Mobile App Testing Checklist for Beginners

Mobile app testing is a process of checking its functionalities, interface, compatibility with different devices and operating systems, speed and reliability, security, and availability for people with disabilities. The goal is to examine the program in order to detect every possible flaw and eliminate it before the application is made available to the audience. 

This guarantees that the application is as coherent and efficient on different devices and operating systems as possible. Some stats prove that currently there are over 4.2 billion smartphone users worldwide and every year this number increases by 0.3 to 0.6 billion yearly. Right now network subscription touched 6.4 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach over 7.7 by 2028.

Why is Testing Important for Your Mobile App?

Mobile app testing is important for the following reasons to provide the user with an optimal experience when using your app. Points that highlight its importance:

1. Assures Functionality: Confirms that every offered feature is 100% functional.
2. Improves Usability: Ensures that the program has the friendliest-looking graphics and is very easy to use.
3. Assures Compatibility: Ensures that the application is compatible with a broad array of devices and the operating systems in use.
4. Enhances Performance: Looks at how long it takes for a page to load and concentrates on how much use is made of the existing resources.
5. Strengthens Security: Protects information from improper usage, leakage, or the occurrences of a security breakdown.
6. Accessibility: This ensures that everyone with a disability can also benefit from the app as can everyone else.
7. Increases customer Satisfaction: Makes for improved referrals and an enhancement in customer base.
8. Reduces Costs: The initial recognition of problems leads to the fact that their correction at a later stage of the program cost is lower.
9. Regulatory Compliance: Ensures that policies, rules, and standards of a certain industry are complied with.

Checklist for Mobile App Testing 

A mobile app testing checklist is a document that enumerates all the dimensions of testing that are applicable to mobile apps, such as functional, performance, security, usability, and compatibility testing. The checklist helps in following a systematic procedure to test a mobile app to cover all areas of testing before releasing the application to the public.

1. Planning and Preparation

Make a plan to determine which parts of the app require testing:

• Functional testing: Check the application and its main features and functions executed.
• Usability testing: It should be tested for functionality of the UX layer of the app and how user-friendly it is.
• Compatibility testing: They can be done across devices and across the number of networks available to both devices.
• Performance testing: Testing the speed, scalability, and responsiveness.
• Security Testing: Authorizing the stability, vulnerability, and potential exploits of the app.

Objectives:

• Ensure seamless functionality of all app features and components on various mobile devices and platforms.
• Optimize the app's performance to provide a fast and responsive user experience, minimizing lag and loading times.
• Validate broad compatibility across different mobile devices, operating systems, and screen sizes to ensure a consistent user experience.
• Implement robust security measures to protect user data, prevent unauthorized access, and ensure the integrity of the app.
• Design an intuitive and user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, allowing all visitors to access and use the app's features with minimal effort.

Setup Testing Environment and Tools:

• Devices: A vast variety of gadgets and clones.
• Operating Systems: Different versions of operating systems to ensure full coverage testing.
• Network Conditions: Imitated different network scenarios for examining.
• Test Management: Test Management tools for handling test cases or tracking issues and defects.
• Automation: Automation management is one of the finest tools.
• App Testing Tools: Utilize mobile app testing tools such as Appium, Robotium, or Espresso to stage the app and complete performance examination environment.
• Vulnerability Scanning: Use tools such as Burp Suite, ZAP, or Appscan to scan for potential weaknesses and gain insight into the potential threats and risks.
• Test Environment Configuration: Configure test environments using continuous integration tools like Jenkins, Travis, CI, or CircleCI to perform tests.

Prepare Test Data:

• User Data: More of the realistic and role-specific accounts.
• Transaction Data: Detailed logs, which entail minor cases.
• Error and Boundary Data: Common aspects such as the use of invalid values and values at the limits.
• Environmental Data: Artificial global conditions for location-based and time-sensitive characteristics.

2. Functionality Testing

Mobile app testing may be divided into different categories, one of the specific types of mobile app testing is functionality testing, which allows ascertaining that the application features and sub-functions are functioning accordingly. The checklist consists of:

• Install the app on a few different devices, like Android and IOS to check that it installs smoothly without errors.
• Ensure that the app initializes successfully with no error the first time the user installs it.
• Check the registration process and the confirmation checking such as email, SMS OTP, and social sign-ups.
• Try using a registered email for registration or use the wrong format for the email or interrupt the registration process by closing the internet connection.
• It is also worth trying different login systems which include password and email, using the account on the social network, Google and Facebook, or using a fingerprint, face recognition.

Validate UI and Data Accuracy:

• Consistency: Ensure that buttons, menus, icons (widgets) appear integrated with the layout on different gadgets and are optimized for portable devices.
• Accessibility: Ensure your app conforms to the accessibility standards (WCAG), specifically checking for screen reader compatibility, color contrast and intended touch sizes.
• Data Display: See that the information that the users find in the app (profiles, product descriptions, transactions) is relevant and credible.
• Form Validation: Testing I/O conversions for all types of forms, determining correct process for both valid and invalid data.
• Synchronization: Assure that the data can be synchronized with the different app and the backend server correctly, especially during a poor network connection and when a connection is gained back.
• Error Handling: Ensure that the response to error is sufficient, the app provides reasonable messages when data loading is issued, or when the transaction is not fully processed.

3. Usability Testing

Usability testing is one of the mobile application testing techniques used to highlight the app’s usability aspects, such as navigation, number of clicks, and appearance consistency. Here are some checklist, that we need to follow:

Ease of Use:

• Intuitive Design: Proper placement of the buttons and functionality that is commonly available on the interface must be placed properly.
• Onboarding Process: Evaluating the relevance and applicability of the lessons’ and guides’ content for the essential basic features of a wiki.
• Task Efficiency: With the self-service helpdesk check the consumer-friendliness of the company in terms of registering, logging in or buying products. Determine the time and the number of steps involved.

Navigation:

• Menu Structure: Ask whether the position of the menu is rational and readable to avail the majority of the applications. 
• Navigational Aids: Ensure that the navigation bars, back buttons, and breadcrumb are fully operational as they are supposed to be. 
• Consistency: Make sure that all the components of the navigation are properly positioned in the various view options.

Design Consistency:

• Visual Consistency: Throughout the app, use consistent fonts, colors, icons, and design components.
• Interaction Consistency: Ascertain that comparable actions—like form validation and error handling—produce consistent results.
• Responsive Design: Check to see if the app's design remains consistent on various screens and devices.

User Feedback on Usability Test Scenario:

• Target Audience: Perform meetings with several people from the represented audience in the application.
• Scenario-Based Testing: This means the observation of users performing activities in their daily lives in order to capture the pain areas.
• Think-Aloud Protocol: Make the users speak while using the app through the inclusion of voice prompts.
• Post-Session Surveys: Collect feedback as soon as possible after every usability test session.
• Detailed Questionnaires: Gather qualitative information from users having temporal usage of the app.

Learn how to tackle the challenges of Mobile Usability Testing and also, get to know about the techniques associated with testing a seamless user experience on mobile platforms.

4. Compatibility Testing

Compatibility testing in mobile app testing is usually a subcategory of testing whereby the main aim is to ensure that a mobile app functions as expected given different platforms, devices, and environments. Let’s follow the checklist for this testing:

Test on Different Devices:

• Brands and Models: Testing it on several tablet PC and smartphone operating systems from various manufacturers is essential. Companies with a variety of models include Google, Samsung, Lenovo, OnePlus, Motorola, and Apple.
• Operating Systems: Achieve the ability to run on multiple versions of OS, OS like Android 12, IOS 17, Window 11 etc.
• Hardware Configurations: Such include products with different hardware components embedded (processors, Random Access Memory- RAM, storage space).

Ensure Resolution and Screen Size Compatibility

• Small Screens: Check screen sizes which are 4-5 inches to check whether the UI is feasible and whether texts/graphics can be clearly displayed.
• Medium Screens: Mainly works for medium to top aspect ratio and dimensions range between 5 to 6. 5 inches for viable touch functionality.
• Large Screens: Make sure the app has the right size of the screen and shows the correct position on large screens or tablets bigger than 6. 5 inches.
• Low Resolution: Test at lower resolutions (e.g., 720p) to check that all UI elements are clear (unreadable UI elements were the issue in the previously mentioned cases).

High Resolution: Confirm performance and barely display the screen on high-categorized screens (e.g., 1080p, 1440p) to avoid clarity loss.

5. Performance Testing

The volumetric response time, load time, and battery usage are three major aspects that should be measured.

• Load Time‍
  • Check the first time loading point of the app on different gadgets.
  • The amount of time it takes to load various screens and the features on the screens needs to be measured.
• ‍Response Time
  • Track the loading time of important user interactions (for example: button presses, form submissions).
  • Propose that the app must be optimized for interaction, must behave fast to the users’ actions.‍
• Battery Usage
  • Track battery usage throughout normal usage scenarios and compare them with battery drain when stressing the app.
  • Ensure that the performance of the app does not consume so much battery from the users’ mobile phones.
  • Performance Evaluation in Various Network Settings and Traffic Loads.‍
• Network Conditions
  • To make the test performance different on different forms of network such as Online, WiFi, 3G, 4G, 5G, etc.
  • Control of low connectivity should be carried out in order to validate expected behavior of the application.‍
• Memory Usage
  • They indicated that memory consumption should be observed during the app operation.
  • Check for unwanted large requirements, which can greatly harm memory utility.

6. Security Testing

Mobile app testing security aspect is an important testing activity as it throws light on all the probable weak points and opportunities in an app that an attacker can take advantage of.

Verify Data Encryption, Data Storage, and Authentication Mechanism

• All confidential data must be protected while being transmitted with the help of secure sockets layer/transport layer security (SSL/TLS).
• Check GDR data encryption in the applications that use databases and local storage.
• Verify that the information that can be accessed only with authorization has been stored securely.
• Affirm the correct usage of secure methods of storing information.
• Stress common ways to log in (passwords, 2-factor authentication, voice/fingerprint scanning/other biometrics).
• Proper management of the session and its tokens along with proper and foolproof session management.

Test for Vulnerabilities and Data Protection

• Conduct scans to determine potential or possible security threats.
• Conduct target on application layers that looks for usual security risks (XSS, SQL injection), an example of a script would be OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite.
• Ensure proper measures are taken to address the privacy of your users to meet the GDPR and CCPA requirements.
• Incorrect data deletion leads to leakage of vital data and therefore should be implemented correctly.

Behavior Under Security Threat

• Making some dummy attacks on the application (like man-in-the-middle attack, brute force attack) to test the solidity.
• Check how the app behaves when someone tries to hack it and be very critical on how logging and alerting are done.
• This depth guarantees the safety of the user’s information while offering protection against various dangers, thus offering a safe and reliable app.

7. Accessibility Testing

Your app's success will be at risk if you believe that accessibility is something that should be given the least amount of thought.

Ensure Compliance with Accessibility Standards

• Verify adherence to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards.
• Ensure compliance with local accessibility regulations (e.g., ADA in the U.S.).

 Test Screen Reader Compatibility and Assistive Technology Navigability

• Assure to check that users are able to move across the app by using tools for individuals with disabilities (for instance, switch devices and a keyboard).
• Another feature for implementing is to make sure that the app can accept input with different methods and give appropriate feedback.

Check Color Contrast and Font Size Adjustability

• Make sure that the text’s color contrast to the background is at least at the level WCAG requirement.
• Check how the test app behaves with users in different lighting conditions which might mimic low vision conditions.
• Ensure that users can change to bigger fonts with the help of a device or application settings.
• Make sure to ensure the texts within the interface do not become too small to read and the control items are appropriately sized when the font is enlarged.

8. Beta Testing

Beta testing is the final stage of testing before the release of the app, where you can give the app to a selected few for the purpose to be checking on the aspects of stability and usability and the general quality of the particular app. It is the final stage where you can identify all the problems and errors that may occur during the public launch of the application. Beta testing checklist is:

Release Beta Version for Structured User Feedback

• Beta testing – Introduce the app to a few users and ensure they test it before a general release.
• Include specific directions on where users need to go to get and use the beta scenario.
• Structured user feedback include surveys, questionnaires, and feedback forms to collect user experiences.
• Offer users the opportunity to report bugs, usability issues, and experiences, and suggestions for the application.
• Some of the methods include providing feedback forms found within the in application and the online beta testing forums.

Monitor App Performance and Implement Improvements

• Monitor analytics that are related to application, for example, the time it takes for an application to launch, instances where an application did not launch, or instances where it was slow to load.
• First of all, it is meaningful to employ analytics to track major problems by analyzing user interactions.
• Rating information such as user feedback, bugs, and other performance metrics to identify which areas need to be addressed most urgently or which features should be improved.
• Release regular updates during the beta phase to address reported issues and improve the app.
• Communicate updates and improvements to beta testers, encouraging continued participation and feedback.

9. Post-Release Testing

The post-release testing is the type of testing that is done once the application is released to the public for use. This is in order to ensure that the program is running correctly and no new problems were created during the testing phase as post-release testing seeks to correct these problems.

• Live Performance and User Feedback
• Monitor current status indicators (load time, regularity of crashes).
• It is recommended to have a set time to attend to such issues and to incorporate new features into the game.
• This way, there will be an effective maintenance process for the app, and it will run without hitches.
• One should review all the feedback from users together with performance stats to determine weak points requiring enhancement.
• Build changes and improvements according to the data obtained during analysis.

Conclusion

All in all, it can be stated that the concept of mobile app testing is an effective procedure that aims to ascertain the software quality, reliability, and user satisfaction of the developed mobile apps. In addition, the incorporation of efficient test automation service in the testing framework can help to enhance the quality of the tests, reduce the time needed to identify and resolve the bug, and make the entire user experience of the program a much more efficient one.

The purpose of mobile app testing is to check whether the app or the product that has to be delivered to the customers is up to the mark or not by hiring an expert QA tester. This can be done through measures that include testing the application, checking for defects, and making sure it passes the necessary quality examinations. With the help of  Alphabin, you can fix issues early, ensuring a seamless user experience and meeting customer expectations.