accessible UI and creates a highly-rated user experience. Developers can detect performance bottlenecks, usability issues, and other concerns early in development. This allows them to make necessary improvements to the user experience, which increases user retention and engagement. 

Optimizing Performance 

Performance testing draws attention to performance-related problems like: 

• Sluggish response
• Long loading times
• High battery consumption

Thorough testing improves the app's performance, guaranteeing real-time and in-context accuracy and reliability. This process allows apps to: 

• Adapt to different devices
• Network conditions
• User cases

Maximizing Compatibility 

Compatibility testing ensures that the app functions seamlessly across: 

• Different devices
• Operating systems
• Screen sizes
• Resolutions

By running tests on various devices and configurations under different circumstances, developers can create an app with a stable user experience that will reach as many users as possible. 

Enhancing Security 

Security testing helps to find vulnerabilities that may harm the program and its users. This process allows developers to simulate attacks from hackers and malicious individuals who want to harm the program. Building a security system for an app at a later stage might not effectively prevent potential risks, and user data may remain vulnerable. 

Minimizing Risks 

Testing helps eliminate the risks associated with bringing a mobile application to market, such as: 

• User dissatisfaction
• Resistance to change
• Brand isolation

Extensive testing allows developers to spot and eliminate risks before the app’s release, leading to a successful product that will withstand long-term competition. 

Why is Testing Of Mobile Applications Important?

Ensuring Optimal User Experience

When users download an app, they expect it to work smoothly. They want a pleasant, easy experience without glitches, crashes, or confusing interfaces. If they encounter anything unusual, they may quickly abandon the app and leave a negative review. This can seriously damage the reputation of the business behind the app. 

Thoroughly testing the mobile app before release allows developers to find and eliminate weaknesses, boosting user satisfaction and reducing the likelihood of abandonment. In the long run, focusing on a superior user experience translates into: 

• Positive reviews
• Higher retention rates
• Improved brand loyalty

Providing Compatibility Across Various Devices

The mobile device environment is incredibly diverse. Your app should look and function equally well on: 

• Multiple operating systems
• Screen sizes
• Hardware configurations

Otherwise, negative reviews won't keep you waiting long. Testing mobile apps thoroughly helps you address these compatibility challenges. 

By simulating real user scenarios on different devices, testers can check apps for any device-specific issues that may arise. Dedication to detail is obligatory to maximize the app’s potential user base and revenue opportunities.

Reducing Development Costs

It's normal for businesses, especially startups, to strive to cut mobile app costs; mobile app testing is an investment that pays off. While some may see testing mobile apps as an additional expense, it saves money in the long run. Identifying and fixing issues early in the development process is a proactive approach. It’s considerably less expensive than snowballing bugs into more significant roadblocks. 

Prompt bug fixes keep the project on track and save valuable resources. Neglecting to conduct thorough testing for a mobile application can result in significant costs, often exceeding the initial testing expenses. 

The Critical Role of QA in Ensuring Project Success and Cost Efficiency

‍Successful project = resource of (testers + business analysts + developers + designers) 

By omitting quality assurance from the equation, the risk of encountering bugs throughout the project increases, necessitating additional resources from the same specialists to rectify the issues. To mitigate these risks, hiring a QA team becomes essential, leading to a revised formula: 

‍Successful project = resource of (business analysts + developers + designers) x 1.5 + resource of testers. 

Many founders and business owners forget that you have to add marketing expenses to these extra budgets to restore the product’s reputation and lost profits from the outflow of investment funding.

Enhancing Data Protection

Mobile apps often handle sensitive user data, making security a significant concern. Failing to test a mobile app for vulnerabilities adequately can expose it to data breaches and compromise user privacy, which can have severe legal, financial, and reputational consequences. 

Mobile app testing includes security assessments that identify and mitigate potential risks, guaranteeing that user data remains safe and confidential. Demonstrating a commitment to data security through rigorous mobile testing can instill trust in users, potentially attracting a larger and more loyal audience. 

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NUMI helps with: 

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11 Techniques For Testing Mobile Applications

1. Get Quality Assurance Involved Early

Quality assurance should not be an afterthought in the app development process. Instead, getting QA involved with business and product teams in the initial stages of development helps everyone identify potential pitfalls to app performance before any code is written.

2. Cross-Platform Testing Is Essential

Today, users can choose among various devices and OS to access the applications. Therefore, it is essential to deliver flawless performances across these platforms. After identifying the suitable OS versions that will be supported, it is crucial to determine which devices are the right match and must be tested. 

Testers can utilize emulators with physical device testing to make device testing more cost-effective and achieve fantastic test results.

3. Security Testing Is a Must

Security issues are among users’ key concerns today. As devices have become integral to our lives, we often share sensitive data such as identity information, passwords, location history, and much more, leaving these data vulnerable to threats. As a result, it is mandatory to execute security testing to validate the application's resistance to attacks from malicious users. 

Key Factors for Building a Robust Security Testing Strategy

To deploy effective security testing, a robust and well-defined strategy must be implemented to efficiently bridge the security gaps. 

While developing a security testing strategy, it is crucial to consider the following factors:

• Understanding and knowing the environment or the platforms that will be used to run the application and identify the vectors that the attackers might use on the specific OS
• Develop multiple lines of defense, including mobile app testing tools with static, dynamic, and forensic analyses. Then, they are applied together to delineate different ways an attacker can hack the application.
• Running a test from an attacker's perspective enables one to understand better the weaknesses and pitfalls and how the attacker might exploit those

4. Network Connectivity Testing

Although users might use high-speed office WiFi most of the time or have great 

connections at home, a significant population is challenged by spotty connections and low-speed internet. In such unfavorable conditions, inconsistent network reception leads to high latency or poor performance while switching between variable network speeds. 

At this point, the QA team must ensure seamless and consistent performance across multiple network speeds and conditions, from 1G to LTE to WiFi. They must also consider sudden changes between networks and speeds and even break connections.

5. UX/UI Testing

Accomplishing excellence in designing a mobile application often relies on its user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). 

• Efficient UI testing assists in interpreting the application’s ease of use, consistency, logic, accessibility, and compatibility to determine how it interacts with end users. 
• On the other hand, UX testing involves testing multiple aspects of the user experience to determine the right-matched way for the app and its elements to interact with the audience. 

While executing UX tests, it is a mandate to ensure the following checkpoints:

• Easy navigation through the application
• Seamless and fast transaction and order placement processes (if any)
• Adequate access to product information for the users
• Incorporating user feedback

6. Testing Across Multiple Screen Dimensions and Specifications

As testers need to consider testing the apps across different platforms and devices, it is equally vital to consider the different specifications and dimensions that come with various devices. Screen size is crucial in the testing process, as it can unfold bugs that negatively affect the app's layout. 

When an application fails to adjust suitably across specific dimensions, it affects many elements, including some critical functionalities left off the screen, losing significant parts of their utility and deteriorating users' digital experience and the overall brand value.

7. Battery Testing

Battery life is a primary concern for the users. Today, several apps leverage battery-intensive processes, including storing and sharing heavy data, streaming audio and video content, geolocation elements, and many aspects that consume a hefty battery. QA testers should run multiple battery test features to identify the parts of the apps that drain the battery the most and eliminate or modify those.

8. Application Size and Storage Testing

More often than not, users refrain from installing applications that consume too much space on their devices. In the first place, developers and testers must focus on optimizing the size of the app to the possible extent without compromising the usability and offerings of the app. Additionally, testers should ensure that the application size doesn't exceed a specific limit with each update or new release to an extent where end-users would not prefer using the applications anymore.

9. Application Permission Testing for Privacy

No business would want to scare off its users with many permission requests for an app, making them feel vulnerable to privacy concerns. A couple of years back, 215,000 apps were removed from the App Store for requesting and collecting massive amounts of user data or other privacy violations. 

A tester needs to ensure that the app doesn't seek any permission that is not used while using the app. Again, a tester should remove the permission screen for any eliminated feature of the app. It is vital to test the proper combinations of the permissions.

10. Testing the Application Upgrades Scenarios

App upgrade testing is crucial for mobile app testers. This process helps ensure the app doesn’t crash during the upgrade, as the development team might have provided a mismatched version number. Besides, data retention with upgrades is critical to preserve the preferences the user had saved in previous versions to avoid hassles while using the app. 

For example, in food delivery apps, cab apps, or digital wallet and banking apps, the users save a considerable amount of data like card details, addresses, contact information, and much more, which must be appropriately retained with every upgrade.

11. Performance Testing

As users worldwide go mobile, each app’s performance impacts its acceptance and popularity. Performance testing thus becomes a principal element in the app testing pipeline, where the testing team should check the application response time and latency to track and predict performance across numerous scenarios and use cases. 

It is imperative to check the app’s response when many users use it simultaneously, creating a significant server load.

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How to Test Mobile Applications

Establishing a Mobile App Testing Strategy

To test mobile applications effectively, you need a plan. Create a test strategy to describe the overall approach to testing your application. This document will help everyone involved in the testing process get on the same page. It should include information on the scope of testing, types of tests, acceptance criteria, test environments, and the order of operations. 

While not mandatory, this document can help improve testing efficiency, especially if multiple products are tested simultaneously, or the application is built for different platforms. 

Preparing a Mobile App Test Plan

Next comes the test plan. This is a detailed document describing: 

• The scope of testing
• Resources
• Schedule
• Scenarios
• Data requirements
• Expected results

The test plan will help you stay organized and ensure that you cover all aspects of mobile application testing. 

Organizing Test Data for Mobile Application Testing

Before starting the tests, ensure you have prepared all the necessary test data. This includes: 

• Input data
• Test accounts
• Images
• Other resources needed to run the tests

Verifying Mobile Application Testing Tools

You may need to use various tools to test your mobile application. These can include: 

• Automated testing frameworks
• Data collection
• Error analysis tools

Ensure that all required tools are installed and configured before starting the testing process.

Establishing Mobile App Testing Communication

Effective communication between testers, developers, and stakeholders is vital for smooth testing. Before starting the tests, establish communication channels to promote efficient information sharing and problem-solving. 

Understanding Mobile Application Requirements

Before writing test scenarios, it’s crucial to understand the application’s requirements. Study the mobile application’s functionality, features, and target audience. 

Determining Mobile App Test Scenario Priorities

As you prepare to write test scenarios, remember that not all features are equally important. Some features may be more critical than others and require more intensive testing. Determine which features are essential and most important to users. Prioritize these in your testing efforts. 

Writing Mobile Application Test Scenarios

Test scenarios should be: 

• Straightforward
• Easy to understand
• Cover the mobile application’s functionality

They should be varied to cover different usage scenarios and possible errors.

The test scenario must contain the following elements:

• Introduction: Describe the test’s general context and the scenario’s purpose. 
• Initial state: Defines the initial conditions or data required to run the test. 
• Test steps: A sequence of actions a tester must perform to test specific functionality. 
• Expected result: A description of the program’s expected response, behavior, or state after completing each step. 
• Input and output examples: Specify specific values that can be used during testing. 
• Completion: A description of the post-test actions or comments after completing the test scenario. 

Essential Considerations for Mobile App Test Scenario Planning

When planning test scenarios for mobile apps, critical points to remember are: 

• The application’s compatibility with different operating systems and devices is vital. 
• It is also worth considering various network conditions, such as a slow connection or no network.

Error Detection and Management in Mobile App Testing

During the testing of a mobile app, errors must be detected and reported to the developers. Follow these steps to achieve effective error detection and handling: 

1. Bug Detection

When testing a software product, you should actively look for bugs, deviations from expected behavior, or malfunctioning functions. It is worth creating detailed error reports, recording and describing all detected problems as precisely as possible. 

2. Classification and Prioritization

After detecting errors, it is essential to classify them by type and severity. You can use categories such as functional errors, interface problems, or performance problems. 

3. Reporting and Communication

It is important to thoroughly document the bugs you find and store them in a centralized bug management system, such as an issue tracking system. This will help maintain an organized bug database and make specific reporting of identified issues.

4. Bug Tracking, Resolution, and Monitoring

After bugs are detected, the development team tracks and resolves the issue by investigating its cause and finding an appropriate solution. After the correction, it is essential to periodically retest to ensure the problem has been solved and no new errors have appeared.

These steps help improve application quality and user satisfaction and facilitate a smooth testing process. 

Manually Testing Mobile Applications 

Manual testing for mobile apps is a process in which a tester manually checks various functions and operations of an application to detect defects. Manual testing for mobile applications is necessary to check usability. Mobile phones are much smaller, so all the elements are small. 

Therefore, it is necessary to check whether it is convenient to click (tap) on the elements with a finger, whether all the components are visible on different screens, and whether it is transparent to the user how to interact with the application because most of the elements are without captions, only with icons, or readable text, especially at different brightness. 

The Role of Manual Testing in Addressing Mobile App Interaction Nuances

Mobile applications have many particular ways of interaction: swipe, triple tap, and hold. It is also necessary to pay attention to the features of the device, how the cache is cleared, how the application interacts with others, and how it reacts to: 

• Calls
• Notifications
• Low charge levels

One advantage of manual testing is detecting errors that may be missed during automated testing. The tester can detect and reproduce errors in actual application conditions for further resolution, allowing for more accurate and complete application testing. 

Balancing Manual and Automated Testing for Optimal Mobile App Quality

Manual testing also has its drawbacks. The tester needs to spend time executing each test scenario manually. In addition, manual testing results can be subjective, as different testers can have different approaches and evaluations affecting the objectivity of error detection.

Manual application testing has advantages, such as detecting errors in real-world usage conditions. Its results can be subjective. An optimal approach to mobile application testing may involve manual and automated testing to achieve maximum quality and efficiency.

12 Best Practices For Mobile Application Testing

1. Test the Proper Platform

Mobile application testing varies based on the app's platform. The three primary categories include web-based apps, native apps, and hybrid apps. Each platform has distinct characteristics to consider when testing. Native apps offer the most control over the user experience but require significant effort to maintain across multiple platforms. This is due to the diversity of device hardware and operating systems. Hybrid apps implement distinct underlying technologies but are similar in their functionality. 

Thus, they have the same functional testing approach, such as testing the app's built-in device resources, gesture testing, screen orientation testing, and more. Web-based app testing has different obstacles. You'll have to handle several types of browsers (natively developed for the device or standard browsers), performance/load testing, and, most importantly, how the app functions with varied device screen sizes in the age of responsive and adaptive web design.  

2. Understand Your Customers

A large amount of data about your end customers is required to develop an appealing mobile app. Only if you know how the potential users interact with the app can you make better business decisions, prioritize development, and refine the user experience with more engaging touchpoints. By working with the development team to build analytical mechanisms into the app, QA specialists can understand the user behavior and test any parts that are mainly used. 

With product analytics tools such as Mixpanel, you can identify any factors of your design that frustrate people, where they get confused, and what keeps them from converting. Measuring end-user data is critical for determining appropriate strategies for mobile apps and making relevant business decisions.  

3. Functionality First, User Experience Second

Any app's key selling point is its fundamental functionality, which needs to be rock solid. People look for apps that can perform particular functions and meet their requirements. Since incomplete or inadequate functionality will result in app abandonment, ensuring the main functions are thoroughly executed and tested before launching is essential. Besides, mobile apps have to be user-friendly and slick. 

The development team must rework it if the functionality doesn't flow intuitively or the user interface is poorly designed. The best practice in testing here is not to wait until the app is finished to evaluate user experience. When the prototype or design mock-up is complete, you may begin testing the user experience early in the development cycle.  

4. Rely on Real Device Testing Before Launching

Testing on emulators and simulators is a highly beneficial strategy in the early phases of app development. They offer improved debugging capabilities to accelerate the app's testing lifecycle. Testing the mobile app on actual mobile devices is also critical. Before releasing the app, accurate device testing is worth considering. It offers precise results by permitting testers to check every possible scenario in the testing cycle. Hence, the flaws can be corrected instantly based on the realistic output.  

5. Run Performance Tests Early

When performance problems are discovered later in the development cycle, modifying after complete functional testing is frequently more expensive and dangerous. Hence, running a performance test at the early stage can help detect all the possible performance issues. Performance testing is not a one-and-done process; a single test cannot provide developers with all the information they want. Repetition is necessary for a performance test to be genuinely successful.  

6. Smart Balanced Testing  

It's crucial to balance exploratory testing and script-based testing. Script-based testing won’t help determine emotional involvement, and it typically requires more time to complete to obtain the appropriate degree of coverage. On the other hand, session-based testing can be implemented effectively to identify user experience issues, edge case scenarios, and certain usage conditions. You must get the mix right to guarantee the most thorough coverage possible.  

7. Use a Cloud Service to Test on More Devices  

A real device cloud is a testing environment comprising real iOS, Android, and other mobile devices accessible from the desktop browser. Mobile device cloud lets app developers and QA experts access app performance insights, switch devices effortlessly, and perform automated tasks.

When testing the mobile app is time-consuming, Katalon Testcloud leverages unlimited concurrency to reduce time-to-market. Compared to physical device testing, you’ll have to wait until a particular feature is missed. With the actual device cloud, you can test from anywhere with instant access to thousands of devices, debugging and releasing faster.  

8. Split the Testing Process into Smaller Units

Breaking down the testing process into smaller units and conducting the tests individually is one way to get more accurate results and accelerate the process. These units may be used to test certain app features or components. Splitting the tests assists in targeting every aspect of the app and conducting thorough testing.  

9. Test under Real-Time Scenarios

One of the most significant advantages of real-time testing is that it fits into your existing development processes. It's essential to test mobile apps under real-time settings, such as: 

• Poor network connectivity
• Separate time zones
• GPS locations
• SMS interruptions
• Low-battery notifications and so on

With a suitable testing tool, you can go beyond the usual device testing and test under real user scenarios, i.e., natural app gestures/interactions, in-app purchases, payment workflows, geotargeting, etc.  

10. Identify Your Support Policy 

Testing every set of browsers, platforms, and operating systems is difficult. To keep up with the pace of the mobile industry, define your support strategy early on and review it every three months. Identify your target devices and platform versions using end-user data and market research. 

Generally, the testing should be concentrated on devices and OSs with the most significant number of end customers. Moreover, it’s worth considering limiting support for outdated platforms since it may cost you enormously.  

11. Refine and Optimize

Some specific test types should be implemented to enhance and optimize mobile apps. Testers can apply A/B testing to determine which options end customers prefer and base final choices on the results. 

Besides, optimization testing allows you to judge small, uncomplicated UI and functionality modifications. Fake-door testing may also be used early in the development process to evaluate which new features end customers are most interested in.  

12. Combine Manual Testing with Automation Testing

The key to fusing automated and manual testing is identifying the most appropriate for each feature and particular product development phase. Manual testing is still pivotal since it enables you to cover various devices, locations, and UX tests from a human standpoint. 

Incorporating automation into your test plan for mobile apps may make manual application testing more efficient, quicker, and more accurate. Experts’ tips for fusing manual and automation testing consist of: 

• Add regular automated tests to manual testing. 
• White-box testing, load tests, and performance tests should all be automated. 
• Any test that is performed repeatedly is suitable for automation. 
• For scalable, time-efficient testing, use crowd testing. 
• Consider scheduling manual tests after important design or development cycles.  

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NUMI helps with: 

• Product design
• Web design
• Framer development
• Webflow development
• Mobile design
• Prototyping
• UX design
• All of your startup's design needs! 

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