Mobile Testing Tools: An Overview of the Different Types Available
The mobile application industry is so saturated, users want improved usability and quality from their apps! Mobile app testing helps discover defects and refine for the target audience.
These are the most popular mobile test tools. Read along, skip to the one that interests you most, or jump straight to your favorite mobile testing tool.
Mobile apps are becoming increasingly popular among consumers. Businesses are also adopting them to improve customer experience and boost sales.
However, the number of mobile app developers is not keeping pace with the demand. In 2019, there were only about 1 million mobile app developers globally. That’s why businesses are turning to automated mobile testing tools to help them test their mobile apps.
Best Software for Mobile Website Testing
- Appium: is an open source testing tool for mobile applications. It allows developers to automate tests across multiple platforms (iOS & Android). It is backed by a large and active open source community.
Benefits
Compatible with Multiple Languages End-To-End Testing is Available in Multiple Development Languages through Remote WebDriver Language Bindings Such As Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, And C#.
Cross Platform Code
Automation Tests for Both Android and iOS Can Be Written Using the Same API.
Record and Playback Feature
While Working With Appium, Testers Can Use Inspector To Accelerate Testing Through The Record And Playback Feature And Produce Test Scripts In A Number Of Programming Languages.
Challenges
Slow down the execution of tests due to the remote WebDriver dependency, network issues, processing commands of the framework, and the inability to find images.
Unable to Locate Images
Unlike most other popular mobile application testing tools, Appium doesn’t have the ability to locate images automatically. Testers must manually enter the location of each image they wish to test.
Limited system support
Appium only works with Android 4.2 and above and it doesn’t support older APIs for Android devices. Developers who want to test apps running on earlier versions of Android have to integrate Appium into their existing Selenium scripts.
- Espresso: is an open source test automation framework developed by google for android. The framework is powered with a large community at google that push the espresso test automation framework.
Benefits Ease of Use
This toolkit is embedded into the Android Studio IDE, which is the official development environment for Android native, and hybrid applications. Due to this, developers can easily setup the toolkit, build a test suite, and begin testing.
Speed
Running Espresso tests is fast due to it’s uniquely architecture. Espresso test execution does not require any server communication and runs parallel with the application to deliver fast results (in minutes).
Stability
Espresso tests offer an integrated method of execution, so the stability of the testing cycle is high. For instance, there is a feature within Espresso that validates if an object or element is present on the screen, ensuring the test execution doesn’t break when encountering errors such as “Element not found”.
Challenges
Limited Language Support Espresso supports only Java and JUnit. While this is ideal to support Android developers, it can also limit your stack.
Native to UI
If UI needs testing for both iOS and Android platforms, the tests must be developed twice, doubling the effort to build and maintain test scripts
Testing your mobile application can improve its performance, capabilities, and quality. It also validates its core functions. Selecting the right mobile app testing tool helps ensure you find critical errors within software.
A mobile testing tool is just a tool. Frameworks like Appium and Espresso are great starting points for automating your app, but they aren’t able to do everything. Perfecto integrates with all of them and provides end-to end testing support. Want to try out Perfecto? See what the world’s only end-to- end continuous testing platform can do.
Conclusion
In order to find the best mobile app testing tool, you must first understand your needs. What do you need? Do you need an automated solution? Or would manual testing suffice? Are you looking for something simple or complex? How much budget do you have? These questions should help you narrow down your options. Once you’ve determined what you need, it’s time to start researching. There are plenty of resources online that can help you learn about the various tools out there. Here are just a few:
