Top 5 Mobile App Testing Challenges & Tips to Solve Them

The pandemic has left us more reliant than ever on our smartphones. Over the past few months, online shopping has exploded. Food delivery orders have reached record-setting levels. While all these happen, mobile apps are being used as facilitators for everything. Amid all these, mobile app users also experience crashes, glitches, and security breaches. Thanks to the lack of rigorous testing.

When it comes to delivering a reliable user experience, mobile app quality testing plays a crucial role. Thorough testing not just helps you deliver a consistent UX, but also prepare the app for high-demand situations like the one we’re dealing with right now. That’s why the role of testing is gaining more prominence than ever.

Top Mobile App Testing Challenges

Increasingly reputable app makers are deploying cutting-edge testing technologies. However, just technology won’t do the trick without a systematic approach. A considerable number of app developers face some shared challenges while testing their apps. Below are some of the most familiar testing challenges faced by app developers and testers.

Operating System Fragmentation

A rapid surge in the number of active mobile devices means operating subsystems need frequent updates. With every update, apps become more compatible with the OS and, hence, the mobile device. Ensuring the compatibility of the app with the OS is a key challenge for developers. With 11 versions, OS fragmentation is a significant problem for Android apps. It’s less so on iOS although it now has 14 versions. That’s because more than 90% of the iPhone users have iOS 9 and above.

You can deal with this problem by knowing your target audience and the platform for which are building the app. It will help you focus on a specific operating system, increasing the effectiveness of testing.

Multiple Testing Interfaces

To ensure mobile app security testing and other related tasks, developers use different testing tools such as emulators. Some developers also use regression testing. All these methods have their drawbacks that often go unaddressed.

The best way to solve this problem is to adopt a hybrid testing approach. Such techniques combine manual testing and automated unit testing. Besides, you could also implement an agile method to further boost the efficiency of your testing.

Native, Hybrid & Web Apps

Your app could be native, cross-platform, or a web app. The development of these categories of apps relies on different technology frameworks. It further complicates the testing process. Many testing processes fail to consider all these major app types properly.

You can overcome this problem while selecting the technology stack for the app development process. Choose a platform that offers reliable mobile app quality testing capabilities. For instance, Kotlin provides a modern framework with seamless testing features and functionalities.

App Usability

The app’s usability plays a critical role in its success — and failure. Usability is a broad word that encompasses multiple aspects of the design and development efforts that goes into the app. User experience design is one of the most critical aspects of all. The desired app experience demands an attractive design, seamless functionality, and enticing content, among other things.

In order to ensure a superior level of usability, you must consider all the key aspects of design, development, and testing. You must make sure that the interface provides an immersive experience across functionalities. If you need to hire mobile app developers for your project, explicitly mention these design requirements early in the process.

User Data Security

Data security has perhaps the most talked-about topic among technology executives and consumers alike for the past couple of years. Security becomes even more critical when we talk about mobile apps. People use mobile apps for virtually everything related to their day-to-day lives. And as we all know, mobile devices became even more important to our living during the pandemic.

From chatting with friends and family to ordering food and making substantial financial transactions, consumers use apps for everything. And all these involve large amounts of personal data. Some of this information could be extremely sensitive. That’s why you need to ensure uncompromising efficiency in mobile app security testing techniques. Make privacy and data security the top priorities of your app to avoid data breaches and reputational damages to your brand.

Conclusion

In all likelihood, testing will remain one of the most crucial parts of the mobile app development process. With soaring app usages and bullish app stores, the competition to attract users has become more intense than ever. And user experience and quality play a critical role in defining an app store success story. Whether you work with a mobile app development company or want to hire one, these factors are equally crucial. By implementing a meticulous testing process, you can significantly increase the chances of succeeding in this attention-hungry landscape.