Mobile App Testing Services - All you need to know

Most business ventures in today’s time are relying on online channels. And with buyers spending most of their time on their smartphones, not many businesses can think of surviving without a mobile application.

But the mobile device ecosystem with innumerable software and hardware being configured together, along with network configurations is painfully complex. The competition in the arena is also increasing at the speed of light. 

With the sudden rise in the mobile application market, the rat race of being the best has also found its ever increasing momentum.

The only way to survive in the mobile application market is to create what’s extraordinary. And your application testing is pivotal to your success.

The mobile application testing services (MATS) market is expected to reach USD 8.23 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 15.37% over the forecast period (2020-2025). 

What is Mobile Application Testing?

There are 2.7 billion smartphone users across the world today. With this large number of users, it is obvious that mobile apps should be thoroughly tested before releasing them into the market.

Mobile application testing is essential in the process of checking the quality of a mobile application including functionalities, usability and consistency glitches if any.

Mobile application testing is beneficial in terms of:

  • Enhancing the quality of your application
  • Saving development time and cost
  • Boosting overall ROI

The different phases of mobile application testing include:

  • Requirement analysis
  • Test planning
  • Test analysis
  • Test design
  • Test execution 
  • Bug reporting, etc

A few mobile application testing essentials are:

Mobile application testing is different from general software testing or common web testing. The essential factors to look out for differ too. Here are a few paramount aspects to consider when testing a mobile application:

  • Type of mobile application
  • Screen orientation
  • Screen resolution
  • OSs
  • Turning on/off GPS
  • Different devices’ manufacturers

Types of mobile applications:

The testing process and the tools to be used for a mobile application testing depends on the type of application that you are dealing with. Here are the three types of mobile applications that you need to be aware of:

  • Web Application- These applications are accessed by the users on their laptops or PCs.
  • Native Application- Native applications are meant to be available only on a few specified platforms and they need to be installed on any computing device.
  • Hybrid Application- These applications are curated to work seamlessly on both web and native. 

How to Test a Mobile Application?

To understand the entire process of mobile application testing we need to look at the different testing stages first.

Documentation Testing

This stage marks the beginning of the testing process. This is the time when the plan of building the application is chalked out, documented and sent to the tester. The tester goes through the plan including the design layout, navigational charts, etc and analyzes the entire plan. 

The tester works towards eradicating any discrepancy and offers insights with regards to additional requirements. 

Functional Testing 

Moving forward, comes the functional testing stage that specifically checks if the different functionalities in the application perform as expected and intended.  The several aspects that you need to validate in the functional testing stage are:

  • Check if there are any issues while installing and running the application
  • Carry out an end-to-end field test
  • Check all the business functionalities 
  • Do interruptions testing
  • Carry out constant user feedback testing
  • Look out for the processes related to the updation
  • Carry out device resource testing

Usability Testing 

Creating an intuitive interface that perfectly abides by the industry standards and checking for the ease of usability is done at this stage.

Whether your application passes this stage of testing depends on the overall

  • Satisfaction of the user using the application
  • Efficiency of the application 
  • The overall effectiveness of the application

Configuration Testing  

Configuration testing also termed as compatibility testing is done to check how the application performs in different devices including laptops, tablets, smart phones etc.

This stage of testing also takes care of:

  • OS Configuration
  • Browser Configuration
  • Database Configuration
  • Device Configuration
  • Network Configuration

A few other testing stages include performance testing, security testing, recovery testing, localization testing, beta testing, certification testing, etc.

Testing Best Practices for Application Testing

A few best practices of mobile application testing if implemented with precision can give you the best results. Here is a list of a few of the best practices.

  • Know your application in and out. Be familiar with it
  • Understand the difference between testing your desktop software and mobile application. Keep this key point in mind
  • Make sure to be aware of the operating system and the hardware specifications that you are using to test the application
  • Choose the right mobile testing tool for the process and make sure to be familiar with it Else, you always have the option to outsource it to mobile application testing service providers. 
  • Prefer using cloud mobile testing 
  • Establish a healthy balance between manual and automated testing 
  • Make sure to carry out beta testing 

Also read: Evaluating Software Testing Companies?  Here are 5 things you should look out for

Mobile Application Testing Challenges

You need to make your mobile application rock solid to make your user keep the application on their device. However, with the different devices, connections and sizes of the screen used by various users, it becomes a challenge to test your application for its user friendliness. There are  few other challenges too in the entire mobile testing process as follow::

  • Screen Size: The user may download your application in a device with a large screen or a basic smartphone with a screen smaller than 4 inches. You need to make sure that the interface of the application and the overall user experience is not compromised. This is a tedious process and quite challenging for most of the testers.
  • Power Consumption and Battery Life: Users usually tend to uninstall applications that go against power consumption of their devices and drains battery life. It’s crucial that your application contains several engaging features but at the same time making sure of your application not being responsible for lowering battery life of the device is a daunting challenge.
  • Internationalisation of your application: Most market experts suggest making a website or application multilingual. This essentially means that you need to add translation features to your application that users can use according to the language they prefer. Testers need to consider checking for this feature along with the flexibility of setting time zones, and work on local settings. Such testing tasks are quite challenging and need utmost expertise to deliver the intended value.
  • Connection Types: Your users will be using diverse connections with a few using 3G, and others using 4G connections. The speed of the connections will vary and your application should be running with ease in each one of them. To make sure that the application performance is balanced irrespective of the connection the user is using is more than just a mere challenge.

What Role does Verifaya Play?

Verifaya offers its cutting edge mobile testing services, both functional and non-functional along with automated testing of mobile applications for Web, Native and Hybrid applications. Veriaya has unparalleled experience in mobile testing for various domains such as banking, retail, healthcare etc. 

The team uses the best industry practices to analyse test requirements, test design and test execution phases. With a highly experienced team, Verifaya offers new age and reliable tools for the entire testing process. The challenges of mobile application testing are taken care of with their sheer domain knowledge and their testing platform intends to provide the best results to enhance your overall application performance.

A few of Verifaya’s testing services include: 

  • Core Testing Services
  • Specializes Testing Services
  • Test Automation Services 
  • On-demand Testing Services 

 

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Also read: 5 advantages of outsourcing software testing