There is a wide growth in mobile phone usage in our daily lives, and it requires organizations to ensure that the applications are functioning best. Cloud-based mobile app testing offers cost-effective solutions for testing mobile apps on multiple virtual devices in a cost-effective way.
There are 2.1 billion smartphone users, and every day more than 10,000+ applications are released daily. It defines the industry of mobile applications as complex and competitive. To deal with this industry, you must integrate cloud mobile app testing techniques. Do you know more than 50% of users delete an app if they show a single glitch in it? To avoid this, businesses must hire a testing team. It allows developers & businesses to optimize the mobile application with complete mobility and transparency by ensuring the application quality.
The following blog is all about the benefits of mobile application testing on cloud platforms & the best practices. Let’s know what is cloud-based mobile testing.
What is Cloud-Based Mobile App Testing?
Nowadays, businesses realize the importance of having well-developed applications. The popularity of mobile application development is rising because of the convenience it offers. However, similar to other software development solutions, these applications also face some security risks and errors. If you want to survive in the highly competitive market or want to overcome the real challenges in mobile application development, a lot of attention is necessary.
Before making your app live, make sure that you are developing superior applications. This is when cloud mobile app testing best practices come into the frame. In cloud testing, the testing of mobile applications is done in the cloud. It allows developers & testing teams to connect mobile devices through the internet.
During the mobile app testing cloud process, the QA testing team gains access to a wide range of devices with multiple network carriers and operating systems. Applications that are uploaded to these platforms via API are convenient and efficient for testing purposes. When you use real devices for testing, it could cost more. In cloud-based testing, testers can use emulators and simulators available in the Cloud that stimulate basic user interactions. Performance issues can easily be detected through Cloud-based testing.
Also Read: Top 10 Challenges Faced in Mobile Application Testing
Importance Of Cloud-Based Mobile App Testing
Some significant factors make traditional/conventional testing differ from testing mobile apps on the cloud-
Traditional mobile application testing involves testing software apps on physical infrastructure by utilizing locally installed resources. Cloud-based mobile app testing includes testing software apps on a cloud-based platform by using Cloud-based tools only.
The setup for conventional mobile app testing is dedicated to the physical servers, and the tests run from there. The process consumes more time than cloud-based testing. It allows the testing team to access the test environment until they have an internet connection.
In traditional testing, the testing costs are high because of the requirement of software and hardware tools. In cloud-based app testing, you pay only for users. Cloud-based mobile app testing is cost-effective as compared to conventional testing.
When you use Cloud-based mobile app testing, it gives better scalability and flexibility over the traditional testing approach.
Cloud-based mobile app testing is faster than traditional testing because the testing team doesn’t need to wait to set up the physical infrastructure.
By considering the above descriptions, you must choose cloud-based mobile app testing rather than traditional testing. Hire a dedicated team to receive mobile app testing services for your next project!
Rather than designing a setup for traditional testing, design a setup for cloud testing. Cloud-based mobile app testing platform offers scalability, flexibility & cost-effectiveness. Select the reliable and safe cloud provider for testing, managing the resources you use for testing. It ensures your testing environments are well-configured to deliver optimal performance.
There are two types of cloud-based testing: manual testing and automation testing. Manual testing involves manual processes that involve manually written scripts, system configuration, and verification. Manual cloud testing takes time and also requires money. It gives you better control over what’s being tested.
On the other hand, automated cloud-based testing employs tools for running tests in the cloud-based environment. Automation cloud-based testing consumes less time and runs multiple tests at one time. It allows multiple users to access and deliver detailed reports. It doesn’t require additional resources and staffing. When you are initiating a mobile app testing platform on cloud, consider performance, scalability, security, cost-effectiveness, and performance.
Benefits of Testing Mobile Apps in the Cloud
Cloud mobile app testing has become popular in recent years because of its enormous benefits. This testing delivers multiple benefits over traditional testing, which we have mentioned below. Organizations now recognize that cloud computing is essential as an infrastructure and as a platform, thanks to the cloud’s growth. Cloud-based testing is helping firms transition to agile processes in several ways. Teams may complete testing of the mobile apps more quickly and with considerable returns by using this method.
1. Improved Test Coverage
Cloud application testing improves the testing coverage. It ensures seamless application performance over a wide range of platforms. It is necessary to test the application on various devices like browsers and OS versions. It delivers access to the required resources for app testing and ensures a top-notch user experience. Through Cloud mobile app testing, you can test the software in a variety of real-world scenarios.
2. Ensuring Compatibility Across Diverse User Scenarios
The Cloud mobile app testing offers accessibility to multiple devices and tools like OS systems, display sizes & resolutions. The developers suggest using app testing to ensure compatibility across multiple user scenarios. It also eliminates the infrastructure & maintenance cost of testing devices.
3. Scalability and Flexibility
Cloud-based mobile app testing allows testers to quickly and easily scale the resources required for testing. Through cloud testing, businesses can access unlimited resources and simulate a huge range of testing scenarios. It allows the testing team to easily detect potential problems and detect how the apps perform in real-world scenarios. Cloud testing allows the testing team to utilize multiple testing environments as required without investing in software/hardware and other infrastructure.
4. Adjusting Testing Resources Based On Project Needs
When using a cloud-based mobile app solution, you don’t need to invest in additional resources. Only invest in things that are required for your project at that time. It allows the testing team to save money on testing resources. It can simulate multiple network environments & locations.
5. Cost-Effectiveness
Testing done in the cloud reduces the cost of purchasing and cost of maintenance. Businesses don’t need to buy costly hardware/software infrastructure and tools for testing. This is how it helps organizations to reduce the total testing & development costs.
6. Reducing the Need For Physical Devices and Infrastructure
Cloud-based mobile testing is popular because of its security features. It offers better security than the on-premises software testing method. The dedicated cloud platform testing tools ensure a safe & secure platform for testing by following all the security compliance regulations.
7. Lowering Overhead Costs Associated With Maintenance
When using cloud-based mobile applications, the overhead maintenance costs are also low. It minimizes the overhead costs.
8. Faster Time to Market Accelerating the Testing Process
When it comes to the efficiency of the testing procedure, a Cloud-based mobile application is a perfect choice. Cloud-based application testing ensures a faster testing process. Organizations can speed up their process through Cloud-based applications. It helps organizations to identify the issues more quickly. It also reduces the time required for products to be released, which allows businesses to be in the race for competitive behavior.
9. Enabling Continuous Integration and Delivery
With a cloud-based solution, you can speed up the process of developing and testing applications. It allows continuous integration and delivery without any hassle.
Now, let’s check some effective practices for cloud mobile app testing that you can implement in your next project.
Effective Strategies Mobile App Testing Platform on Cloud
With cell phones becoming so popular, a wide variety of models are available at all price points to satisfy any sort of client demand. It does, however, place a great deal of responsibility on the back-end team to produce device-neutral applications. These applications developed also can have bugs and errors. In such cases, cloud mobile testing helps developers get a seamless app. There are main issues that should be considered and resolved while developing a strategy for mobile testing.
However, the testing of the platform on the Cloud starts with the development of the plan. A high-level dynamic document that establishes the criteria for software testing and is developed from the “business requirement document” is called a test strategy.
Typically, a test strategy is created by the business analyst or project manager. However, a test plan is created using the SRS, which is created by the manager or test lead. Including testing-related details is the main goal of test plans.
Also Read: Mobile App Testing Techniques: Ensuring App Excellence
Objectives, as well as scope, test procedures, formats for documentation, team reporting arrangements, client communication plans, and other elements, are frequently included in test strategies. Test plans for testing your mobile native app in the cloud, on the other hand, also contain the test plan ID, characteristics to be tested, tasks for conducting the tests, test deliverables, obligations, and timetables.
One distinction between the two is that, whereas test strategies include long-term action plans that might aid in retrieving non-project specific information and incorporating it into a test methodology, test plans can identify potential problems and connections to detect risks.
After drafting a plan, you need a testing tool that will efficiently find out the bugs or errors. When it pertains to choosing a tool, one is almost at a loss for options. Although there are tools available to meet different testing requirements, sticking with single-point solutions might lead to system fragmentation, which creates gaps for poor performance and data concerns.
A comprehensive quality management system can be the answer to your mobile testing problems. With features like ideal cross-functional testing, cross-environment execution, and other features, a testing tool assists app producers in streamlining mobile testing and producing top-notch, user-centric solutions.
After finding a tool, you need to find out the best practices for the mobile testing platform on the Cloud. Some of the mobile app testing in the cloud practices include:
1. Examine the Newest Models and Tools For Load Testing
Although several load-generating applications are available for use with various cloud platforms, it is crucial to confirm that these tools are compatible with the architecture of the application. Important elements like upload/download speeds and bandwidth simulation should be depicted to comprehend the load restrictions.
2. Make Use of Scheduling and Automation
Select load-testing solutions with scheduling, analytics, and reporting options. In testing and scheduling the continuing load tests, this assists DevOps teams in avoiding overworking production systems. These technologies provide thorough reports to the relevant stakeholders when the tests are finished, giving everyone a clear understanding of the app’s performance.
3. Test Both Within and Outside Of the Firewall
It might be challenging to pinpoint the exact cause of subpar app performance when there are several potential causes. To identify and address performance bottlenecks, the load test strategy should involve testing both within and outside the firewall.
4. Create Realistic Conditions
Putting the app under heavy loads until it breaks might not produce the desired results. Using comparable hardware, operating systems, browsers, and bandwidths is comparable. With various settings, the load testing platform should be capable of offering a wide variety of test scenarios while maintaining a minimal user load.
After determining the best practices discussed above, you must automate the repetitive test. Test automation is useful for many reasons, and you can make sure that the testing strategy yields the highest ROI by following best practices for automated testing. Automated testing may save development cycles, eliminate tedious, repetitive jobs, and enhance software quality.
Quality Assurance teams may increase software quality while making the most of their constantly limited testing resources by implementing automated testing, which involves using software tools to execute comprehensive, repetitive, and data-intensive tests automatically.
The number of times a certain test may be run determines the usefulness of automated testing. Manual testing is preferable for tests that are run infrequently. Test cases that are executed repeatedly and require a lot of data to complete the same task are good candidates for automation.
Despite automation and all best practices, there are some challenges that you may follow as well. Here are a few challenges that you may find. One such challenge is fragmentation. The complete mix of various hardware, operating systems, browsers, platforms, and other components is known as fragmentation. As of the time this article was written, testers needed to consider the following combinations of devices, operating systems, and browsers when creating their approach for mobile testing:
To guarantee the app’s compatibility on the majority of devices, testing would need to take into account a far wider range of variants than just a single, standard framework. One solution to this problem is to build a physical hub of widely used phones; however, this kind of infrastructure is expensive and has limited scalability.
Here’s when having a trustworthy testing solution may assist. Teams may increase testing speed and device coverage by using automated tests, which can run on every browser, OS version, or device.
In addition to the array of devices at one’s disposal, new technologies that are implemented over the application’s life cycle also provide issues. App developers will need to make adjustments to their programs to guarantee that the iPhone 14’s “dynamic island” and its new interface work together seamlessly.
Instead of being a one-time activity, updating an app as well as testing new configurations is a continuous process.
Safety is also another major concern. Apps with weak encryption are more susceptible to security lapses.
Maintaining the utmost security for user data within applications is crucial to minimize the possibility of hacker attacks or the leakage of sensitive information. Apps must be well-tested and have strong encryption to be protected against security flaws. It is vitally important to test a mobile app on a variety of screen sizes as well as resolutions, which requires testing on a range of devices with different dimensions and specs, such as phones and tablets.
Testers must confirm that the application’s layout is responsive, the text is readable, and all functions function properly on a variety of screen sizes. This guarantees an identical user experience across a broad range of gadgets, which is essential for the app’s success.
Optimize Your App’s Performance with Cloud-Based Testing Now!
Behind every successful application, there is a huge team who dedicatedly works to make the application successful. After covering the above-discussed contents, we can say that a Cloud-based mobile app testing solution aligns your business with a well-defined strategy. Effective strategies help to address the significant challenges in the development & testing phase. Hire a mobile app testing company to achieve optimal functionality and quality applications that keep you on the top rank.