Challenges Faced By Testers During Mobile Testing

The increasing use of mobile phones, tablets, and other devices has accelerated the use of mobile applications and mobile application testing also. People use smartphones for personal and professional dealings. Now, the smartphones have become the most common medium for gaming, communication and for business also. We all know that testing is an expeditious industry which is constantly changing. Mobile applications and websites need to be appropriate before releasing in the production. Mobile application testing needs a particular set of examination which are unique in the mobile environment I.e. Various OS versions, device screen sizes, device settings, etc.  

So, let’s discuss the key challenges faced by testers while performing mobile application testing.  

1. Screen Sizes 

There are a ton of new mobile devices coming out every year having a variety of different specification regarding the pixel densities and aspect ratios. With the launch of iPhone X, Apple brings the new screen sizes and a phone having a notch on its top. Mobile application developers are used to with the pixel perfect designs and now they need to change their logic to the adaptive screen designs.  

Testers need to check the various devices that all the mandatory screen elements are friendly with different screen sizes and aspect ratios. 

2. Connection Types 

Performing testing in all the different connection types available to the mobile devices is a challenging task for the QA team. Well-known connections types of mobile devices are 2G, 3G and 4G each progressively provides good internet speed with transmission technology.  

Currently, some of the users are still using the 2G connection in their mobile devices. As the variation in the internet speed and connection qualities makes the testing a challenge for testers.  

3. Different Operation System versions 

New operating systems either for Windows, iOS or Android are important because it includes the UI changes, new features and often includes critical patches for the security holes in the previous versions. Many of the users do not update or use previous versions of the operating system which may result in the issues present in the operating system.   

So, it means that developers need to support previous OS versions and older API's and testers need to test those OS versions and API’s also.  

4. Power Consumption/Battery Life 

If we compare from the last couple of years then the advancement in the battery storage capacity hasn't been as fast as in the usage of a mobile application. A normal user uses lots of applications and many processes are running in the background without noticing to the user. Background processes require more power consumption which leads to battery drainage.  

So, developers need to make sure that the power consumption should be less when an application runs in the background and while performing testing on the application, testers need to make sure that the battery consumption should be kept minimal. 

5. Usability 

The most important component for any of the well-designed mobile application is the ability to interact with users easily.  

When a tester performs testing on the application then it is challenging to monitor the size and dimensions of the interactive elements and to ensure the proper readability of both text and graphical elements that the user may need to check while using the application. 

6. Internationalization 

Internationalization is a design process which ensures that the software application can be modified to various languages and regions without any change in the source code. It is not only the change in the written translations throughout the app but also on the different regional traits, such as area and time zones. 

Internationalization testing examines not only the proper translations but also check the spacing and layouts i.e. the languages written from right to left and top to bottom. 

7. Location-Dependence 

Another difficulty in mobile application development is the handling and recognizing the location-based information which might be used by the application also. GPS systems help applications to provide real-time information about the surroundings of the user and also provide the alerts to the user.  

Testers should ensure that the location dependent functionality should be properly tested either from any tools or by physically taking the mobile device to a different location.