Mobile application testing is a procedure to test mobile applications for usability, functional, and consistency glitches. Mobile application testing is very different from software testing and web testing. There are a few specifics that you should consider before performing mobile application testing:

• Screen resolution
• Turning on/off GPS
• Screen orientation (landscape, portrait)
• Different devices’ manufacturers
• OSs
• Type of mobile application

The type of mobile app you are testing plays a very important role in defining your testing process. So, be very clear about which type of mobile app you are going to test. They are largely categorized into three different types:

1. Mobile web applications: These are the web pages that you open through the mobile browser.
2. Native Apps: These are the applications that are developed for one particular platform. (iOS, Android, Windows 10 M0bile, Tizen, BlackBerry).
3. Hybrid: It is an amalgamation of mobile web app and Native App.

Testing on a real device is always the best decision for your mobile app testing. It gives the highest accuracy. But, with markets flooded with hundreds of various brands and innumerable models of mobiles, selecting the most appropriate one for your testing is a cumbersome task.Here are some pointers that can help you with the selection of the devices

• Research for the most widely held and used mobile in the market.
• Look out for the mobile with different screen resolutions.
• Select the mobile with a different OS.
• Don’t underestimate features like compatibility, memory size, connectivity, etc. and pay  attention to them.

Type of Mobile Testing:

the aim is to ensure that an app is user-friendly and functional under different circumstances, even if it’s already in production common Testing types:

1. Functional testing

It helps you test whether your mobile application works as expected and in accordance with the requirement specifications. While you are performing functional testing for your app keep the following factors in mind:

• Business functionality of your app for banking, social networks, ordering and delivery of food, providing education, tickets, and also for the game industry, etc.
• Target audience like companies, students, entrepreneurs, etc.
• Distribution channels like Google Play, direct delivery, App Store, etc.

The basic validations that you need to test in functional testing are:

• Installing and running the application
• Fields’ testing
• Business functionalities testing
• Interruptions testing
• Constant users feedback testing
• Update testing
• Device resources testing

2. Usability Testing

Usability testing ensures that your application offers convenient browsing to your customers and creates an intuitive interface that abides by industry standards. It promises fast and easy-to-use applications. Usability of your application is judged based on these three basic criteria:

• Satisfaction
• Efficiency
• Effectiveness

UI (User Interface) testing : User Interface (UI) testing ensures that your application’s GUI meets all the required specifications.

3. Compatibility (Configuration) testing

Compatibility (Configuration) testing validates the optimal performance of your application on different devices based on their size, screen resolution, version, hardware, etc. Compatibility testing also takes care of

• OS Configuration
• Browser Configuration
• Database Configuration
• Device Configuration
• Network Configuration

Compatibility testing can be further divided into

Cross-platform testing: Testing your mobile application compatibility with different operating systems: Windows, iOS, Android, and BlackBerry, etc.

Cross-browser testing:    Testing your mobile application compatibility in different browsers Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera Mini, etc.

Device Configuration testing:  Testing your mobile application compatibility on different devices based on

• Device type: smartphone, tablet, etc.
• Device configuration: processor type, RAM, battery capacity, screen resolution, etc.

Network configuration testing:   Testing your mobile application compatibility in different network configurations (TDMA, GSM) and standards (2G, 3G, 4G).

4. Performance testing

Performance testing helps you test your application reaction and constancy under the specific workload.

Performance testing attributes

• Load Testing: It is done to check the application’s behavior under normal and extreme loads.
• Stress Testing: It is done to test the application’s ability to sustain stress. It ensures that your application is capable of bearing undue stress.
• Stability Testing: It tests if your application can work well for a longer period within normal loads.
• Volume Testing: It is conducted to test your application’s performance when subjected to a huge volume of data.
• Concurrency testing: It tests the performance of your application when multiple users are logged in.

5. Change related Testing (Regression testing)

Finally, when complete testing is done, you might find some bugs, resulting in a certain piece of code, to change to eliminate those bugs. After these code changes, you again need to carry out another round of testing. This basically includes:

• Re-testing or Confirmation testing: to test that all the detected defects are successfully fixed.
• Regression testing: sometimes code changes can even disturb the working of existing and properly working functions. Regression testing is done to ensure that the new changes did not lead to the appearance of new bugs.

Specialized Testing:

Apart from this, there are some Non-functional testing techniques which a tester should perform such as

1. Security testing

Security testing validates the security features of your application. It also analyzes the risks of application hackers, necessary protection, the presence of viruses, and any unauthorized access to extremely sensitive data.

2. Recovery testing

Recovery testing, tests the ability of your application to withstand and successfully recover, from possible and potential failures, caused by software issues, hardware failures, or communication problems.

3. Localization testing

Localization testing tests the adaptability of your application for a specific target audience based on cultural specifics.

4. Certification testing

Certification testing tests whether your application meets the standards, licensing agreements, terms of use, and requirements of stores like the App Store, Google Play, and Windows Phone.

Summary:

Mobile Application Testing enables enterprises to build applications that are scalable and accessible across multiple platforms. The highly dynamic nature of mobile technology, testing becomes very complex and challenging. Testers need to ensure that they test their applications for all available devices, networks, OS, Different Screen sizes, different types of display, Memory size.

Mobile app testing is not as simple as testing websites. But with the advancement in technologies testers too have found solutions to these challenges to an extent. Web app testing aims to ensure that websites deliver a highly functional, bug-free experience across browsers and devices. On the other hand, mobile app testing aims to identify any compatibility issues or bugs for the native or hybrid mobile app across a wide range of Android and iOS devices.