An average person spends 3 hours and 15 minutes with a smartphone, Exploding topics report. However, this person rarely gives chances to slow and incorrectly working applications. The only way to keep your app icon on the user’s smartphone screen is thorough software testing. Today we analyze the most critical challenges that QA teams are faced within mobile testing automation.
Challenge #1. Different types of mobile apps
Mobile applications are divided into three large groups:
- Native applications are developed for a specific platform/operating system.
- Hybrid applications are a combination of native and web applications.
- Web applications are delivered using a web browser, they can work on almost any device that supports this technology.
Based on this, different types of applications behave differently. Features can be both during installation and in the operation of functions. Therefore, each type of mobile application needs its test scripts.
Anyway, there are always users that ignore the mobile or hybrid app and prefer to use it through their phone browser. Make sure that the web application works correctly in different browsers and their versions.
Challenge #2. Limited reporting options
QA teams use several tools when testing mobile applications. All of these tools provide huge amounts of data that need to be reported.
If you do it manually, the process will take hours. Moreover, what if the CEO or one of the stakeholders suddenly needs information on additional metrics? An ideal solution is a test automation platform with an automatic reporting feature. Automation reporting platform provides you with high-quality automated reports which are easy to understand without a technical background. Built-in AI/ML technology categorizes detected bugs and helps you identify the root causes of failures.
Challenge #3. Internal and external integrations
Mobile apps often interact with such device features as camera, microphone, geolocation, etc. In addition, they frequently integrate with other applications.
Ensure that your app integration features are supported by different devices and platforms. To protect users from a negative experience, test different ways the app interacts with the mentioned device features on different devices and platforms. Zebrunner device farm provides 24/7 access to any devices you need via the cloud. You can perform any mobile testing type and run a large amount of tests (500+) in parallel.
Even if your mobile software is not directly related to other functions of the phone, bugs can still lurk in this area. How will the application react if a phone call comes in? How will a low battery affect its performance? Check it to minimize any quality issues and risks.
Challenge #4. Different versions of operating systems
Android and iOS are the most often used operating systems for mobile devices. Also, some mobile device manufacturers prefer Windows OS. Each operating system has many versions. At the same time, quite a lot of users do not install updates for various reasons. It means that an application developed for the latest version of Android or iOS may not work correctly on any of the older versions of these operating systems. Furthermore, an app that works well on one operating system may freeze or not work on another OS.
Challenge #5. Network issues
According to Statista, there are 6.6 billion smartphones in the world in 2022. Some users have several, others have one. Some people prefer the latest versions of the most famous brands, others use cheap devices. What unites them? Both of them periodically encounter network problems. And this, in turn, significantly affects the performance of applications.
It is essential for QA teams to test the connection speed and to check how the application works in different networks.
In addition, some people can use the application through the operator’s network, others through Wi-Fi, or use both methods. Test how your application reacts to sudden connection changes.
Challenge #6. The interface doesn’t work properly
No matter how effective the functionality is, the user is unlikely to stay with your product if the application does not work correctly.
Recently I installed updates for my favorite online game. And after that, it turned out to be unrealistic to enter the application, because I was far from the only user who wanted to go through new levels. I was so angry that I wanted to uninstall the app. Only the fact that the game is one of my favorites stopped me.
Thus, developers should test the performance of the interface during periods of extremely high traffic. Without load testing, you may find yourself in a situation where the application malfunctions under heavy load on the servers, and its performance is significantly reduced.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.