11 Top Mobile App Testing Challenges

Mobiles have indeed become the lifelines of the current generation. According to Statista 6.3 billion people globally use mobile phones.”

With such a large segment of people leveraging the capabilities of mobile phones for day-to-day needs, it has become a necessity for businesses to offer their services and make them compatible with mobile phones.

Launching websites have become the second priority for businesses and they now prefer to launch their mobile app even before launching their website.

But providing mobile solutions is a little challenging considering the numerous devices, screen sizes, platforms, networks, etc. available for people to use. 

Not only providing and creating these solutions is difficult but testing them is equally challenging.

Here are the top Mobile App Testing Challenges testers face:

1. User experience and performance issues:

A delay of a few seconds in doing your job through a mobile application or complex navigation can let your user switch to your competitor.

Hence it becomes extremely important for the testers to test features with extra precision. Also, unfortunately, app review has a significant effect on the people thinking of using the app.

The bad reviews and descriptions of errors and faults, even if resolved become a blockade for new people wanting to try your app. Hence it becomes very challenging for the testers to deliver bug-free applications the very first time.

2. Screen sizes:

With increasing requirements and new technologies, we see various mobile companies launching their mobile phones in different screen sizes. Rather, different variants for the same model with different specifications have become the trend of society.

Like recently, Samsung launched two new versions of its veteran Note series; Note 10 and Note 10 plus. Where Note ten was introduced with a 6.3 inches screen and 10 plus was launched with 6.8 inches screen. Similarly, iPhone too launches its mobile phones in different screen sizes.

When customers are using such a wide variety of screen sizes, they pose major mobile app testing challenges for businesses to check compatibility. 

3. Display:

Besides the screen size, apps are also introduced to be compatible with various display specifications. Testing their compatibility for different display features is again a very challenging task for the testers. Take the example of Samsung Note 10 and note 10 plus. Samsung note 10 comes with FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O Display (2280×1080) 401 PPI display, whereas note 10 plus comes with Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O Display (3040×1440) 498 PPI display.

4. Touch screens:

touch screens are a must for modern smartphones. The apps need to instill touch signals into their code to tune them to accept it as their input source. Testing touch screens are a more complex and challenging task for the testers. 

5. Lesser time to market:

usually, the mobile apps have strict timelines and such scenarios wherein mobile testing, testing has to be intricate, the strict timelines possess a great challenge for the testers.

6. Security issues:

If your app is managed by a public cloud, it possesses far more risk than an app managed by a private cloud. Hence testing of apps managed by the Public cloud is quite challenging, keeping in mind the enhanced security issues.

7. Lack of access to multiple devices:

to test apps on multiple devices, the tester has to be handy with all the devices, which is again a challenge to perform real-device testing for the testers.

8. Operating system: 

Another big challenge is to test the app on various OS like iOS, Windows, Android, Blackberry OS, Maemo, Symbian, MeeGo, and Bada. These multiple OS are also available in multiple versions, which is a painstaking task for a tester to test the app on all these versions of different OS. But it becomes a necessity as the app might work fine for one OS, but might not work properly for the other version or the OS. 

9. Device memory:

With mobile technology advancement, though the problem of device memory is being gradually resolved. But still, there are mobile phones with a limited amount of device memory. And your mobile application should be compatible with both. Hence it is a challenge for the testers to test the proper working of the mobile app for various device memories. 

10. Network Challenges and Response Time:

Network connectivity directly affects the working of your mobile app. Most of the applications require good network connectivity to work properly. Hence it is important to test the application’s response time for various network connections.

If a person moves from one network area to another network area the working of the application should not be affected. But with around 400 mobile network operators present globally it is a challenging task for testers to test an app for network issues as it is difficult to access all the networks from one place.

11. Regression Testing:

With every addition of a new feature, the application has to be retested so that the changes in code do not disrupt the working of the application. But when testing a mobile app is already a painstaking task, testing it for various devices, OS, screen sizes, networks, etc. regression testing becomes a big challenge. 

Conclusion:

There is immense competition in the digital world. There are multiple apps for the same purpose and hence to prove your supremacy you have to be better than the others. Even a small defect can make you lose the battle. Hence it is very important to perform an intricate round of testing so that no bugs are left out.

But with the highly dynamic nature of mobile technology, testing becomes very complex and challenging. Testers have to ensure that they test their applications for all available devices, networks, OS, etc. But it becomes very challenging for the testers to perform all-inclusive testing and that too in a limited period. 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. Automated mobile app testing, use of simulators, emulators are some of the solutions for these challenges.