Whether you’re sitting in India or the USA, applications have made connecting with loved ones, transferring money, watching international shows and movies, playing games, or shopping for products simpler. It is all possible because of the world-class experience and comfort they provide users today.
However, if your app fails to provide such an experience, users will likely uninstall the application. According to research by Statista, from September to October 2022, approximately 66% of the mobile gaming apps on Android were uninstalled, followed by 60% of social media apps. Thus, the apps often get uninstalled as quickly as they were launched in the market.
You can avoid this situation easily by thoroughly testing across mobile devices and operating systems. To do so, most companies rely on emulators and simulators that mimic the hardware and software behavior of target devices and operating systems.
While they offer some sort of convenience in testing, nothing compares to testing on real devices. By providing access to many real iOS and Android devices, browsers, and operating systems, they help testers test on different device/OS/browser combinations and get real feedback.
In this blog, we will delve deeper into the dynamics of real device testing and see how you can test your applications using a real device.
Why Is Real Device Testing Important?
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of how to conduct real device testing, let us first understand why real device testing is crucial for mobile applications in detail:
- Reduces Time-to-Market
In mobile app testing, time is the biggest challenge companies are trying to fight. Even after automating several tasks, testing an application is time-consuming as they need to be run on different devices with different configurations to check compatibility.
The real device comes as a savior here as it allows companies to run tests on multiple devices at the same time. By testing simultaneously, companies ensure that their time-to-market is reduced and their apps are stable for end users.
- Get Reliable Results
As discussed earlier, the popular methods to test applications are running the apps on emulators and simulators or using a real device. However, emulators are unreliable in testing because they do not provide accurate results. They do not test for real-life conditions like battery life and network conditions.
In contrast, real devices allow testing in the same condition as the user. Thus, they provide more comprehensive and accurate results of app performance.
- Cost-effectiveness
Companies spend a lot of resources on buying devices and building and maintaining device labs. The time and cost involved in the process can be saved with a real device cloud.
If enterprises partner with a real device cloud provider, they enable their testing teams to test all the applications faster by providing instant access to a wide range of devices. This optimizes the whole testing process and enhances the productivity and efficiency of teams.
How To Conduct App Testing On Real Devices Effectively?
Since you know the essential benefits of a real device, it is time to understand how to conduct app testing on a real device. Let us take a look at it now:
- Figure Out Your Strategy
Before starting any testing, figuring out what you’re trying to achieve in the process is crucial. Make a document and list down the things you need to evaluate.
Determine your testing goals, scope, and scenario and outline test cases to be executed on real devices. Finally, carefully look at product roadmaps to test for future updates and modifications in the application.
- Know The Type Of Your App
The second step is knowing the type of app, as each app requires a specific approach for testing. There are primarily four types of mobile apps that can be tested:
- Native Apps: Apps that are essentially for iOS and Android devices
- Hybrid Apps: Apps built through CSS, HTML5, and Javascript web standards that have a higher reach than native apps
- Web Apps: Apps accessed through web browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Edge
- Progressive Web Apps: Web links that can be installed on Android and iOS devices
- Invest In A Good Real Device Cloud Testing Tool
With so many real-device cloud providers in the market today, it is important to choose the one that provides all the services at a cost-effective rate while providing access to major legacy and latest devices.
By making an informed choice, you can ensure maximum coverage, deliver optimal performance, and enhance compatibility across a wide range of devices.
- Test Your App For Gestures
In real life, users who download and use applications employ gestures like zoom, scroll, pinching, and swipe. For this particular reason, you must not rely only on the workflow of your application.
Rather, you should test your applications for these gestures and check your application across multiple screen sizes and configurations to ensure smooth usage by the end user.
- Test Your App For Real Conditions
In the real world, your app needs to adapt to external issues and remain highly functional to keep the customers satisfied and happy. Hence, test your application on various network conditions like 2G, 3G, 4G, WiFi, battery usage, location, and interruptions like calls and notifications.
Conclusion
Since users demand a perfect experience every time they access an application, there is nothing better than testing on a real device cloud so you can test for all possible situations that may arise.
However, with a variety of options available in the market, it becomes difficult to choose the best real-device cloud provider that can fulfill all your testing requirements. With the right partner by your side, you can test confidently and surpass your user’s expectations. It will help you stay ahead of your competitor and reach new heights of excellence.
We recommend you try TestGrid, one of the most trusted end-to-end testing platforms that allow users to test their websites and mobile apps on the cloud for 100% real user experience. With its real device testing, you can be guaranteed of dependability, responsiveness, and performance of your applications as it detects the bugs early in the SDLC so you can release glitch-free applications to the public.