Android App Testing is so predominant if you are looking to take your business to another level. And to achieve a complete quality on your mobile app, you need the right strategy with the best of the best practices in place. If that’s something you are looking for, then this blog is for you. In the below blog, we have covered some best testing practices for android app testing and 3 popular frameworks. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Best Practices for Android App Testing:

Unlike the usual desktop app or software testing, Mobile testing is very complex and can get tricky without a proper strategy. So, here are some of the best practices you can learn if you are considering a full-quality android app.

1. Device Selection:

• First things first, this is a crucial step before you begin anything in the android app testing and your choices decide a lot of things that are yet to arrive.
• Now you have to decide on which devices you want to go ahead with further in the testing process.
• One common yet popular way is to find devices where your target audiences are. And that’s where your most business is.
• Then there are some factors that you just can’t ignore while selecting your devices, like the OS versions, screen resolutions, and more. They’ll further play a huge role in the testing and how effective the app will work.
• Take the help of Emulators if you need them because they come in handy.
• There is a catch if you are considering using the Emulators, don’t replace the physical device testing process with emulators.
• Take the device emulators into account because they are cost-effective and really helpful in the development phase.
• Notably, to test the real-life scenarios, physical devices are perfect, don’t confuse them with emulators. All we say is to find the right balance between the both for optimum results.

2. Beta Testing of the App

• Primarily Beta testing is powerful and efficient in android app testing, especially with the real users, on real devices, with actual networks, and apps that are installed on larger geography.
• All this is to get a bigger picture of the network, various network variations like 2G, 2G, 4G, 5G, and wifi, and the influence of the above on the app.
• Another thing to note is that Beta Testing is really one of its kind and it can in no way be mimic in a controlled environment.

3. Connectivity:

• Usually, android apps are connected to the internet for several reasons and requirements.
• One reason is that the connectivity on several devices can play a crucial role in setting up the right strategy.
• The simulation software actually helps in controlling the connectivity. Well, the simulation software regulates the network speed, latency and limits the connectivity during testing.
• You know it is always advised to test under the real network connectivity to get real-time results, which you exactly need.

4. Manual Vs. Automated Testing:

• Automation testing takes time if you are starting all-new, but you may want to stick with it as it would yield great benefits in the long run. It’s going to save you a lot of time and effort at different levels of development and testing as you keep repeating it more than once.
• When you find that regression testing repetition is high, do club the android automation with Manual testing. And then, on the other hand, compatibility testing should be performed for the same application on various OS versions, backward compatibility, and more.

Also read: Guide To Android App Testing And Its 10 Testing Types

Android Testing Frameworks

There are plenty of Android testing frameworks, and here we have one for you. In this blog, we are going to learn 3 different types of frameworks that are commonly used. There we go.

• Robotium Test Framework
• Robo-electric Test Framework
• Appium Test Framework

1. Robotium Test Framework

• This framework is a popular one for writing really worldly and powerful black-box test cases for Android apps.
• It helps the native and hybrid clients, which is a great feature.
• With the help of this framework, you can actually write functions, system test cases, and user acceptance test cases.
• Robotium aids Android 1.6 and above as well as Dialogs, Menus, Activities, and a lot more.
• This framework can automatically tackle different android activities.
• Several methods are provided as a part of this Robotium that too for interacting with several graphical components of an android app. So here are a few.

1. goBack();
2. getButton();
3. isRadioButtonChecked();
4. searchText(“User”);
5. click on button(“Logout”);

2. Robo-electric Test Framework

• Robo-electric Test Framework supports the android app testing on the JVM, which is based on the JUnit4 framework.
• It actually uses the Android API.
• Here, the classes are restored by something called shadow objects.
• Now, whenever a method is successfully implemented, the Robo-electric Test Framework will send the call to the shadow object.
• It very much depends on the implementation. If a method is implemented via shadow object, this value will be retired, or Null is returned.
• Now because of these shadow objects and JVM, the implementation becomes quick.

3. Appium Test Framework

• The Appium Test Framework works well for native, hybrid, and mobile web applications for android devices.
• Appium is actually a free-to-use utility which is a bonus.
• Well, a single API works fine for both Android and iOS platforms. So, technically, here, you have a cross-platform testing framework.
• For this, you need a Selenium Web driver to interact with an Android app.
• Appium can help you write scripts using programming languages like Java, C#, Python, PHP, Ruby, and more.

Conclusion:

There are so many factors to Android application development and testing in specific; however, it can be a big challenge to find the right strategy and tools that work for you. If needed, do club the automation and manual effort, but that definitely depends. And when selecting an automation tool, take factors like multi-platform support, test workflow, price, support, and help into big consideration.

Lastly, stay tuned to the upcoming series of blogs on mobile testing, and if you like the type of content and want to read more, do subscribe to our blogs. Follow QA Touch for more interesting testing tech updates and trends happening in the QA Community. Also, you can join us at our socials where we have so much fun.