What is Mobile Automation Testing?
Mobile Automation Testing is a process by which application software formulated for handheld mobile devices is tested. It is a process performed to improve quality and the process includes testing several components of mobile web apps. Some of the components comprise usability, consistency, and functionality. Every mobile app needs both manual and automation tests and every app goes through the testing stage before the launch.
How to test Mobile Applications?
There are three alternatives to test Mobile Applications and they are as follows:
- Via iOS simulator/Android Emulator – QA engineers test mobile apps through software that emulates a mobile device on their desktop. Specifically, the Android emulator imitates both the software and hardware environments of the selected equipment, while the iOS simulator imitates only the mobile software. For this, an original Apple Computer is required for testing. Emulators enable launching the local tests promptly on a PC when there’s no real device accessible. However, emulators aren’t as credible as real devices.
- Through live local mobile devices – With real USB-connected devices, QA engineers can test an app’s functionality from the end user’s viewpoint. They can accelerate it by executing tests simultaneously on various Android devices. However it’s still time-consuming due to the requirement of manual infrastructure settings, such testing delivers the most valid results. Alternatively, you can utilize cloud test services.
- Using a real device cloud – To expand the device range, QA engineers perform tests in a distant testing environment – device farm aka device cloud. Preinstalled OS and browsers, device farms give testers access to multi-versioned physical equipment. Testers possess a dashboard where they can operate all the connected devices.
The Top Mobile Automation Testing Tools are:
- TestComplete – It is an automated UI testing tool from SmartBear. It enables developing, maintaining, and enforcing UI tests for web, mobile applications, and desktop. TestComplete enables testing of both hybrid and native mobile applications. It can even execute tests on real devices, emulators, or virtual machines. This tool delivers both script and scriptless options for test generation and can effortlessly be combined with prominent CI/CD tools, such as Jira, Git, and Jenkins.
- Espresso and UI Automator – Espresso is one of the prominent mobile testing frameworks. Espresso needs access to the source code. So, it delivers white-box testing in contrast to UI Automator. It works with Android applications beginning with the 2.3 version and as UI Automator was launched later, so it works with Android 4.3+. Each framework has some voids that are filled by the other. While Espresso can work only inside our test application context, UI Automator can evaluate the interactions of the subject application with other apps. So it is preferable to operate both of these frameworks jointly.
- Kobiton – Kobiton is a quality mobile device platform, which permits access to test in real devices. Kobiton gives seamless knowledge to testers by enhancing the process of testing. Whether the users require on-demand access to real devices, an instant health-check across 350+ devices, or need to enforce a full enterprise device lab, Kobiton has it all. Kobiton can be operated both on iOS as well as Android and it even includes support for Appium.
- Calabash – Calabash is an open-source automation testing tool that functions on both Android and iOS. The tool enables users to compose and enforce automated acceptance tests for mobile applications. Calabash ensures that an application comprises the right step definitions, scenarios, and features as well as whether it’s operating with the right inputs. As it is BDD oriented, Calabash performs development testing based on the application functioning.
- Test IO – Test IO is one of the top-rated SaaS platforms, it is preferred by most of the testers in the current generation. It enables testers to perform using real devices from time to time. The coverage of the process expands to various devices because it helps in easily conducting the activity.
- Robotium – Robotium was one of the very first automated testing tools for Android. It helps in testing hybrid and native applications. The tool provides room for testers to perform black-box testing for android applications effectively. It utilizes JavaScript to formulate and execute test scripts.
- Appium Studio – It is an IDE created by Experitest and is designed for mobile test automation development and execution using the AppiumSelenium WebDriver API. Appium Studio has gained a lot of reputation among professionals because of its ability to perform tasks effectively. It is the commercially enhanced version of Appium Desktop and allows organizations to release high-quality mobile apps in considerably lesser amounts of time.
Mobile testing tools have enhanced the testing process to a significant extent now. An app developer needs to recognize and understand several components before processing the tests. The modern testing tools enable people in discovering simple ways to obtain the result from time to time.
