App Automation Testing Made Easy: Considerations, Tools and Best Practices
Android is the most preferred operating system with billions of active users worldwide because of its ease of accessibility and customization. It also caters to various audiences using smartphones of different functionalities and budgets. Best of all, it is an open-source community, which makes app development learning a lot easier. That is why most developers have adopted Android easily, and testers used techniques and tools to test apps.
When developing an Android app, it needs to work smoothly on Android devices having various OS versions, hardware specifications, and other technical intricacies. This is exactly where Android app testing comes into play.
Plenty of time and effort is needed to test an app on various Android devices manually. You must hire lots of testers to work through each user scenario on each Android device out there, especially the popular ones. Fortunately, today, Android app automation testing made easy for testers with advanced tools and techniques. Instead of running each scenario manually, testers can automate most of them, create test scripts that can compete with user actions, and establish benchmarks by which tests will fail or pass. Moreover, parallel testing can be used to run tests simultaneously on different Android devices, thus minimizing effort and time even further.
Read on to learn more about successful Android app automation testing.
Crucial Considerations for App Automation Testing
Android apps have changed dramatically, including their functionalities and features. Therefore, the scope of testing has evolved also.
Here are the crucial considerations when it comes to android app testing:
Compatibility – Android devices launched every year come in different configurations, sizes, shapes, and components. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the specific requirement of your app and ensure that it is compatible with all Android devices and universally accepted.
Functionality – Each app offers core functionalities that come from the users’ requirements. Functional testing is performed to check if the app can run for each use case. For ride-sharing applications, for example, testers must ensure that the booking time is optimized, driver ratings are verified, maps are working smoothly with the user location, and the pricing system is operational based on the defined algorithms.
Security – Ever since technology was introduced, security has become a crucial concern for users because of the vulnerability of personal data, especially online. This is very essential for apps and software related to communication and finance. Security testing is performed to guarantee the encryption and decryption of sensitive data, making sure that the stored data is kept from prying eyes or unauthorized individuals.
User Interface – This is another crucial aspect of developing apps because it links the functionality and the user. It includes visual elements of the app. Testing the user interface ensures that the buttons and texts have accurate visual presentations.
Interface – Interface testing is essential to ensure that the newly-developed apps are free of bugs. Apps will be tested thoroughly for all components, including maps, location services, voice social app integration, and voice recording.
Top Automation Testing Tools for Android Apps
Here are the most popular automation testing tools for Android apps today.
Appium – This is among the widely used testing tools for open-source apps. It is a cross-platform testing framework that allows QAs to create test scripts across different platforms like Windows, iOS, and Android using a similar API. This means QAs can use similar codes for Android and iOS, saving both effort and time. Also, Appium is a great choice for creating test scripts in different programming languages like Ruby, PHP, Java, Python, and JavaScript.
Selendroid – This is an automation testing tool for Android apps based on the Selenium framework. It can be used on actual devices and android emulators. Like Selenium IDE, Selendroid also offers recording and playback features. It features export options for scripts in different languages like Ruby, Python, and Java.
Testim – This is an AI-based automation tool that can speed up the process of developing, executing, and maintaining test cases. Since it is an AI, it can go to the root cause element to ensure a permanent fix. Moreover, it allows JS-based custom codes and user-selected GUI.
Best Practices when Performing Automation App Testing
Here are the best practices you must bear in mind when testing Android apps with automation tools.
- Set an attainable scope of testing.
- Perform tests on actual android devices, given that manufacturers launch new devices with different configurations each year. Note that simulators and emulators can’t replicate real user conditions. They cannot simulate incoming calls, low battery, or even weak Internet connections, meaning tests run on them are often highly inconclusive.
- Use the most appropriate automation tool.
- Choose the automation testing framework based on the team’s requirements.
- Set scripting rules to ensure uniform scripts.
- Always check the effectiveness of automated testing by measuring the bugs caught, the number of reversals, time consumed to push releases, and the overall product NPS.
- Don’t compare manual testing processes with automated testing because they play different roles in the app development cycle.
Testing Android apps entails a robust process. But thanks to today’s test automation tools and techniques, you don’t have to perform it manually. Just make sure to choose the proper tools, framework, and set the right expectations. Most importantly, prioritize testing on actual devices.
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