To ensure the success of your mobile application and to create a positive end-user experience, mobile application testing is essential. In this article we will continue to examine the challenges that could arise when testing the performance of mobile applications as well as the key requirements for mobile application performance testing.

In the first part of this blog series, you can find more information about mobile applications, and KPIs.

Test engineers should take into account the following prerequisites as a starting point in order for device performance testing to be beneficial and effective for a particular mobile application:

1. Select the range of devices you will test: Testers can decide what sort of tool capabilities are necessary and whether the testing processes can be streamlined based on the target audience for the mobile app. The testing process can be accelerated since, for instance, an app that is only being released for Android smartphones does not need to be tested on other operating systems.

2. Testers should select the precise app functionalities that are required to be analyzed. Based on the mobile app’s functions, this may involve checking startup times, battery and CPU usage data, operation and extraction from the background, among other things.

3. Testers should choose the testing tool that best matches their needs based on the testing scope. This entails taking into account additional preferences, such as the capacity to do cloud-based testing, as well as aligning the needs for mobile software and operating systems with a tool that can support them.

Testing for mobile applications must take into account the complete user experience. As a result, testing must precisely mimic any circumstances that the user might encounter. Testing must take into consideration an application’s performance across all application types, across the variety of mobile devices on the market, and with various network access. The difficulty of mobile app performance testing is increased by these factors.

Mobile devices are available in a wide range of screen resolutions, software versions, operating systems and hardware specs. The application’s performance must be evaluated across a range of mobile platforms to ensure, for instance, that it functions properly for both users of Android and iPhone devices.

Screen sizes and resolutions range amongst various devices. Performance testing must be done to ensure that an app can be properly loaded on a mobile device and that it can respond to different screen sizes. Within the iOS operating system, where iPhones exist in various sizes, is a clear illustration. The app must run smoothly on all screen sizes without compromising its usability, visual quality, or other dynamic performance elements.

Performance testing on real device, though, could take a while and be expensive. To reduce the number of tests for the mobile devices, alternatively the tester may instead indicate the minimal hardware requirements for the application to execute.

Testing the performance across different application platforms is another factor that is unique to mobile devices. Mobile web applications and native apps must undergo separate testing. In contrast to mobile browser-based apps, native applications operate on a platform that is installed directly on the device and have different behavior.

When assessing the performance of a browser-server application, which depends on a server and network connection, various mobile browser types should also be taken into account. Browser-based applications rely on connection whereas native programs save data locally on the device.

On the other hand, if the device is running numerous programs simultaneously, the kind of application will act differently. It will be necessary to test various client-server response times, device consumption, and overall performance.

A portable device’s portability makes it easy to obtain information quickly, however network circumstances might differ depending on the service provider, speed (2G, 3G, 4G, LTE), bandwidth, and reliability. In order to assess the load and reaction time under various network scenarios, the mobile application must be tested.

Additionally, mobile devices may operate some applications with irregular connections or even offline, particularly when traveling. Here, the reliability of network connections will have an influence on client-server communication, which will have an impact on data transit and application performance as a whole. Applications must be tested across a range of network scenarios to ensure that the latency they encounter is acceptable.

Testing the performance of mobile applications is helpful in maintaining a stable and positive user experience across all platforms, devices, and networks used to access the application. Performance testing is more important than ever to guarantee the success of an application since mobile apps for commerce applications, and service providers are becoming more and more popular in major industries.