A correctly functional mobile application is one of the best solutions to improve a brand’s interaction with customers and boost its revenue significantly. Statistics say that more and more clients use mobile apps these days, which has contributed to the increase in the number of apps from 15.9 billion to 37.8 billion over the last five years. These figures indicate that brands should pay more attention to the quality of their apps if they want to overcome the rapidly increasing number of competitors.
Considering the factors above, we can assume that simply creating a mobile app is not enough to boost that brand’s revenue. To ensure the proper quality of your app, you cannot skip the complex stage of mobile testing. Here’s a short guide on all the key aspects you need to know about this process.
The Importance of Mobile App Testing
The purpose of mobile app testing is to minimize the number of issues and bugs the users might potentially face after the download. This simple procedure can boost the number of downloads and motivate users to share positive reviews about the app.
Besides, the whole process of app development and marketing is quite expensive. From that perspective, mobile app testing is the best way to spot all the vulnerabilities and prevent potentially big financial losses before the app launch.
Also, testing will help to clearly specify your target audience, as it should be conducted on different devices and operating systems, both iOS and Android. This is definitely a worthy investment as it helps to cut down potentially higher costs in the future.
Types of Mobile Apps
What makes mobile apps different from desktop web apps is that they are more complex and diverse. Different mechanisms are required to test different types of mobile apps. This classification includes:
- Native apps: a native application is a solution developed to run specifically on a certain type of mobile device. This ensures that native apps can run faster and be more functional. This is possible thanks to the fact that they are created with the use of specific integrated development environments and languages, like Java and Kotlin for Android, and Objective-C or Swift for iOS.
- Web apps: The biggest advantage of a web application for users is that they can access it from any mobile browser. Also, web apps don’t require download or installation. Usually, web apps are developed using JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5.
- Hybrid apps: As you can guess from the name, a hybrid app is a happy medium between native and web solutions. They are built on JavaScript, CSS, or HTML5 but are packaged in native environments of different platforms.
Important Factors to Take Into Account Before Testing
- App Type: Different types of mobile tests are required for different types of apps. This should be specified before the testing to ensure the proper quality of the procedure.
- OS Versions: Before the testing, it’s necessary to specify which versions of operating systems will be reviewed in the test.
- Devices: Mobile apps, regardless of their types, should be tested not theoretically but on real mobile devices. Simulators and emulators can efficiently substitute real devices if having real items is expensive for the budget.
Types of Mobile App Tests
All tests are different in their nature because of the differences between various types of devices and the requirements of projects. Nonetheless, there are some basic types of mobile app tests to consider:
- Functional testing: Functional tests are considered the most important since they help to figure out whether the app’s functions correspond to the specified requirements and users’ intents. Testers, usually, pay most of their attention to such vital functions as registration, integration with other apps, screen mode, orientation change, menu options, texts, buttons, push notifications, etc.
- Usability testing: The main goal of this procedure is to figure out whether real UX corresponds to the expectations of the project. In the course of usability testing, testers have to make sure that users will be able to navigate all the necessary functions of the app intuitively. At this stage, it’s important to pay attention not only to functionality but to UI design as well. It’s also recommended to collect feedback from real users on what should be improved.
- Connectivity testing: Web apps and some native apps work only online. Thus, it’s necessary to verify whether they function properly in different internet connection conditions.
- Performance testing: The proper performance of a mobile application is a vital factor in its success. It might be very functionally rich and user-friendly but if it fails to perform as expected under different and specific workloads, it’s a bad thing for a brand.
- Interruption testing: Some events can be pretty unexpected for both users and developers. The task of testers is to find out whether the mobile app functions properly under these unexpected conditions, such as push notifications or calls.
- Compatibility testing: Most brands strive to reach a wide audience of users to ensure maximum coverage. That’s why they aim to create apps compatible with different operating systems and devices. The task of testers is to verify whether it functions properly on different types of devices, operating systems, and under different settings.
- Download testing: If your app cannot be downloaded and installed all its best features and most advanced functions become useless. Testers should find out whether the download process is smooth and how the app behaves in the course of this process. It’s also necessary to figure out whether the app can be updated.
- Localization testing: Many apps are expected to work in different markets and regions. This is impossible without proper localization. To reach the widest target audience, ensure that the translations are correct and that the app shows the time correctly in different time zones.
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