Did you know how much time people spend on their mobile phones today? Well, as per a survey conducted in February 2021, nearly half of the respondents mentioned that they spend 5 to 6 hours on their phones daily, excluding work-related use. Further, 22 percent of the respondents said spending 3 to 4 hours on average on their phones. Of this, consumers spend the majority of their time on mobile apps. Hence, as mobile apps are a fundamental part of our lives and play a key role in how we work, communicate, and entertain ourselves, being downloaded in millions each day across a myriad of devices, assuring the quality of these apps and experience delivered is a top priority. As a result, there’s been an increased focus on mobile device testing, and testing for apps across mobile devices is quintessential now.

What is mobile app testing?

Mobile app testing refers to the process by which apps for the devices are tested for their functionality, usability, performance, and much more.

Mobile application testing can be manual and automated, which helps ensure that the app caters to all the business requirements and user expectations.

Check out: How to Test Your Mobile Apps from Anywhere

Challenges of mobile app testing

Testing apps on mobile devices can often be complex. Following are some of the reasons for this:

A wide range of mobile devices — Devices now have different screen sizes and hardware configurations such as a hard keypad, virtual keypad, trackball, etc.

Different types of models of mobile devices like Samsung, Apple, Google, HTC, Nokia, OnePlus and much more.

Various operating systems, including Android, iOS, and many more

Different versions of OS like iOS 5, iOS 15.5, Android 6 etc.

Multiple network types including both WiFi & SIM(5G,4G,2G etc.) Regular and frequent updates, where with each update, a new testing cycle is required to ensure that no application is impacted.

Whether to use a real or virtual device for testing mobile apps mostly depends on what you wish to test.

Real devices

If testing your app’s performance is a priority, real devices are always the most suitable option. Real devices help provide accurate results and allow testing in the same condition as end-users.

Test applications across a variety of real user conditions such as network conditions, screen size, battery consumption and much more

Assists in recreating the customer user journeys

3rd party transactions can be effectively monitored

Ability to assess geolocation, push notification and security features(2FA) on an app

Faster test execution as compared to simulators/emulators 

Several enterprises garner the benefit of real device cloud to enhance the efficiency of the testing processes and deliver the best quality apps. It offers a mobile testing environment that has a diverse collection of iOS and Android devices.