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If you’re a part of a mobile app testing company or you’ve kept yourself updated with what’s going on in mobile app testing world for past few years, you probably know the most common challenges it faces:

  • Market fragmentation and OS/device proliferation
  • Testing the environment of the real end-user within and outside of the app
  • Testing both native elements as well as visual aspects/UI of the app
  • Keeping up with the release cadence and agile while maintaining high app quality
  • Testing for a fully digital experience for IoT, web, mobile, etc.

If the above is somehow addressed by various guidelines, techniques, and tools, both Android and iOS platforms added another layer of complexity to developers and testers. With the last few versions of both operating systems, we’re seeing more abilities to engage with the app outside of the app.

With iOS, Apple has enabled mobile app developers to better engage with their end-users even outside of the app itself. Heavy messaging users can stay on the same screen/app that they’re using and quickly respond to external app notification in different ways.

This is a clear continuation of the Force Touch (3D Touch) functionality that was introduced with iOS 9 that allowed users to clock on the app icon without opening the full app and perform a quick action such as uploading an image to Facebook or uploading a new Facebook status.

So, What Changed?

Answer – A lot.

A mobile app testing company’s testing plans for various mobile OS versions are becoming more complex than ever, requiring a solid methodology so that teams can defer the right tests to the right platforms based on the capabilities of the device and app features.

To have the ability to test various app contexts, you need to ensure that you have the following capabilities for a tool perspective in place and the following test scenarios are in your test plan.

  1. Apps under test must be supported by testing tools now. Tools must also support the full device system to engage with iMessage apps, system popups, device screen for force touch-based testing, etc.
  2. The test plan in whatever tool or tree is being managed, ought to accommodate variance between devices and platforms and allow relevant testing of devices, features, and applications.
  3. New test scenarios to be considered if your app leverages such capabilities
  • What happens when incoming events like text messages or calls occur will the app interact within a shortcut/split-screen/iMessage etc. Also, what happens when these apps receive other notifications.
  • How does the app behave when there are degraded environment conditions such as when the flight mode is on or the network connection is lost or poor etc. – note that apps such as iMessage depend on network availability
  • If your app engages with a 3rd party app – it’s important to take into consideration the fact that these apps are exposed to defects that are not under your control – iMessage, Facebook, others. If they crash or don’t work well, the simulation needs to be done early in your testing activities and understand the impact on the app and business.
  • Apps that work with iMessage, for example, might require a different process for app submission and also might be part of a separate binary build that needs to be tested properly.
  • These complexities are all dependent on the OS releases and the market, therefore, it’s important to ensure that all released beta versions get proper testing by teams to avoid regressions.

Hopefully, these insights will help plan for a new future that is growing in the mobile space that IMO does add an extra layer of challenges to existing test plans.

Ray Parker

Ray Parker

Ray Parker is an entrepreneur and tech enthusiast who loves to incorporate new technologies to get more efficient outcomes. When he's not marketing his latest venture, he keeps himself busy in writing technical articles to educate peers and professionals.
Ray Parker

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