The latest versions of iOS and Android have made it easier for users to assess the performance of individual mobile apps. So it has become essential for businesses to test the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) of their mobile apps thoroughly to accomplish more downloads. The testing strategy of each enterprise must focus on assessing a mobile app’s functionality, performance and user experience across various devices, platforms and environments. So the managers must implement some best practices to get more accurate and reliable test results.

7 Best Practices for Mobile App Testing

1) Facilitate Field Testing

While making a mobile application testing strategy, you must explore ways to get the application tested in real user environments. It is also important to check how the application performs under various environments and different network connections. You must ask the testers to assess the application’s performance in the field. When the testers work in a real environment, it becomes easier for them to assess the application’s functioning with a variety of network connections and carriers including 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi. Also, they can test the application when there is no internet connection or the connection is poor.

2) Adopt Crowdsourced Testing Partially

You can further opt for crowdsourced testing partially get the mobile app tested by real users, with a wide range of mobile devices, and in different environments. The testing model will further help you to reduce the testing time and cost significantly. However, it is always important to make the app available to selected but diverse users for testing purpose through a reliable and secure online platform. Also, you need to identify and eliminate some of the major shortcomings of crowdsourced testing model. The involvement of diverse real users will help you to get the application tested in real user environments and under a variety of conditions.

3) Emphasize on Source Code Review

Nowadays each mobile app has to access, store and share a variety of personal and business data. But a number of surveys have highlighted that a large percentage of existing mobile apps are vulnerable to evolving security threats and attacks. That is why; you must include robust security features in the application and use the latest data encryption techniques. Also, you can get the source code of the mobile app reviewed thoroughly to enhance its security. As part of the source code review process, the testers will identify the weaker pieces of code that make the app vulnerable to various security threats. The programmers can simply remove or rewrite the weaker pieces of code to make the mobile app more secure.

4) Maintain Balance between Real Devices and Emulators

To make the mobile app profitable, you need to ensure that it delivers quality user experience across different models of smartphones, tablets and phablets. The emulators help testers to assess the app’s functionality and performance across many devices without using real devices. But the emulators cannot provide relevant information about the application’s performance on a specific device or in a specific environment. So you must use both real devices and emulators to test the mobile app more effectively. However, it is also important to make a proper balance between the real devices and emulators in the testing environment.

5) Test Early and Test Often

A number of studies have highlighted that a business can reduce the defect turnaround time drastically by testing the application early and frequently. When the application is tested in each build, it becomes easier for testers to fix the bugs identified by the tester. The testers further need to repeat all tests to assess all aspects of the application more effectively. Most organizations nowadays adopt agile methodology, and make the programmers and testers work together and concurrently.

6) Check if the Mobile App is truly global

To get higher returns, you need to build mobile apps by targeting users residing in various regions. Thus, your app must have a global appeal to impress users residing in various parts of the world. In addition to incorporating the relevant features into the application, you also need to get its worldwide appeal tested rigorously. The testes must perform a variety of tests to assess how the app supports a wide variety of languages, currencies and social networks, and if it delivers relevant and localized information to each user.

7) Don’t Forget to Assess Battery Consumptions

A number of reports have highlighted that a large percentage of users delete power hungry mobile app almost immediately. The latest versions of iOS and Android make it easier for users to find out the amount of battery consumed by individual apps. So they can easily identify the amount of battery consumed by your mobile app without putting any extra effort. You can always encourage the users to visit your mobile app frequently by checking battery consumption.

In one of my previous articles, I had written about a Checklist for testing mobile apps. A business can further effectuate its mobile app testing efforts by using a variety of test automation tools. The tools will enable testers to perform the required tests within a shorter amount of time. Further, they can repeat the required tests to assess the quality of the mobile app more effectively.