A complete guide to mobile app testing

In this post, we’ll provide a comprehensive guide to mobile testing, covering types, devices, tools, and user-centric strategies.

What is mobile testing and why you need it

TL;DR: Mobile testing ensures apps work correctly across devices, deliver great UX, and avoid negative reviews that hurt business success.

The market for mobile smart device apps and website access is growing rapidly but is becoming increasingly crowded, especially with poor-quality and low-priced or free offerings.

Users freely share experiences, good and bad, on social media and specialist websites and blogs. A positive app store review is essential to ensure success in the mobile application market. That’s where comprehensive and effective mobile testing comes in.

Mobile testing is the process of evaluating mobile applications on various smart devices to ensure they function correctly, perform well, and give a positive user experience across different platforms and devices.

Mobile testing is crucial to delivering high-quality mobile and website applications that ensure business success. In this post, we’ll provide a comprehensive guide to mobile testing, covering types, devices, tools, and user-centric strategies.

Mobile testing is the process of evaluating mobile applications on various smart devices to ensure they function correctly, perform well, and give a positive user experience across different platforms and devices.

Mobile testing: An overview

TL;DR: Mobile testing evolved from manual to a mix of manual + automation to handle device diversity, faster releases, and complex ecosystems.

Historically, in the days of mainframe and desktop systems development, testing was a manual process. A testing team would prepare test plans and the expected results from each test.

The test plan was carried out, and failing tests were passed back to the developers for correction and retesting.

As software evolved and mobile applications started to develop, the testing process became complex. Mobile applications needed to function across a wide range of operating systems, platforms, screen sizes, devices and network conditions.

This was a time-consuming and repetitive process and expensive in resources, so efforts were made to automate the process, and software toolkits such as specialized mobile testing tools and frameworks began to appear.

Automated testing meant smaller test teams and a more rapid development and deployment cycle. That brought faster time to market and cost benefits.

The process was given a kick by the need to develop and deploy mobile apps rapidly.

Today, due to the dynamic nature of the evolving mobile ecosystems and rapid releases and iterations of applications, a combination of manual and automated testing has become essential when developing mobile apps.

Types of mobile testing

TL;DR: Key types include functional, usability, performance, compatibility, security, installation, and localization testing.

Just as in other areas of application development, there are several types of tests that mobile apps need to pass.

1. Functional testing: Verifying that the app’s features and functionalities work as expected.
2. Usability testing: Ensuring that the app is user-friendly and intuitive.
3. Performance testing: Assessing the app’s responsiveness, speed, and resource usage.
4. Compatibility testing: Testing the app on various devices, OS versions, and screen sizes.
5. Security testing: Identifying vulnerabilities and threats to data and ensuring data security.
6. Installation testing: Testing the installation and uninstallation processes.
7. Localization testing: Verifying the app’s functionality in different languages and regions.

Selecting devices for testing

Teams must choose a mix of popular, commonly used devices with varying screen sizes, resolutions, and operating systems. Based on your target audience, user insights, and market, prioritize devices that fit the demographic and are commonly utilized by your target audience.

Teams must choose a mix of popular, commonly used devices with varying screen sizes, resolutions, and operating systems.

How to go about testing

TL;DR: Follow layered testing—module, integration, and system testing—to validate app quality at every stage.

Traditionally, testing has been an intermediate stage between development and production.

Designers create and specify the apps, including the technical environment, developers choose their development tools, and they then develop the app through various iterations until they have reached a high level of development close to the finished specified product.

“Testing shows the presence, not the absence, of bugs.” – Edsger Dijkstra, Computer Science Pioneer

There are several types of testing that are used. Here are three typical, though there can be others:

1. Module testing

Module testing tests a defined code segment for internal consistency. It is performed by the developer and perhaps a development team to ensure that it meets the design specifications.

2. Integration testing

Integration testing tests if information is correctly shared between two or more modules that interact with one another.

3. Systems testing

Systems testing is the process where the app is tested in its entirety to ensure it meets the design specifications.

It sometimes includes testing by an “unknown user,” an individual or team of end users who were not involved in the development. They will assess the development for correct operation, ease of use, and other aesthetics.

Mobile application test strategies

TL;DR: Combine manual + automation, shift testing left, prioritize high-risk areas, and balance emulators with real devices.

For a reliable testing process, teams need to adopt more structured testing strategies that balance speed, reliability, and coverage. The following strategies are helpful in ensuring a robust testing process that improves reliability:

1. Balancing between manual and automated testing

Striking the right balance between manual and automated testing can save teams time and also ensure they’re utilizing the right testing strategy for more effective outcomes.

Manual testing can be helpful for evaluating and testing the application’s usability, accessibility, and overall user experience. On the other hand, for repetitive workflows such as API validation or regression, automated testing can be quite effective and efficient.

Depending on the use case and what aspect of the mobile application you’re testing, you should pick the right testing methodology.

2. Prioritizing testing early on

Prioritizing testing early on in the development life cycle can help identify, triage, and fix issues before they actually show up to the end users.

Through shift-left testing, teams can validate requirements, APIs, core logic, etc. before interfaces get built. This can help them prevent issues even before dedicated testing happens, leading to quicker releases and optimal utilization of the engineering and QA team’s bandwidth.

A common misconception teams often have is dedicating equal time to testing all features.

3. Risk-based testing

A common misconception teams often have is dedicating equal time to testing all features. Some critical, high-stakes features need more time, such as authentication workflows, payments, onboarding flows, etc.

By dedicating time and efforts depending on the criticality of features, teams can prioritize their time better and in turn speed up the entire testing process.

For example, for a fintech mobile application, teams can prioritize payment workflows over a less critical feature such as profile updates.

4. Real devices and emulators

Emulators can be used for fast feedback and a rapid testing process during development. On the other hand, validating releases on real devices can help teams capture real-world behavior such as network variability, hardware constraints, and device-level interactions.

Knowing when and where to use a real device versus an emulator can help teams become more efficient in performing mobile testing.

For instance, developers can prioritize using emulators during development, whereas QA teams can utilize real-device testing for foolproof outcomes from the testing workflow.

Mobile application testing vs. desktop application testing

TL;DR: Mobile testing is more complex due to device diversity, OS fragmentation, network variability, and hardware dependencies.

While both mobile and desktop testing have commonalities, mobile testing has additional layers of complexity, which makes it a relatively trickier workflow.

1. Device diversity

Desktop devices are relatively standardized compared to mobile devices. Thus, desktop applications are relatively easier to test for cross-desktop compatibility.

On the other hand, due to the relatively higher device diversity in the mobile ecosystem, mobile applications may need better planning and more structured testing workflows for cross-mobile compatibility.

2. OS fragmentation

Mobile systems have more frequent software updates, so testing an application requires testing across various releases of a mobile software more frequently.

Teams may also need to test multiple OS versions simultaneously. The scope of testing on desktops due to operating system updates and fragmentation is much more limited and manageable.

3. Network variability

Desktop apps are typically used and run in a more stable network environment. Mobile apps, on the other hand, might frequently operate on a wide spectrum of fluctuating network conditions such as low bandwidth, high latency, etc.

Ensuring the mobile applications work seamlessly in various network conditions makes it slightly more complicated than desktop applications in this regard.

4. User interactions

Mobile apps rely on more than just clicks—such as gestures, taps, and pinches—unlike desktop applications, where user interactions are limited to the scope of keyboard and mouse interactions. These differences have a significant impact on usability testing.

5. Hardware dependencies

Mobile apps more often interact with OS-level or device-level dependencies such as GPS, camera, sensors, battery, etc. All these hardware dependencies need to be validated during testing.

Essential tools for mobile testing

TL;DR: Use integrated tools, automation frameworks, and real-device testing to improve efficiency, coverage, and reliability.

The precise tools and techniques during the development, testing, and transition to production will depend to a great extent on the app’s development environment and operating environment.

Indeed, it may be that an app is developed to operate in different environments, for example, Apple and Android.

Below are key tool testing strategies to streamline your testing process and ensure comprehensive coverage.

Some people consider that investment in an integrated app is not necessary. However, you should not release an app to the market before it is properly tested.

1. Integrated testing environments

Using a variety of different mobile testing tools in a testing environment can bring up problems of coordination. Errors and omissions can be missed, or false positives generated. That’s where integrated testing environments are useful.

Some people consider that investment in an integrated app is not necessary. However, you should not release an app to the market before it is properly tested.

A premature release risks reputational damage and depressed sales, leading to lost income. Integrated testing environments can mitigate these risks. Many, such as Tricentis, offer a trial period during which the app can be comprehensively tested in action before purchase.

Check that the test application offers automation to help with test authoring, ability to use your code, and device management for testing in different operating system environments.

A comprehensive reporting system is needed to highlight failures and help with drilling down. These are just a few of the requirements that are needed.

2. Emulators and real devices

Emulators are useful for initial testing and quick iterations, but real devices are essential for accurate results. If you use one, it needs to be kept up to date.

Emulators may not fully replicate real-world scenarios, so real device testing is necessary for comprehensive testing.

This concept can be extended to version testing, where an app could depend on a particular operating system release or operating environment.

3. Mobile app automation

If you choose not to use an integrated testing environment or have specialist testing requirements, automation tools, such as Testim Mobile, Appium, Selenium, and Espresso, help streamline testing processes.

Automation is ideal for repetitive tests like regression testing.

However, it is useful to remember that manual testing will still be part of the overall test environment. Automated testing can go a long way toward speeding up the process, but there are some areas in which manual testing is still necessary.

Automation cannot evaluate the  “look and feel” of an app or its ease of use. That needs human assessment.

Automated testing can go a long way toward speeding up the process, but there are some areas in which manual testing is still necessary.

Advantages of mobile testing automation

TL;DR: Automation speeds up testing, improves coverage, ensures consistency, and integrates well with CI/CD pipelines.

Automating mobile testing can provide significant advantages in modern development environments. Some of these advantages are:

1. Faster testing cycles

Automated tests can significantly speed up the testing workflow against traditional manual testing processes, enabling rapid feedback and quicker releases.

2. Improved test coverage

Automation enables seamless testing across multiple devices, OS versions, and so on, improving overall test coverage.

3. Consistency and reliability

By executing the same steps in the testing workflow for every run, the potential for human error reduces, improving overall consistency and reliability.

4. Better support for CI/CD

Automation integrates seamlessly into existing CI pipelines and enables testing as a continuous process.

Despite the benefits listed above, teams should ensure they’re using automation to only complement the manual testing workflow and not completely replace it.

How to perform mobile testing

TL;DR: Define configs, validate permissions, integrate with CI, manage flaky tests, and monitor continuously.

This tutorial will walk you through the end-to-end process of performing mobile testing, from defining test environments to ensuring reliable execution and monitoring.

1. Creating test configurations

The first step in mobile testing is defining configurations across various elements of your application to establish the scope of testing. A well-defined testing configuration ensures consistency and repeatability across various test runs.

Common configuration elements may include:

• Device types and OS versions
• Screen resolutions and orientations
• Network conditions (3G, 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi)
• Testing environments (staging, QA, production)

Maintaining and standardizing configurations can help teams reproduce bugs reliably and ensure that the test results remain consistent across configurations.

2. Handing permissions

Once configurations are in place, the next step is validating how mobile applications handle device and OS-level permissions.

Mobile applications frequently require permissions to access certain device features, operating system levels, and APIs (such as location, camera, storage, and notifications).

When testing a mobile application, teams should validate that the permissions flows are working correctly, such as first-time permissions and repeating permissions.

They should also test the application’s behavior when certain critical permissions are denied upfront or at a later point.

Moreover, the mobile application should be compliant with platform-specific privacy requirements and handle applications flows gracefully when access is restricted due to permissions.

Incorrectly handling permissions can lead to crashes, poor user experience, or even removal from the app store. All of these can have a direct detrimental impact on business outcomes.

3. Running tests in CI

After validating core behaviors, tests should be integrated into CI/CD pipelines to ensure continuous execution as the code evolves.

An efficient and effective way to run tests is to integrate mobile testing directly into CI/CD pipelines that ensure the tests are executed automatically every time there’s a change in the code.

This can speed up release cycles while improving code quality. Typically, CI workflows should run unit tests or API tests on every commit related to that file or function. They should also execute UI tests on pull requests and trigger full regression suites before releases.

Running tests in CI ensures that issues are detected early on and reduces the risk of the application breaking during production.

4. Adding test retries

As tests start executing at scale, transient failures may occur due to factors such as unstable network conditions, inconsistencies across devices and platforms, or faulty hardware interactions.

Test retries handle these temporary issues and improve overall test reliability.

However, teams must ensure that adding test retries does not mask real issues or hide underlying problems.

A critical element of maintaining a reliable testing pipeline is identifying and reducing flaky tests.

5. Reducing flakiness

A critical element of maintaining a reliable testing pipeline is identifying and reducing flaky tests.

Flaky tests are tests that pass and fail inconsistently without any code changes. They’re particularly challenging in mobile testing due to a variation in their causes, including network instability, device performance variability, poor test design, asynchronous operations, timing issues, and so on.

By stabilizing test environments, isolating dependencies, and routinely reviewing and refactoring unstable tests, one can reduce flakiness.

6. Scheduling, monitoring, and alerting

Finally, to complete the mobile testing workflow, teams must continuously monitor test execution and proactively address issues in real time.

This involves scheduling regular test runs, setting up alerts for failures or performance regressions, and integrating notifications with workspace and communication tools such as email, Slack, etc.

Continuous monitoring ensures that issues are identified and addressed quickly before they actually impact end users.

Best practices for mobile testing

TL;DR: Test across networks, devices, and OS versions while focusing on UX, performance, security, and real user feedback.

“Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.” – John Ruskin, philosopher on quality

Adopting proven best practices is key to delivering a polished user experience.

Below are actionable best practices to guide your mobile testing efforts:

1. Network conditions

Test your app in various network conditions (3G, 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi) to evaluate performance in different scenarios. This becomes increasingly important in the case of remote working.

Many public spaces now offer Wi-Fi connectivity, and it is fast becoming the connectivity medium of choice for users using a smart device such as a mobile phone or tablet.

It can also be that particular locales are at different stages of network development or have specific control requirements and therefore need specific configurations to optimize local use.

2. Usability and user experience

Pay attention to the app’s layout, navigation, and overall user experience.

Real users provide important feedback and suggest critical improvements.

As suggested above, testing by an “unknown user” team, who are not developers or system architects, can bring unbiased valuable feedback on usability. It is often valuable to include nontechnical users in the design of the system’s operational flow and layout.

Considerations that users will look at and therefore need to be tested include performance, security, battery consumption, OS compatibility, and screen size displays.

3. Performance

The app needs to perform well and meet user expectations, for example, in time to load. Obviously, overall performance can depend on external factors such as connectivity.

Performance testing measures the app’s load time, responsiveness, and resource usage to optimize performance. This again needs to be carried out in a variety of operating environments. If there is a minimum operating environment, prospective users need to know this before purchasing.

4. Security testing

New malware and hacking exploits appear every day, and ID theft attempts are becoming common. Some apps, especially financial and e-commerce apps, will need close integration with anti-malware apps such as AVG. Users expect their data to be, as far as is possible, secure.

Some apps, especially financial and e-commerce apps, will need close integration with anti-malware apps such as AVG. Users expect their data to be, as far as is possible, secure.

5. Battery and power consumption

Users expect a long “on” time. There is a need for a specific test for the app’s impact on device battery life and power consumption.

6. Mobile OS versions

Test the app on different OS versions to ensure compatibility. An absolute no-brainer. It is also necessary to ensure that the app keeps up to date with new OS releases, especially where a smart device automatically implements new software releases.

7. Testing on Various Screen Sizes

Ensure the app is responsive and displays correctly on various screen sizes and resolutions.

8. App store guidelines

Comply with the guidelines of the respective app stores (e.g., Apple App Store, Google Play) to avoid rejection. Make getting the app easy.

9. User feedback

Actively seek user feedback and reviews to identify issues and prioritize improvements.

Challenges in mobile testing

TL;DR: Major challenges include device fragmentation, API reliability, real-world conditions, security compliance, and frequent updates.

The rewards of a well-tested app are significant. However, even with the best tools, mobile testing comes with pressing challenges, and they need to be addressed:

1. Mobile device fragmentation

There are 24,000+ Android device models and countless iOS variations. They come with different screen sizes, screen resolutions, RAM, and OS tweaks.

Expect inconsistencies in app performance and user experience. To mitigate such risks, test on devices popular in your target markets and use real and virtual device clouds to test compatibility.

To mitigate such risks, test on devices popular in your target markets and use real and virtual device clouds to test compatibility.

2. API testing for mobile applications

Mobile apps rely on APIs to communicate with backend services. A poorly structured API affects the app’s overall performance and reliability. Test APIs and ensure they can handle varying loads and edge cases.

3. Real-world scenario testing

Testing in controlled labs misses issues like GPS inaccuracies, background app behavior, and sensor interactions. Conduct field testing and crowd testing in varied conditions.

4. Security compliance

An app in healthcare, for example, requires strict adherence to data privacy laws. A single vulnerability can compromise user confidence. You need to conduct security audits and penetration testing to identify compliance and vulnerabilities.

5. Frequent updates and regression risks

Mobile devices experience feature patches and OS updates and that increases regression risks. For example, an iOS 18 update might break gesture navigation. Automate smoke tests on core workflows post-update and use CI/CD pipelines to trigger regression suites automatically.

Limitations and considerations

TL;DR: You can’t test everything—balance real devices, emulators, and automation for optimal results.

Acknowledge these constraints:

• Testing on every device/OS is impractical due to resource constraints.
• Emulators, while useful, cannot fully replicate real-world conditions.

You need to use a balanced approach that combines real device testing, emulators, and automation to yield the best results.

Agentic systems can infer application behavior, detect common user flows, and use historical test data to generate relevant test cases.

Agentic mobile testing

TL;DR: AI-driven testing can autonomously create, maintain, and optimize tests, reducing manual effort and improving efficiency.

With the rapid developments in AI and agentic technology, testing approaches are now being augmented by independent autonomous AI agents that can plan, run, and optimize testing workflows.

Conventional automation only follows predefined scripts and needs human intervention to update them. Agentic systems can infer application behavior, detect common user flows, and use historical test data to generate relevant test cases.

They can also maintain these tests, update them as the application evolves, and significantly reduce manual effort required to maintain these tests.

Moreover, these agentic systems can intelligently understand which tests to run in which environment or device, as well as identify inconsistent test results to reduce flakiness and optimize issue resolution.

Final thoughts

TL;DR: Mobile testing is continuous—ongoing updates and monitoring are essential for long-term app quality and success.

Remember that mobile testing is an ongoing process, and it’s crucial to continually monitor and update your app to adapt to new devices, operating system updates, and user feedback.

By investing in a comprehensive mobile testing app, you can deliver a reliable and satisfying user experience for your mobile app or website.

Ready to take your mobile testing to the next level? Try Tricentis Testim Mobile today and see how it accelerates test cycles, reduces costs, and ensures flawless app performance across devices with:

• AI-driven test automation.
• Real-device cloud access for global coverage.
• Integrated API testing to validate backend services.

Start your free trial now →