Apple has gone all out to create their mobile devices. The company ensured that their iPhones become an all-time favourite globally. Since the introduction of the original iPhone, users have had a wonderful experience with these devices. A recent survey shows that there are more than one billion Apple users that are currently operational in the world. This makes the iOS operating system one of the most important platforms for app developers. So companies need to create perfect third-party applications to attract this massive user base.
Various factors can help a developer to create the dream application on an iOS platform. In this article, we are going to discuss the most common do’s and don’ts for iOS mobile app testing. We will also discuss how a mobile app testing Framework can increase the efficiency of your testing environment. Before that, we need to understand the basics of this wonderful operating system.
The iOS Platform
Apple precisely developed the iOS operating system to power all of their mobile devices. The Apple mobile devices are also commonly known as iDevices. As iOS was initially introduced in 2007, it only supported iPhones. With time, its support expanded to all touch devices like iPods. Various researches show that iOS is the second most popular platform in the technological market. The first spot is held by the Android platform. However, there is a massive difference between iOS and Android. Android runs on thousands of devices that are manufactured by different companies. On the other hand, iOS is restricted to only those devices that are powered by Apple hardware. This massive limitation was nowhere enough to prevent the popularity of this wonderful platform.
The iOS operating system is mainly famous for providing fluidity in operations, user-friendly interface, crash-free applications and much more. The Apple iTunes store is one of the largest app stores in the world providing more than 2.2 million applications. Another study shows that more than 130 billion applications have been downloaded from this store. This sheer volume is enough to emphasize the importance of creating a proper iOS application in the current industry.
Importance of App Testing
Application development and application testing are two sides of the same coin. It will be worthless to create an attractive application that is prone to frequent crashes and user errors. The process of app testing ensures that the application is performing as expected and it is completely ready for end-user release. During this process, there are various factors that you must consider to increase the speed and efficiency of your testing environment. For instance, the proper app testing tool plays a vital role in increasing the efficiency of the testing process. Now, let us move on to some of the most important do’s and don’ts that you must remember while performing iOS app testing.
The Do’s During iOS App Testing
While testing an application for either iOS or Android platforms, there are certain factors that you must consider. These factors include the hardware of the device, stability of the application, importance of network and communication. Based on these parameters, let’s discuss some of the important practices for iOS app testing:
- Check the Availability of Memory
One of the most common app compatibility problems is the app crash due to the availability of low memory. In case you witness an app crash that cannot be solved with re-launch, there is a high possibility that there is the unavailability of ample memory. There is a simple solution that can save you from these unavoidable bottlenecks. You should always check and report the available memory before beginning the testing process. You can also take the help of various tools to check the available memory. The memory crashes will automatically disappear when there is plenty of available memory.
- Try to Test Under Low Memory Conditions
Testing your application under low memory conditions has some serious advantages. This will allow you to access some of the real world scenario problems. For instance, it is illogical to assume that all users will have high-end iOS devices. Therefore you must create your application in such a way that it does not isolate the users due to low memory availability. Apple recommends a great way to intentionally reduce the available memory for testing purposes. You can run certain apps like mail and safari that consume a significant amount of memory due to background processes.
- Monitor the Report Log for Crashes
Every time an app crashes, the iPhone will generate a crash file. This file will provide some of the most valuable sets of information to debug the issues. It will provide all the information about the app performance before the crash happens. You can obtain the crash log once you sync your iPhone with your iTunes account. There is also the possibility to sync the logs with iCloud. This process will allow you to access the data from other devices as well.
- Simultaneously Run Your Application with Background Applications
Other than the Apple First Party apps like safari, mail, etc, third-party apps cannot function in the background of an iOS device. Therefore, as a third-party app developer, you must test your apps for multifunctionality. This test will ensure that your apps can handle interrupters such as reminders or any other push notification. Moreover, vital functions should not affect the functionality of your application. This means that receiving calls or answering a text message should not hamper the user experience of the app.
- Choose the Proper Testing Tool
Tools play a vital role in ensuring the proper execution of the testing environment. Different tools have different tolerances and priorities. Therefore you must perform thorough research on your preference and project requirements to make a perfect choice. This process will help you to utilise the full potential of your testing environment. Let us consider the example of LambdaTest Mobile App Testing to understand this concept.
- LambdaTest Mobile App Testing
With the help of LambdaTest Mobile App Testing, you can verify the functionality of your app in a secure Cloud environment. This tool ensures that you can test the functionality of your iOS app across a series of emulators and simulators simultaneously. It also allows you to test your app on real devices to test real-world performance. Currently, more than 5 million users all around the world use LambdaTest Mobile App Testing to test the functionality of their mobile applications. It maintains an interactive activity log to keep track of the testing progress. Lastly, the primary goal of LambdaTest Mobile App testing is to ensure the timely delivery of high-quality mobile applications.
The Don’ts during iOS App Testing
An improper testing process can result in pitfalls during the QA process. In a worst-case scenario, the company will be forced to roll back the software to the development phase. This process will result in the loss of lots of time and money. Let’s look at some of the practices that you must avoid for the proper execution of the iOS app testing process:
- Avoiding Testing on Real Devices
Many companies limit their testing environment to only cloud-based devices. You must remember that the cloud platforms are only to assist real device testing. Thus, these platforms cannot completely replace real device testing. Features such as user experience and functionality can vary on the devices compared to cloud testing. So it is a good practice to test on two real iOS Devices with the latest OS version and two real devices with older versions. Various tools like LambdaTest Mobile App testing allow you to test the functionality of the application on both real and cloud devices simultaneously.
- Absence of Proper Responsive Testing
Responsive testing allows you to ensure that the application is functional irrespective of variable screen sizes, resolutions and operating systems. Many companies fail to perform responsive testing or they limit it to a few devices. These habits do not provide adequate data to ensure the smooth functioning of iOS applications. To maximize the coverage, developers can choose cloud-based responsive testing tools. These tools simplify the testing process and also increase cost-efficiency. Lastly, the developers must remember to perform responsive testing with every new update of iOS.
- Improper Consideration of Device Configuration and Network Availability
Considering the device configuration and availability of proper network plays a vital role in increasing the performance of the application. These factors are also important when the application requires a certain amount of free space or internet access to perform properly. You should test the functionality of the application with various available Ram configurations. Similarly, run tests on internet connections with different bandwidths to analyze its performance in real-world scenarios. You should also check the application on wifi, hotspots and data packet losses. All these factors verify that the end-users will continue to receive the most optimal performance irrespective of any given scenario.
- Saving the Testing Process for the End
One of the habits of the primitive application development process was to conduct application testing after the development phase. It had major drawbacks like increasing the overall lifecycle of the development phase. The best practice is to conduct the development process and testing simultaneously. With this process, companies can develop a stable application by providing the developers with enough bandwidth to fix the errors. They do not have to race against the time and compromise the quality of the testing process.
- Improper Testing Conditions
Most desktop applications have similar conditions for operational practices. On the other hand, various conditions can affect the behaviour and performance of a mobile app. To ensure the most optimal performance, developers must create a list of various scenarios for testing purposes. Let us look at some of the most common conditions for application testing.
- The functionality of the application when GPS services are either enabled or disabled.
- Testing the performance of the application at different levels of available battery.
- The impact of various push notifications, messages and incoming calls on the overall performance of the app.
- The behaviour of the application with the user pressing various physical buttons like the home button or the lock button.
The Final Verdict
So, we can conclude that iOS app testing can be a challenging task if not performed properly. Choosing the correct testing process, the right approach, tools, methodologies, emulators, devices etc will play a vital role in determining the success of your iOS app testing process. As a developer, you must remember that your application should not alienate any portion of the user base due to compatibility issues.