Beginners Guide for Testing a Mobile Application

When was the last time that you logged into your FaceBook account on a web browser? Or say Googled your queries and questions on a web browser? You don’t do it quite often these days, right?! Well, that is because it’s the age of mobile applications. And they are a much easier and feasible alternative against the traditional web browser. No wonder the necessity of mobile applications is at its peak; and so is the need for mobile application testing.

Mobile application testing, as mentioned above, is picking up the pace. Being a witness and active participant in these booming market of mobile applications, we’ll like to share a few points on mobile application testing.

Well, before we jump on to explaining mobile application texting, let us first share a little about mobile testing in general.  The concept of mobile testing is broadly being categorized into two sections:

• Mobile Device Testing
• Mobile Application Testing

First thing first, Mobile Device Testing is basically a process of testing the mobile device before it’s launch. All the functionalities of this new device have to be tested well in advance before it goes out in the market for the consumers to buy. Every single feature, provided in the component, has to be checked whether they are working just as they’re expected to be or not. No new mobile device can afford to have functionality error when they hit the market.

Now, let us shift our focus to the prime topic, that we’re supposed to talk in detail today – Mobile Application Testing. Just as the mobile device needs to go through the process of testing and confirming the fact that everything is functioning as it is expected to be or not, a mobile application also needs to go through the process of testing.
 

• It is the mobile application development companies that do this testing on a usual basis because generally, it is them who has worked on the development of the respective application and hence they know how that particular application is supposed to function.
• The mobile application tester is also supposed to check whether all the functions and features are working as expected in all the different devices viz. mobiles, tablets, et al.
• The mobile application tester also has to confirm that all the functionalities also works well on all the operating systems that it is been created for.

There are two ways of testing the mobile application; one is the manual method and the other is an automatic one, which uses different tools for testing the mobile application.

Manual Mobile Application Testing

The manual method of testing the mobile application needs to check a long list of features and functionalities. Let us first share some major ones from that list, which one can not bear to miss out on. If the answers to the following questions are yes, your mobile application is largely good to go!

1. Can the app be easily installed on the device?
2. Does the app behave as designed/desired, during an incoming call?
3. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when there’s an incoming SMS?
4. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when the battery of the device is being charged?
5. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when the charger is been disconnected?
6. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when the device goes on sleeping mode?
7. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when the device resumes from the lock screen?
8. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when the device is tilted?
9. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when the device resumes from sleeping mode?
10. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when the device is shaken?
11. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when a local message is being received from another app(for example, calendar reminders, to-do task, etc)?
12. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when a push message is received from another app(for example, twitter mentions, Whatsapp message, Wordfeud invitation, etc)?
13. Does the app correctly interacts with the GPS sensor in different situations like switch on/off, retrieve GPS data, et al?
14. Is the app defined and developed while keeping in mind all the buttons and keys of the device and works accordingly?
15. Does all those buttons or keys with no defined function are functionless, instead of behaving unexpectedly when the app is activated?
16. In case there’s a true ‘back’ button available on the device, does clicking on that ‘back’ button takes the user to the previous screen?
17. In case there’s a true ‘menu’ button available on the device, does clicking on that ‘menu’ button shows the app’s menu?
18. In case there’s a true ‘home’ button available on the device, does clicking on that ‘home’ button takes the user back to the home screen of the device?
19. In case there’s a true ‘search’ button available on the device, does clicking on that ‘search’ button allows the user to type and search things within the app?
20. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when the ‘Battery Low’ message is pushed on the screen?
21. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when the sound on the device is turned off?
22. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when the device is on Airplane mode?
23. Can the app be de-installed from the device?
24. Does the application function as expected after re-installation?
25. Can the app be found in the app store, once it’s launched?
26. Does the app behave as designed/desired, when the user multitasks and switches between different apps?
27. Does app behave as designed/desired while operating the touchscreen device with a screen protector on?

Automatic Tool-based Mobile Application Testing

It’s the age of automation and hence, the process of mobile testing also can be performed automatically by the use of tools. There are a host of tools, available in the market, that one can opt for. Let us share and talk about a handful of them, which we usually use for our mobile application testing projects.  

1. Appium

Appium is an open source test automation tool meant for automatically testing mobile applications. This one is well-equipped to test multiple types of mobile applications, viz. Native, Hybrid as well as the Mobile Web ones. It uses the standard WebDriver library for testing the mobile applications. One can also run automated tests on real devices like tablets, smartphones, etc.

2. Appium iOS Driver

The Appium iOS Driver is a test automation tool meant for testing the mobile applications made for iOS devices. This tool tests the applications made for the iOS version 8 and above. This one too is capable of testing different types of mobile applications, viz. Native, Hybrid and the Mobile Web applications. One can test the mobile applications using Appium iOS Driver on both the simulators as well as the real devices, by using the UI Automation framework of Apple. This one, as the name suggests, is a part of Appium mobile test automation tool; specifically meant for iOS mobile applications.

3. Robotium

Robotium is a test framework developed to simplify the process of writing a powerful and robust UI test cases for Android-based applications. The developer is able to write the function, system and acceptance test scenarios with the use of Robotium. This entire process can be performed across the length of multiple Android devices.

There are many more such tools available for mobile application testing, apart from the above three. Selendroid, Calabash, MonkeyTalk, UIAutomator, are the few that are widely used by development companies for testing a mobile application.

Got some inputs to this blog? Or have some queries on the same? Well, feel free to get in touch with us. Our enthusiastic and sporting team is open to both, the suggestions and the queries. Well, feel free to get in touch with our mobile application development and testing team.