In the last decade, the use of mobile apps has skyrocketed and smartphones have officially taken over the world. As an essential part of our lives, apps play an important role in the way we communicate, work, and consume entertainment today. Millions of apps are downloaded on different devices around the world, and mobile testing has become crucial.

According to a survey conducted by Statista, by 2025, the number of mobile app users is expected to reach 7.49 billion worldwide.

Thanks to the momentum given by digital transformation, particularly around business operations and customer service delivery, very few companies can even think about going digital without a mobile app.

In fact, application development has become critical for businesses. However, if an organisation releases an application that has not been tested, it can lose credibility and financially.

According to a study published by Transparent Market Research (TMR), most modern automation methods in mobile testing will boost growth and facilitate the development of new applications. This increases the security, efficiency and compatibility of the resources in the digital market.

The importance of mobile testing

Recent research on consumer behaviour shows that mobile platforms will soon be responsible for a large portion of global web traffic.

As the use of mobile devices continues to boom, so does the importance of mobile testing in the development of more secure and functional applications.  

Mobile testing is essential for the appearance, performance, and functionality of applications across multiple devices. They also determine stability, operability, and resource consumption under various conditions.

Since application optimisation helps ensure a great user experience, regardless of device, the use of effective mobile automation testing tools is currently an essential part of software development.

What is the purpose of mobile test automation?

Manually testing every part of an application is time-consuming and doesn’t guarantee a quality product.

The difficulties that manual tests can represent for mobile applications are:

• wide variety of hardware combinations.
• human errors.
• excessive consumption of equipment time.
• increase of costs.
• different screen sizes.
• diverse configurations for each functionality.
• repetitive and complex test cases.

Based on these difficulties, mobile test automation becomes an important resource for software quality assurance.

The main features that test automation brings to application development are:

• ensure compatibility with multiple devices and operating systems.
• identify usability issues that may affect the user experience.
• evaluate application performance and determine whether it will support user traffic during high access demands.
• deal with potential security vulnerabilities (AppSec).
• identify hidden bugs or other issues that require attention before the app is launched.
• to maximize the efficiency through the automatisation of tests.

In other words, automated testing is a critical tool for app creators to leverage the best resources to ensure their apps are fully tested before launch.

How to get the best test automation for mobile apps?

Developing an app and making sure all the features are integrated is not enough. In fact, it is critical to build an effective test automation strategy to ensure the success of the application, as well as its security and functionality.

Here are the main steps to consider in the mobile testing process:

1. Plan and identify the most effective types of tests for the application.
2. Ensure effective development of the test case and test script for each application function.
3. Plan the configuration of the test environment.
4. Set the trial version of the application before starting the actual testing process.
5. Run automated tests to verify basic application functionality issues.
   
   Main aspects to consider:
6. Security Testing
7. Pen testing
8. Compliance testing
9. Interruption testing
10. Accessibility test

Once the application is fully tested, it’s rollout time. This is where continuous mobile automation testing comes into play.

Once the application is launched, continuous testing will help identify and decide which areas need improvement, generating the version and updates of the operating system that we use daily.