iOS App Testing: A Practical Approach

Introduction

There are some measures necessary to guarantee the success of a mobile application once it has been developed. In mobile application testing, apps created for smartphones are checked for glitches and bugs to ensure their usability, functionality, and consistency. Testing has become an integral step before launching an app to the market. There are customized tools for testing both

. This blog will discuss iOS app testing in detail.

iOS App Testing

iOS app testing is software testing that targets applications running on iOS. Created by Apple, iOS is the operating system for all mobile devices that Apple produces. It is one of the biggest companies across the globe to dominate the smartphone market, having sold 230 million iPhones in 2020 alone.

Apple had 23.4% of the total market share in Q4 of 2021. More than 1.8 billion active Apple units in the world demonstrate the need to build and perform robust testing procedures for all applications developed especially for iOS. There are several different techniques that testers use for this process. Some of them will be discussed below.

Types of iOS Testing

Manual testing

It is the process of getting iOS software tested manually with the help of a physical device. The procedure isn’t automated and requires more time than those that use automation. The process here is divided into four different parts:

1. UI/UX testing: Good UI and UX is probably the most critical aspect of a mobile application now. The usability and popularity of an application depend upon the User interface and experience elements. UX testing is further divided into hard keys, touchscreen, soft screen, and screen. Ensure that every aspect is responsive enough for all users across different screen sizes.
2. System testing: To check the performance of all system elements together, the testers launch an app on any Apple device, and it’s introduced to some users who can perform specific actions to check if things like touches and swipes are working fine.
3. Security testing: iOS is famous for its security. Quality assurance requires special attention, and testers ensure this, especially for those applications which include payment or social media integration.
4. Field testing: This is important to ensure that applications work across different network speeds, especially the slowest ones. Field testing is a check done on the device’s network once launched has passed all other quality tests.

Emulator based Manual Testing

When testers perform manual iOS testing, they use an emulator instead of using a device. Emulators are software that allows a system to clone another. Emulator testing is helpful in the following cases:

1. Unit testing: Usually, a dedicated development team, including developers, do this test to check if the modules of a source code are performing per expectations or not.
2. UI testing: Similar to the UI/UX testing done in the case of manual testing, it also checks on the user interface and checks how responsive and user-friendly it is.
3. Integration testing: this one is done to check errors that might be present in integration points.

Automation testing:

To speed up the whole app testing procedure, quality assurance experts are now using automation. This means that they use automated tools and technology to check if the application is free of bugs and defects before it is launched in the market. iOS test automation also has a few types:

1. Basic verification testing: Basic verification testing is done when a new application or a more recent version of one is launched, so its basic functionalities need to be tested.
2. Regression testing: Regression testing is done when routine activity is to be considered. With every new version of an app, users’ demands are incorporated, due to which there could be inconsistencies and errors sometimes.
3. Compatibility testing: Compatibility testing for current applications on newly launched iOS devices.
4. Performance testing: To check the performance of an app after it has been used for a longer time, performance testing is done. This is of utmost importance because if an app cannot perform and interact fast, it will not be taken well by the users.

Best Practices for iOS app testing

Once we have the basics of the different types of testing down, it may be wise to have some idea of the best practices which could be followed to ensure proper, successful testing done of newly launched or modified applications. Since iOS testing is challenging work, it is helpful to have the blueprint for achieving this correctly.

Contrary to widespread practice, using Emulators may not be the best idea. Generally, using device emulators saves time and energy, but things like battery consumption, UI, responsive capacity, allocation of memory, general performance, and the like cannot be thoroughly tested on Emulators. It is, therefore, probably best to try and get the testing done on an actual device.

The other trend of automation testing, however, has merit. Doing things manually takes much more time than automated testing- test automation will reduce execution time and efficiently increase the coverage of each software test.

The testing, if done across different teams, yields better results. It is good to involve teams across verticals, including the development team.

Following a few simple steps, iOS testers can assure that an application isn’t crashing.

• Syncing the iOS device with a computer (Mac), it is possible to monitor crash logs and fix the issue in the bud. This can be done by syncing the iOS device with a Windows OS.
• Using tools like iTools and connecting it to the system, a Real-Time log can be retrieved, giving one comprehensive information on the applications on the iOS device that it is running on. These are called console logs, and using these can be very useful to catch defects and lags in a natural use-case environment and fix them.
• Finally, a good practice when figuring out issues and errors in an application is to keep records in a visual format. It can be helpful if testers record, screenshot, or capture the screens displaying the issue. Visual aid makes it easier for the development team to understand the defect better and thus deal with it efficiently.

Conclusion

To have anything thrive in the market, it is a prerequisite that the creators invest time and energy to ensure that it is the best that can be delivered. Not surprisingly, quality testing is the final and essential step to be ticked off before an application developed for iOS is launched. Understanding how iOS app testing can be done in keeping with the trends mentioned above. Best practices in mind can be a great support to get someone started on testing and launch their application quickly and successfully.

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