We are in 2023, an era where a mobile app isn’t just an app. It’s more like a mantra for businesses to get seen, heard, and used by their existing and potential customers. 

That’s why it is absolutely imperative for investors to thoroughly test their apps and ensure that they meet specific requirements, function properly, and deliver a satisfying user experience.

But as somber as it may sound in theory, in practicality, it’s even more serious. That’s because mobile app testing doesn’t just include usability and performance; mobile testing, in its vastness, includes almost every single type that helps one cover every single aspect and ensure top-notch quality.

How many tests should one carry out then? We have enlisted 8 main types of mobile testing that ensure better QA of your app. But first, let’s cover the basics.

WHAT IS MOBILE APP TESTING?

Mobile app testing refers to the process of evaluating, verifying, and validating the functionality, usability, security, and performance of a mobile application before its final release in the market.

It involves testing the app on different smart devices, mobile operating systems, and network conditions to ensure that it works appropriately and meets user expectations. Proper and thorough testing increases the chances of garnering positive reviews for the app while it achieves the desired business objectives.

Why is it so important?

Let’s cut to the chase. Here are some key reasons that explain why mobile app testing is absolutely essential.

– Quality Assurance: Ensuring first-class quality is the most obvious reason for testing. A strong testing strategy helps identify issues and resolve bugs, glitches, and errors in the application, making room for necessary improvements and refinements. It ensures that the app attains optimal quality standards before it reaches the end users.

– User Experience: Testing plays a pivotal role in fine-tuning the user experience. By thoroughly testing the app’s usability, navigation, responsiveness, compatibility, and design, developers can find areas for improvement and make adjustments to ensure a smooth and enjoyable user experience. This leads to increased user satisfaction, better interactivity, and better retention rates.

– App Store Compliance: App testing is needed to check compatibility with the guidelines of various app stores. These stores have specific policies regarding app functionality, content, security, and performance.

By thoroughly testing the app, developers can ensure compliance with these guidelines and increase the chances of its approval and distribution.

– Performance Optimization: Mobile app testing includes performance testing, which helps identify bottlenecks, resource inefficiencies, and other factors that can impact the app’s speed, responsiveness, and stability.

By testing under different conditions and loads, developers can optimize the app’s performance, minimize crashes or slowdowns, and improve overall efficiency.

– Security and Data Protection: Nowadays, most mobile apps deal with sensitive user information and hence, require robust security measures. App testing is needed to find security vulnerabilities and identify potential risks and mitigate them immediately. 

– Cost and Time Savings: Detection and removal of issues early in the development cycle can save significant time and resources in the long run. It helps prevent costly fixes, rework, and negative user reviews that could result from a subpar app. 

TYPES OF MOBILE APP TESTING

As already mentioned, testing mobile apps is a comprehensive, aspect-oriented process and includes an accumulation of several types. But there are seven main types that every QA must know and include for mobile application testing.

– Functional Testing: This type involves testing and verifying the app’s core functionality and features. It includes testing apps through user interactions, input validation, navigation, and data processing. It ensures that all functions and interactions within the app work as programmed like buttons, menus, and forms.

– Compatibility Testing: As the name suggests, this testing type checks the app’s compatibility on multiple devices. Compatibility testing is an absolute must, owing to the vast probability of the app being used on multiple devices of varying screen sizes and resolutions, different mobile OS, and their multiple versions. 

It ensures that the app performs consistently across various platforms and helps identify any device-specific issues or inconsistencies.

– Performance Testing: In performance testing, testers are focused on the evaluation of the app’s responsiveness, speed, and stability under different conditions. It involves testing the app under different conditions like low battery, poor network connection, high data influx, etc. to ensure optimal performance.

– Regression Testing: Once your app continues to thrive and keeps evolving, new features keep getting added. Therefore, regression testing is carried out to ensure that changes or updates to the app do not bring new issues or affect existing functionality. It involves retesting previously tested features to validate their continued functionality after modifications.

– Localization Testing: Localization testing is necessary when your target audience consists of users from different regions or languages. It ensures that the app is translated properly, is correct grammatically, and functions appropriately in different locales, including text, currency, date formats, and other language-specific features.

– Security Testing: Security forms a critical aspect of any software including mobile apps, especially in those that involve financial transactions. So the sole focus of this app testing type is on identifying vulnerabilities and making sure that the app is as resistant as possible to security threats.

Security testing involves testing for data breaches, unauthorized access, insecure data storage, and encryption weaknesses to protect user data and maintain the app’s integrity. Based on the test data, developers implement measures to mitigate security risks by introducing appropriate security mechanisms. 

– Usability Testing: In usability testing, testers assess the app’s overall user experience and check how comfortably users can interact with the app and navigate through it. It involves gathering feedback from real-time end-users to evaluate factors like intuitiveness, aesthetics, and overall user satisfaction.

These seven types of mobile app testing provide a comprehensive approach to certifying the quality, reliability, and security of mobile applications. 

However, depending on the specific requirements and the app’s nature, testers may also add to the types which may involve battery testing, memory leak testing, speed and network testing, or accessibility testing.

Summing Up

Mobile testing is an extensive process and can be exhaustive, if not planned properly. But with the right expertise and experience by your side, you can turn it into a powerful app tuning tool.

Having the experts by your side will help you establish a comprehensive testing strategy that covers all critical aspects and employs a mix of manual testing and automated testing techniques to ensure the best possible app quality.