6 Types of Mobile App Testing & Best Practices in 2024

The number of mobile users is expected to reach 7.5 billion by 2025. The average time spent on mobile phones is more than 4 hours per day, and more than 90% of this time is spent on mobile apps. These facts indicate that user engagement with mobile applications is considerable and given that in 2021 alone more than 2 million apps were launched.

Nevertheless, users abandon apps with many bugs and glitches. Testing mobile apps can help companies to detect errors and bugs and increase the possibility of mobile apps’ success. Thus, In this article, we will explore mobile app testing, its benefits, and its different types. We will also offer QA testers and executives best practices and suggestions to aid with the deployment of a clockwork app.

What is app testing?

Mobile application testing is a type of software testing conducted by testers to ensure that the mobile apps meet the functionality and usability requirements. It also assesses if the app is ready to be launched. 

3 Benefits of app testing 

1- Enhance user satisfaction

A well-tested application will have fewer bugs and can provide a better user experience through a well-designed UI. It also ensures that the app functions as intended. All of this can lead to higher user satisfaction and increase user loyalty. 

2- Reduce Cost

App testing will find bugs and problems that can be fixed at an earlier stage. Fixing bugs will be cheaper at this stage.

3- Minimize risk

Flaws and vulnerabilities in an application can incur financial costs and long-lasting damages to the company’s reputation. According to IBM data breaches cost companies, $1.59 million on average in lost business. Testing identifies flaws and fixes them before they become a threat to the application.

The rest of the article will continue with 6 types of mobile app testing, examples of what to test, and our recommendations for QA testers and executives to improve the web testing process.

1- Functionality testing 

The functionality test ensures that the app functions perform as expected.

What to test:

• Are the mandatory fields work as intended and are they distinguished clearly from optional fields?
• Does the application allow sharing capabilities across different social platforms?
• Does the application perform as expected when it is opened or closed?
• Do the payment getaways function as expected? 

Recommendation:

• Try to automate tests as much as possible, for example, smoke tests are functional tests that are automatable. 
• Create a test plan and prioritize them based on its importance 

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2- Usability testing 

This test is conducted in order to find out if the app is user-friendly. 

What to test:

• Is it easy to use the application?
• Is it easy to learn the application?
• Is the app convenient for the end-user?

Recommendation:

•  Invest in user experience design as research has shown that investing in user experience generates ROI of more than %9,000. 
• The main objective should be to provide users with an app that is easy to use & navigate. An app with a difficult UI can frustrate users and reduce engagement with the app. 

3- Compatibility test

Is the application compatible with different :

• Mobile operating system ( Android, IOS)
• Mobile browsers ( Safari, Chrome)
• Mobile devices 
• Screen sizes
• Operating system versions

What to test:

• Are texts fully visible in different screen sizes?
• Is the application layout displayed as intended for different screen sizes?
• Are the functions working properly in different OS and browsers?

Recommendation: 

• Use emulators and simulators as they remove the need of using physical devices. 
• Pay close attention to compatibility tests as we are living in a global environment where everyone from everywhere can download applications. However, the usage of different OS and browsers are different in each country (See Figure 1). For example, If you neglect IOS compatibility you can lose a considerable amount of user base. 

Figure 1. OS market shares in different countries 

4- Performance testing 

70% of the people who switch apps do so because it takes too long to load. The main objective of this test is to understand the application performance under different scenarios. This test also allows the identification of bottlenecks and bugs that render the performance of the application. 

What to test:

• Does the app perform on a desirable level under different load levels?
• Does the performance get impacted when the internet connection changes from 4G to WIFI or vice versa?
• Is the application response time the same as the desired response time?

Recommendation 

• Define KPIs for the app performance that aligns with the business goal.
• Prioritize scenarios based on their probability of occurrence and impact. 

5- Security testing 

Data breaches cost enterprises $4.24 million on average. The media/ entertainment industry and business services have the most vulnerable mobile applications (See Figure 2). Security testing is conducted to ensure user data protection and identify security vulnerabilities. 

Figure 2. App security of different industries ( 0 to 10 scale, 0:Minor level of severity, 10: Critical level of severity )

What to test:

• Is the application able to withstand different types of attacks such as brute force attacks, SQL injection attacks, and distributed denial of service attacks?
• Are cryptographic codes functioning as intended or are they broken?
• Are there any vulnerabilities in the different data streams?

Recommendation: Do not treat security testing as the last step of the process, security testing should be a recurring event. 

6-Interface testing

UI has a direct impact on the user experience and it can make your app stand out among competitors. 

Interface testing tests the user interface of the app and the overall layout of menus, buttons, settings, and overall navigation flow. 

What to test:

• Are the buttons’ sizes big enough? 
• Are buttons’ placements consistent?
• Is there an undo or going back button?
• Are font sizes the correct size that is not too big or small
• Are texts converted fully and correctly to a different language if the application supports multi-languages?

Recommendation

• Be user-centric. Therefore, it might be beneficial to conduct surveys and A/B tests.

• Be consistent in your design.
• Use familiar UI elements.
• Use appropriate colors and typography to attract users.

Further reading

• API Testing: 3 Benefits & 8 Different Types
• Web Testing: 7 Different Types & Automated Web Testing
• Automation Testing: Types, Frameworks, Tools & Best Practices
• Automation Testing Tools: Code-based, Robotics & AI tools 

For more on automation & AI

If you are ready to deploy automated testing, feel free to check out our data-driven, transparent list of top vendors that can enable testing automation .

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