How to Run Web and Mobile Test Automation on Real Devices?

In 2022, the global count of smartphone mobile network subscriptions approached 6.6 billion, and it is projected to surpass 7.8 billion by 2028. Among the countries with the highest number of subscriptions, China, India, and the United States lead the pack. These countries boast significant smartphone penetration and a large user base, contributing to their prominence in terms of smartphone mobile network subscriptions.

The global revenue from smartphones amounted to 481 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. However, it was projected to decline to 463 billion in 2022. Despite this temporary downturn in sales, the market is expected to be sustained by the rising average selling price of smartphones in the years ahead.

This surge in demand has created a need for sophisticated B2B and B2C mobile apps that deliver high performance. However, along with this demand comes heightened expectations from users, who have zero tolerance for bugs or performance issues. In today’s competitive landscape, users quickly abandon mobile apps that fail to meet their standards, never to return again. The primary reason for app abandonment is a subpar user experience, which can stem from factors such as a confusing user interface (UI) or user experience (UX), an excessive number of bugs, slow load times, or frequent app crashes.

In order to ensure that the app you develop meets user expectations and functions flawlessly, it is crucial to implement continuous testing. However, mobile app testa can be intricate because of the requirement to consider various platforms, network connections, OSs, carriers, & scenarios. This is where mobile testing automation becomes indispensable. In this blog post, we will explore the best practices for mobile test automation. We will discuss the optimal test cases to automate and guide you in selecting the most suitable framework for mobile automation testing. By following these best practices, you can streamline your testing efforts and achieve efficient and effective mobile app testing.

What is a Mobile Web Application?

Mobile web applications, despite being referred to as “applications,” are not actual applications in the traditional sense. Instead, they are web pages that are optimized for mobile devices, giving them the appearance and functionality of a mobile application. Unlike native mobile applications, they do not need to be downloaded and installed on a device. Instead, they are accessed through a mobile browser or any other internet-connected device.

Mobile web applications are developed using various programming languages, with the most common ones being JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5. While there is no standard programming language for building web applications, these languages are widely used due to their compatibility and versatility. Building and testing mobile web applications are generally easier compared to native mobile applications, and they tend to have simpler functionality.

The key distinction lies in the fact that mobile web applications rely on web technologies and are delivered through a browser, making them accessible across different platforms and devices with an internet connection. This flexibility and ease of access contribute to the popularity of mobile web applications and their suitability for delivering a consistent user experience across multiple devices.

Why Should You Automate Mobile App Tests?

Automating the testing of mobile web applications is crucial for accelerating the release of quality features to the market. However, achieving this requires the right automation tool to make it a reality.

Why is that? Most automation tools are code-based, which means they necessitate skilled programmers to develop and maintain test automation. Finding a tester who is also a proficient programmer can be challenging. While such individuals do exist, the truth is that most testers are not well-versed in scripting automation tests.

As a result, the burden falls on developers to construct automation frameworks, which demands significant time and effort to maintain. This puts additional pressure on developers and diverts their focus from core development tasks.

To address these challenges, it is important to consider automation tools that offer a codeless or low-code approach. These tools empower testers with minimal programming skills to automate tests effectively. By eliminating the need for extensive programming knowledge, these tools enable testers to concentrate on their primary role of ensuring application quality rather than struggling with complex scripting.

Adopting user-friendly automation tools not only reduces the dependency on skilled programmers but also streamlines the testing process, allowing testers and developers to work collaboratively and efficiently. This approach enhances productivity, enables faster release cycles, and ultimately delivers high-quality mobile web applications to the market.

What are the Suitable Scenarios for Automating Mobile Tests?

Determining when to automate mobile testing and when to rely on manual testing depends on various factors. Let’s distinguish the scenarios where automating mobile tests is suitable and those where manual testing is more appropriate.

Automated app QA encompasses various scenarios, similar to web testing, where automation can be beneficial. Here are some key scenarios where automated testing is advantageous:

1. Long-term Projects: Automation is valuable for long-term projects that undergo continuous development and maintenance. Automated tests can be consistently executed to ensure the stability and reliability of the app over time.
2. Maintenance Checks: When a mobile application relies on data from a remote server through an API, automation helps monitor the synchronization between the app and the server. This ensures that changes on the server side do not result in issues like login failures or missing elements on the screen.
3. Smoke Tests: In the case of standalone apps that don’t depend on external resources, smoke testing is a quick and superficial check of the basic functions. Automation can efficiently perform these tests prior to release, providing a rapid assessment of the app’s fundamental capabilities.
4. Regression Tests: Automation is particularly effective for conducting comprehensive regression tests. By automating repetitive and routine tests, including high-volume scenarios, regression testing can be executed more efficiently, saving time and effort.
5. Continuous Integration Pipelines: Automation is essential in continuous integration (CI) pipelines, where the focus is on frequent integration and testing. Only automated tests can keep up with the fast-paced CI process, ensuring that code changes do not introduce regressions or conflicts.

In all these scenarios, automated testing brings efficiency, scalability, and consistency to the QA process. By leveraging automation, organizations can increase test coverage, identify issues early on, and accelerate the overall testing cycle, leading to higher-quality mobile applications.

While automated testing plays a crucial role in mobile app testing, it’s important to note that manual testing also holds its significance. Manual testing offers precision when it comes to evaluating interruptions such as incoming texts, calls, and push notifications, which can impact the app’s behavior. Additionally, manual testing allows for testing the app’s performance under different internet connection types (3G, LTE) and offline scenarios.

Having a combination of both manual and automated mobile testing is essential. 

Automated vs. Manual mobile app tests: What’s the distinctions?

• Manual Mobile App Tests

In manual app testing, developers or test engineers examine the features, uses, and functionalities of an app by executing test cases on different mobile devices and emulators. However, this manual testing process is characterized by several challenges. It is time-consuming, requiring significant effort and resources. The reliance on human execution introduces the possibility of human error, reducing the reliability of the testing results. Moreover, as the complexity of the app’s functions increases, scaling the manual testing process becomes difficult and inefficient. Consequently, there is a need for more efficient and scalable testing approaches to address these limitations and ensure thorough and accurate testing of mobile applications.

• Automated Mobile App Tests

Automated mobile app testing utilizes specialized tools to execute and manage test cases, resulting in a reduction of testing time. This approach is particularly beneficial for large-scale projects that necessitate frequent or repeated testing of pre-defined scripts. The advantage of automation lies in its ability to run multiple tests concurrently across various components or mobile frameworks. By leveraging automated testing, organizations can streamline their testing processes, improve efficiency, and ensure thorough test coverage for their mobile applications.

Automated mobile testing aligns seamlessly with agile development methodologies, which prioritize early, iterative, and continuous testing to detect and resolve bugs and performance issues at the earliest stages of the development process. By incorporating automated testing into agile workflows, organizations can identify and address issues promptly, preventing them from becoming deeply embedded and more challenging to rectify later on. The iterative nature of Agile development, coupled with automated mobile testing, enables teams to maintain a high level of quality, improve efficiency, and deliver robust mobile applications to market faster.

Mobile Tests Automation Frameworks

There are several types of automation frameworks that can be employed for mobile testing. Each framework has its own advantages and is suitable for different testing scenarios. Here are the commonly used automation frameworks:

1. Linear Automation Framework: This framework follows a “record and playback” approach, where tests are created by recording user actions and playing them back. It is useful for simple applications or unit tests that require a linear and incremental approach.
2. Modular-Based Testing Framework: In this framework, tests are created for specific scenarios, known as modules. These modules can be combined to form larger test scenarios. The framework utilizes an abstraction layer to hide implementation details and ensure that changes made in the application’s units do not impact the modules.
3. Library Architecture Testing Framework: Similar to the modular testing framework, this framework organizes common tasks into functions, which are then grouped into a library. Test cases can reference this library to create new test scenarios, promoting reusability and ease of test case creation.
4. Data-Driven Framework: The data-driven framework acknowledges that tests may remain the same while the data may vary. It retrieves test data from external sources and uses it to test specific functionalities. For example, testing a login functionality against different sets of input and expected data.
5. Keyword-Driven Framework: Also known as a table-driven framework, it combines external test data with keywords (actions) stored in a table, often in Excel format. Different test scripts can access these keywords, allowing for flexibility and reusability. However, setting up this framework can be time-consuming.
6. Hybrid Testing Framework: The hybrid framework combines two or more of the above frameworks to create a flexible and customized testing environment. It allows teams to leverage the strengths of multiple frameworks to meet their specific testing requirements.

The choice of framework depends on factors such as the complexity of the application, testing requirements, and team preferences. By selecting the appropriate framework, teams can streamline their automation efforts and achieve efficient and effective mobile testing.

Step-by-step guide: Web and Mobile Test Automation on Real device testing

Mobile web automation focuses on testing websites or web applications on actual mobile devices, such as Android and iOS devices. By testing the appearance and performance of websites or web apps on real devices, the tests can accurately simulate real-world conditions and provide better performance insights. This approach enhances test coverage, ensuring that the application functions correctly across a diverse range of devices.

LambdaTest offers a comprehensive solution for mobile web automation using Appium. It provides access to a vast selection of real Android and iOS devices, allowing testers to perform automation testing on mobile devices from various manufacturers, including Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, and more. With LambdaTest, you can execute your mobile web automation tests on a wide range of devices, enabling thorough testing and ensuring the compatibility and optimal user experience of your website or web application across different mobile platforms.

To perform mobile web automation on Real device testing using the Python programming language, there are several prerequisites to consider. Here is a list of the requirements:

• Install the latest version of Python- Ensure that you have Python downloaded on your machine. You can download the latest version of Python from the official Python website and follow the installation instructions specific to your operating system.
• Install the Appium server- Install the Appium server, which allows you to automate interactions with mobile devices. Appium can be installed via npm (Node Package Manager) by executing the command npm install -g appium. Additionally, you may need to install additional dependencies as per your specific requirements.

Running Mobile Web Automation on Real-time Devices

In order to test on a real/ actual mobile device, you have to pass the below capability in the specific test scripts.

‘isRealMobile’: True

Additionally, you can utilize the Desired Capabilities Generator to enhance the capability of your mobile web automation. Below is an example Python test script that demonstrates the usage of Desired Capabilities. In this script, we will use a sample ToDo app to check two checkboxes in the list and add a new item to the list. The test will be conducted on an iPhone 11 with iOS 13 as the platform version.

from appium import webdriver

# Set desired capabilities for the test

desired_caps = {

    “platformName”: “iOS”,

    “platformVersion”: “13.0”,

    “deviceName”: “iPhone 11”,

    “browserName”: “Safari”

}

# Set the Appium server URL

appium_url = “http://localhost:4723/wd/hub”

# Create the WebDriver instance

driver = webdriver.Remote(appium_url, desired_caps)

# Navigate to the ToDo app URL

driver.get(“https://www.example.com/todo”)

# Perform actions on the ToDo app

checkbox1 = driver.find_element_by_xpath(“//input[@id=’checkbox1′]”)

checkbox1.click()

checkbox2 = driver.find_element_by_xpath(“//input[@id=’checkbox2′]”)

checkbox2.click()

new_item_input = driver.find_element_by_xpath(“//input[@id=’new-item-input’]”)

new_item_input.send_keys(“New Item”)

add_button = driver.find_element_by_xpath(“//button[@id=’add-button’]”)

add_button.click()

# Close the browser and quit the WebDriver

driver.quit()

In the above script, we set the desired capabilities specifying the platform name, platform version, device name, and browser name. We then create a WebDriver instance using the Appium server URL and desired capabilities. Subsequently, we navigate to the URL of the ToDo app and perform various actions, such as clicking checkboxes, entering text, and clicking buttons. Finally, we close the browser and quit the WebDriver.

By utilizing the Desired Capabilities Generator and incorporating them into your Python test script, you can configure the desired capabilities to match your testing requirements and execute automated tests on real devices with specific platform versions.

In the below test snippet, you have to add your LambdaTest Account details and Access Key. You can obtain them from the LambdaTest dashboard. In the Hub URL, additional beta prefix added (mobile-hub.lambdatest.com/wd/hub).

Implement the below command in the terminal to execute the testing.

Browse the LambdaTest Automation Dashboard, you can get the entire details of mobile web automation testing together with the REAL DEVICE (BETA) label as mentioned below.

That’s all! In this way you can perform the mobile web automation test successfully on real-time devices. If you have any queries or require an extra info, you could connect with us at our 24X7 Chat Support or e-mail us straight at support@lambdatest.com.

8 Top Mobile Testing Tools (2023 Update)

1. LambdaTest is a comprehensive digital experience testing platform designed to facilitate manual and automated testing of websites and mobile applications. It offers a convenient online device farm consisting of real Android and iOS devices, allowing developers and QA engineers to test their applications in real-world conditions. With Lambdatest, you can seamlessly test both development and production apps on actual devices, eliminating the need for maintaining an in-house device lab. This not only saves valuable resources but also unblocks your team by providing instant access to a wide range of devices for testing purposes.
2. TestGrid is a user-friendly platform that offers seamless manual and automated testing capabilities for mobile applications. It provides the convenience of testing on real devices, which can be hosted on the cloud or on your own premises. With TestGrid, consumers can engage both their business teams and tests to generate and run test cases without the need for wide programming knowledge. This allows a broader range of team to participate in the tests process, letting good collaboration and very effective testing cycles.
3. Perfecto is an advanced and industry-leading testing cloud designed specifically for mobile app testing. It offers a comprehensive suite of testing solutions to help developers and QA teams prepare their apps for the mobile-first world.
4. The Katalon Platform  is a powerful testing solution built on top of Appium and Selenium. It aims to simplify the testing process by removing the steep learning curve associated with these tools, providing a codeless testing experience for users of all skill levels. With Katalon, you can easily automate your tests without the need for extensive programming knowledge. The platform offers a user-friendly interface and intuitive features that make test creation and execution accessible to testers at any scale.
5. ACCELQ offers AI-powered codeless test automation and management built on a cloud-native platform. With its codeless competences and automation-first approach, this tool eases the complete tests process for teams with distinct levels of programming expertise. This user-friendly platform enables testing teams to achieve remarkable productivity gains, up to 3 times faster, while also achieving significant cost savings of over 70%. ACCELQ’s pioneering autonomics-based automation platform sets it apart in the industry, empowering businesses to streamline their testing efforts and deliver high-quality software efficiently.
6. testRigor helps you to directly express tests as executable specifications in plain English. Users of all technical competences can easily build end-to-end tests of any intricacy covering mobile, web, and API phases in one test. Testing phases are expressed on the end-user level rather than relying on specifics of execution like XPaths or CSS Selectors. 
7. testRigor is a testing platform that allows users, regardless of their technical abilities, to express tests as executable specifications in plain English. With testRigor, testers can create end-to-end tests that cover mobile, web, and API steps in a single test case. One of the key features of testRigor is its ability to enable users to express test steps on the end-user level. 
8. Kobiton is a user-friendly platform that provides testers with seamless access to real devices for both manual and automated testing. With Kobiton, testers can easily perform tests on real devices, enabling them to validate their applications in a realistic environment. One of the notable features of Kobiton is its support for complex gestures, ADB shell commands, geo-location, and device connection management. Testers can simulate various gestures such as swipes, taps, and pinches, execute custom ADB shell commands, control the device’s location, and manage device connections efficiently. 

FAQs

• What is Mobile automation testing?

Mobile test automation plays a crucial role in assessing the usability, functionality, and performance of mobile applications. By automating tests, it enables thorough evaluation of both the hardware and software aspects, leading to improved testing outcomes. Additionally, mobile test automation empowers teams to enhance their testing processes by leveraging top API testing tools. This integration further enhances the efficiency and speed of test execution, ultimately accelerating the delivery of high-quality mobile applications.

• What can’t be automated in mobile tests?

• Usability tests: This form of test includes estimating the application’s ease of usage and complete user experience, which might require human interference and judgement. 
• Exploratory tests: It includes exploring the application and trying out various curcumstances scenarios to find defects and identify areas for improvement, which may be better suited for a human tester’s intuition and creativity.
• Security tests: In this form of testing, we estimate the applications security traits, like user authentication, data encryption, and access control. It might necessitate knowledge and specialized tools that aren’t well-suited for automation.
• Interrupt tests: It includes evaluating how the application behaves when interrupted, such as by phone notifications or incoming phone calls, which can be challenging to automate and might necessitate manual tests. 

• Can Selenium be used for android tests?

Selenium can be utilized for testing mobile apps, including those developed for Android. To conduct Android app testing with Selenium, one can employ the Selenium WebDriver API to interact with the app via either a device emulator or a physical device connected to the computer. Additionally, a Selenium extension called Appium is available, which offers a standardized API for automating tests on both Android and iOS platforms. By leveraging these tools, testers can efficiently automate and conduct comprehensive tests on Android apps using Selenium’s powerful features and capabilities.

• Is coding knowledge needed for Appium?

Proficiency in coding is essential when utilizing Appium as a mobile testing automation tool. Appium supports multiple programming languages, such as Java, Ruby, Python, and JavaScript, to develop the test scripts that drive the tests. To make the most out of Appium, it is necessary to have a solid understanding of at least one of these supported programming languages and the ability to write automated tests using that language.

• Which tools are primarily used for mobile test automation?

TestGrid, Appium, testRigor Kobiton , XCUITest, Katalon Platform, and ACCELQ are some of the most popular and extensively used tools for automatedmobile test.