Mobile apps affect our shopping, entertainment, education, and communication. Even business, sales, and services have changed. The fact that users downloaded 27.5 billion apps from Google Play in 2022’s fourth quarter speaks a lot about how mobile apps rule the world.
People today expect perfect functionality, user-friendliness, responsiveness, and stability in every app they use and promptly reject any product falling short of their expectations. There have been many instances of apps being rejected due to functionality issues or glitches, leading to huge financial setbacks and loss of reputation for their companies. As a result, app makers are taking no chances and are testing every app to find functionality issues or bugs.
In addition, companies realize that to get the most out of their mobile testing efforts, they need to conduct real device testing of their applications. Real device testing helps identify issues that may not be apparent while testing on emulators or simulators. This article explains why real device testing is crucial and should not be overlooked.
What is real device testing, and why is it important?
The process of checking apps on real, physical devices is called “real device testing.” Testing the app on devices with varying screen sizes, operating systems, resolutions, and hardware combinations. The process ensures that apps perform smoothly and provide a consistent user experience.
Testers who used to test their apps on emulators and simulators are switching to real-device testing due to the limitations of the virtual devices in providing the real-world environment that real devices provide.
Disadvantages of emulators and simulators:
- Virtual devices are not apt where testers need to validate an application’s performance over a long period.
- They do not support certain types of applications, due to which the testing team may need to buy patches that may be expensive.
- They cannot simulate exact color displays, battery issues, incoming interrupts, etc.
- Virtual devices show a lesser range of issues experienced by users compared to real devices.
Top Advantages of Real Device Testing
Real devices offer greater benefits compared to emulators and simulators. Here are the key reasons why you need to switch to real device testing:
- Test apps in different real-world conditions
Simulating app testing is different from real-world testing. Testing your software on real devices might reveal its performance in different circumstances.
Real device testing lets you evaluate your app’s performance during network outages, device malfunctions, and other conditions. For example, you can test whether the app displays brightly under day and night conditions. Thus, through real device testing, you ensure your app is ready for anything.
- Greater test coverage
Test your mobile app on several devices. Imagine a banking app tested just on the latest iPhone. It’s untested on older iPhones and Android phones. If other versions don’t function, the software may be useless. The app may be unusable if it doesn’t work on other versions.
Real device testing helps you avoid such scenarios by letting you evaluate your app’s performance on all devices and platforms, covering a wide range of devices during testing.
- Test your app’s usability
You must test your app’s usability across multiple devices and browsers to guarantee it is user-friendly. This will assist you in estimating the performance of your app in the actual world.
Testing on various real-world devices guarantees that all features function properly and that the app is simple to use.
Testing on different real devices ensures all the features work smoothly and the app is easy to navigate. Real device testing ensures no surprises when you release your app and that your users are not disappointed.
- Testing sensor-based apps
Many apps today rely on sensors and features to function properly. It is, therefore, important to test these apps on these sensors and features like GPS, fingerprint sensors, camera, or Bluetooth to ensure a seamless user experience.
Reputed mobile testing platforms like TestGrid let you perform geolocation testing and utilize GPS to create real-world test scenarios with ease, enabling you to create a perfect experience for users across the globe.
- For in-depth performance testing
Real devices allow you to validate the performance of your applications when subjected to varying loads. Contrarily, virtual devices are not apt for testing the app for real performance issues like network or battery issues.
Emulators or simulators sometimes tend to be slower than the original devices, making them unreliable for accurate performance testing.
When can you perform real device testing?
Ideally, real device testing is to be done at various stages of the app development process. Here are some:
- Initial development: Test as early as possible during the initial stages of the development process. It will enable you to unearth issues early and help you avoid losses later.
- Before release: Your apps need to be tested on real devices just before their release to the end users. This will ensure they work seamlessly on different devices and provide an excellent user experience.
- After updates or modifications: Test your apps on real devices following significant changes or updates to ensure the change or update doesn’t lead to performance issues.
- Test new features: Whenever new features are introduced, the apps need to be tested on real devices. This prevents the features from causing functional issues or bugs.
- While targeting specific devices or platforms: If an app is meant for particular devices or platforms, test it on those devices to avoid functionality issues.
Wrapping up
By now, it must be evident how vital real device testing is to the software testing process. By testing on real devices, you can catch bugs and issues that you might not notice while testing on virtual devices like emulators or simulators.
Next, you need a reliable testing platform that lets you easily perform real device testing across various devices and platforms, reducing your dependency on emulators and simulators. The universal choice for most organizations is TestGrid, the codeless automation testing platform that allows on-demand access to hundreds of real devices hosted on the cloud, on-premise or in a hybrid manner.
With TestGrid, you can test across real-world conditions like battery life, lighting conditions or network strength to ensure the best user performance. TestGrid lets you efficiently conduct real device testing of your mobile apps and get accurate results, enabling you to release apps faster to the market with confidence that your product is perfect.
