Mobile Application Testing Series — Part 4: Mobile App Testing Best Practices

When you think about mobile apps, the first thing that comes to mind is likely the user experience. But what’s behind a smooth and seamless app experience? Mobile app testing. In an age where users expect flawless performance and fast load times, testing has become more crucial than ever. It’s not just about identifying bugs, but about ensuring that the app functions flawlessly across multiple devices, operating systems, and environments.

With millions of apps available on app stores, the competition is fierce. The slightest issue can lead to user frustration, negative reviews, and, ultimately, lost customers. That’s why implementing best practices in mobile app testing is essential. By following proven strategies, developers can ensure their apps are functional, responsive, and secure — delivering the experience users expect and deserve.

In this blog, we’ll cover the key best practices for mobile app testing. From setting up a solid testing strategy to using the right tools for cross-platform and cross-device testing, these tips will help you streamline your testing process and ultimately release high-quality apps that delight users.

1. Planning Your Mobile App Test Strategy

Effective mobile app testing starts with careful planning. Without a clear strategy, testing can become disjointed and ineffective. Here’s how to approach it:

• Define Objectives and Create a Test Plan:

The first step in any mobile app testing strategy is defining the objectives. What are you trying to achieve with the tests? Your goals could range from detecting bugs to assessing the app’s performance under different conditions. Establishing these goals upfront allows you to create a comprehensive test plan. The test plan should include test cases, timelines, resources, and tools required to ensure every feature of the app is thoroughly tested.

• Prioritize Critical Features Based on User Impact:

Not all features of your app are equally important to the user experience. Some features directly affect the user journey, such as the checkout process in an eCommerce app or the messaging feature in a social app. Prioritize testing for these critical features first, as issues in these areas can result in user frustration and lost revenue.

2. Testing on Real Devices vs. Emulators/Simulators

One of the most common dilemmas in mobile app testing is choosing between real devices and emulators or simulators. Here’s how to decide when to use each:

• Pros and Cons of Real Device Testing:

Real device testing provides the most accurate results since it simulates actual usage conditions. You can check how the app performs with various network speeds, battery consumption, and device-specific functionalities. Testing on real devices helps uncover issues that might not appear on emulators, such as touch sensitivity, GPS, or device-specific hardware quirks. However, it’s more time-consuming and expensive to test on a wide variety of real devices.

• When to Use Emulators/Simulators for Initial Tests:

Emulators and simulators are software programs that mimic the behavior of real devices. They are great for initial rounds of testing, such as checking app layout, basic functionality, or debugging code. They’re cost-effective and allow testing on a wide variety of virtual devices. However, they don’t replicate real-world conditions like performance under different network speeds or actual device performance. Use emulators and simulators for early-stage testing but move to real devices for more comprehensive evaluation.

3. Testing for Different Screen Sizes and Resolutions

Mobile devices come in various screen sizes, resolutions, and aspect ratios. Ensuring that your app provides a consistent and functional experience across all devices is critical.

• The Importance of Responsive Design Testing:

With so many different mobile devices in the market, responsive design is crucial. Your app must adjust its layout to fit different screen sizes and orientations (portrait and landscape). Failing to do so can result in a poor user experience, where text is cut off, buttons overlap, or images are distorted.

Best Practices for UI Consistency Across Devices:

• Flexible Layouts: Design layouts that automatically adjust based on screen size.
• Scalable Images: Use vector images or scalable assets to maintain visual clarity across different resolutions.
• Device-Specific Design Considerations: Pay attention to unique device features such as notches, rounded corners, or screen aspect ratios. Test your app on different devices to ensure it adjusts properly.

4. Cross-Browser and Cross-Platform Testing

Cross-platform testing ensures that your app works seamlessly across different operating systems and browsers. For mobile apps, this often means testing on both Android and iOS devices, as well as ensuring compatibility across browsers for web-based mobile apps.

• Testing for Android and iOS Platforms:

Android and iOS are the two most popular mobile platforms, and they come with different user interfaces, operating system behaviors, and development guidelines. Testing your app on both platforms is essential to ensure it functions consistently and reliably across both. For instance, navigation gestures, permission settings, and notification styles differ between the two operating systems.

• Cross-Browser Testing for Web-Based Apps:

If your mobile app is a web app or has a web version, testing it across different browsers is equally important. Browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge render web pages differently. Tools like BrowserStack or Sauce Labs can help you test your web-based mobile app on various browsers and device combinations to ensure consistent behavior.

5. Test Early and Often

The earlier you start testing, the more bugs you’ll catch, and the cheaper it will be to fix them. Testing should not be left to the final stages of app development. It needs to be integrated throughout the development cycle.

• Continuous Testing During Development:

Continuous testing is a best practice in agile development. By running tests continuously with each code change or iteration, you catch issues early, which helps maintain the overall quality of the app. This process also ensures that new features do not interfere with the functionality of existing ones.

• Automated vs. Manual Testing:

While manual testing is useful for exploratory testing and evaluating user experience, automated testing can save time and effort by running repetitive tasks, such as regression tests, consistently. Automated tests are ideal for tasks that are repeated often, such as verifying login functionality or running performance tests. Combining both manual and automated testing ensures thorough coverage of the app’s functionality.

• Iterative Testing in Agile Development:

In an agile environment, where changes are frequent, testing must be iterative. Test early and often and provide regular feedback to developers. This process ensures that the app continues to evolve smoothly without introducing new bugs as development progresses.

Conclusion

Mobile app testing is critical to ensuring your app performs flawlessly across devices and platforms. By following best practices like planning a solid test strategy, using both real devices and emulators, and focusing on responsive design and cross-platform compatibility, you can enhance your app’s quality and user experience.

Regular testing — both manual and automated — ensures your app meets user expectations and remains bug-free. To further boost your app’s performance, partnering with a reliable mobile app testing service can provide expert solutions tailored to your needs.

In the next part of this series, we’ll explore mobile app testing types and the best automation tools. Stay tuned!