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Since there are a myriad of players in the mobile app market, the competition is endless in today's time. To beat the heat and to keep offering an enhanced mobile app experience to the customers and users, a mobile app needs to be constantly updated with the latest changes happening. For doing this, there is a mobile app testing checklist. That mobile app testing checklist is elaborated in detail for you so keep reading and checking.

MOBILE TESTING TYPES AND APPROACHES

1. Functional Testing

Functional software testing makes sure that the application is totally well and functioning smoothly correctly. This type of testing primarily focuses on the main purpose along with the flow of the app. This type makes sure that all its features are responsive and they meet the specifications. Adding further to the mobile app’s specific functionality, there are many other scenarios that one should test for to limit the errors, including but not limited to checking if:

The users can easily sign up or login

The app installs and launches correctly the way it should be

Text boxes and buttons function properly and there is no glitch and if

Push notifications render correctly

2. Compatibility Testing

Compatibility testing is one of the very popular types of testing. It is a type of non-functional testing which is critical to ensure your mobile app works on various operating systems and devices. Not only that, it ensures that the mobile app works on all types of network environments, and with particular internal hardware specifications too. In this type of testing, you should know if:

The app is compatible with various operating systems along with their various versions be it iOS, Android or Windows.

The app performs quite well with varying networks and their parameters that is the bandwidth, operating speed, etc. are all working well.

The app is compatible with different kind of browsers present today such as Google, Firefox, Safari, Yahoo, etc.

The app is compatible with all the types of devices of different screen sizes, data storage, etc. and provides a pleasant UX.

3. Usability Testing

Known as user experience testing, usability testing is primarily known to check how user friendly the app is. Be it in terms of ease of use or intuitiveness, it checks all of it. Ideally, usability testing revolves around the entire app driven customer UX (user experience) with insights which include the identification of bugs as well as the recommendations for ways to enhance the customer experience.

4. Localization Testing

Right from translating the text in multiple languages to converting bucks into local currencies and adhering to the local regulations and legal requirements, it is really imperative to make sure that the app is accessible as well as usable in a wide variety of markets. That is exactly where localization testing comes in as it looks at those issues and fixes them.

Consumers very frequently skip past apps whose graphical or User Interface elements are misaligned with their culture, language, or even device accessibility. Customers in today's advanced world expect flawless experiences which are localized for their needs, likes and preferences. Do you want to beat your competitors on the global market? If yes then you need to focus on this testing method. According to a research conducted by AppAnnie, fully localizing apps is how you beat your competitors at the global level and achieve a position in the market. At the very same time, localization testing continues to be a challenge because of the reason that half of all the QA teams lack the required test coverage and access to the resources that are needed to test localization.

5. Installation Testing

Also known as implementation testing, installation testing is a very important one when it comes to the various types of testing. This type of testing is generally performed to check if the software is installing and uninstalling properly across all the devices and locations. Additionally, installation testing makes sure that updates are also uninterrupted and error-free on all the device types. This includes comprehending what happens if a user does not update an app or if an user upgrades to premium and so on. 

6. Performance And Load Testing

Performance testing examines how well a mobile application performs under a particular workload be it low, medium or high. These tests are critical to make sure that your app is not malfunctioning and is totally fine under all circumstances.

Performance and load tests check for the following pointers:

Device Performance: Start up time, battery consumption rate, memory consumption, etc. is been checked.

Network Performance: Delays or errors in receiving information along with the duration of delay is been checked.

API / Server Performance: How quickly and in what format data is transferred is been checked.

In addition to the above mentioned points, your app should have built-in back-up as well as recovery functions which save or recover user data that could be lost for any reason. This is exactly where you would test that capability and get things right if it is not so. 

7. Security Testing

According to a research, around 80% of users all across the globe would “uninstall an app due to security issues”. As such, it becomes very imperative that you understand and respect the security testing.  Right from food ordering apps to travel apps, dating apps to productivity enhancing apps, some applications ask for user’s personal information such as name, birth date, email Id, age, location, etc . If yours does, too then you absolutely must guarantee confidentiality, authenticity, as well as integrity of the app and provide a valid reason to ask. That is why your QA testing must prioritize data security and also test the app behavior under various device permission schemes.

8. Mobile Device Testing

Mobile apps would not exist without hardware and operating systems and that is why we also need to sit back and think about mobile device testing to make sure that the software and hardware quality are up to mark. There are several testing types specific to mobile including the important ones that we have mentioned below:

Interruptions – Interrupt testing essentially evaluates how exactly an app reacts to interruptions. Common mobile app interruptions include a number of cases such as loss of battery power, errors in incoming phone call or text, delay in notifications, and app updates and many more.

Biometric – Mobile devices very often include biometric sensors which include face recognition, finger print and hand geometry, and even DNA or insulin levels and so it becomes very important that it works glitch free.

NFC Payments – Near Field Communications (NFC) basically allow mobile devices to communicate with a payment terminal enabling contactless payments to ensure there is no threat in between and the payment gateway is safe.

9. Automated Testing

As we have pointed out before, there are a few cases where manual testing is the better option than an automated one. Having said that, we cannot deny the fact that some QA tests are either too tedious or too complex for human testers. This is exactly why smartly executed automated testing, alongside manual tests, can help us assure quality and release better products, in less time.

10. Manual Testing

Mobile app testing is kind of a complex process and it involves various mechanisms and different skill sets to do so. QA teams use manual testing to make sure that the final product really works as it was intended by the makers. With a specific role to play, manual testing is generally used to explore the use cases that may not be all that obvious. The expert human testers working in short intervals in order to swarm the application can deliver mind blowing results. Additionally, we simply cannot automate some types of tests and rather we shouldn’t and the ones we are talking about are Physical interface tests, Complex tests and Exploratory testa.

MOBILE APPLICATION TESTING TOOLS

A wide range of mobile application testing tools is available today to help testers automate their test scripts. However there are some top performing mobile application testing tools that have worked wonders and are quite popular. The ones we recommend are TestComplete, Appium, Monkey Talk,  Testdroid, Robotium and Calabash. You can go through each of them in detail and select which one would best suit for your fit. If you need any help with choosing the right one, get in touch with our experts.

CONCLUSION

Mobile app testing is quite an exciting task but sometimes it can become complex. One of the reasons may be when there are some advanced features added as per the need of new changing technology. The usability of the Mobile Testing Tools in automation testing of mobile apps breaks down the complexity of it and helps to make it faster and flexible. We hope that the above mentioned Mobile testing types and approaches will help you make a fruitful decision. So we recommend that you wisely choose which all testing to go with and effectively and efficiently run your app. In case you need any help with testing, feel free to get touch with our team today