With the tremendous increase in mobile usage, new apps are on the Apple App Store and the Android Play Store. This leads to constant downloads and new updates for the users. There are around 5 million apps on the Play Store and App Store.
These apps make the life of mobile users exciting and easy. At the same time, they have continuously updated software for users. This leads to a constant need for testing and deployment of mobile applications. That is why mobile testing and mobile test automation are becoming more important for enterprises than automated software testing.
Automated software testing for mobile applications is an important part of mobile software development and testing lifecycle. Though there are many challenges in this sector, yet it is turning out to be highly profitable for the organizations. For the end-users, it helps in better user experience and well functioning applications.
Now all the multinational IT firms and businesses derive huge value from the mobile test automation and mobile testing verticals. Hence, mobile testing has become a buzz word in the technical world. Many new trends are coming in the automated software testing area, and some of them are really important and are growing continuously. In this blog, we will discuss those trend areas.
Trend 1: Tool consolidation for constant changes
We can see a new mobile handset getting launched in the market every day. Therefore the new devices bring new features, configurations, Operating Systems, touch screens, etc. This adds to the experience and performance dimensions of mobile application testing.
Automated software testing for Mobile test automation will see continuous innovation for coping with the additions every day. This calls for faster, effective, and robust mobile test automation. Therefore, Mobile test automation has a new theme- continuous testing.
This continuous testing will lead to the consolidation of testing tools. Continuous delivery, agile models, DevOps, etc., are getting affected by Continuous testing. Hence the companies are creating software better and faster for these digital transformations. The time period of software testing for browsers and mobile applications will decrease due to the tool convergence.
Trend 2: Automated software testing copes with changing release schedules
Mobile applications are being released every day in large numbers. With the different types of users and varying user needs, numerous updates are coming every day to improve the user experience. Since the timelines are tight, development and testing cycles are becoming shorter and faster.
In this scenario, automated software testing is the best way to go for developers to meet timelines. Due to tight schedules, the test code will become more dynamic and runs simultaneously on the mobile platform. This will dramatically reduce the time of integration of the test code in the framework.
Trend 3: Automation Coverage
Security issues and complex applications increase the work of a testing tool. The organizations want the tool that provides the highest test coverage and addresses every issue of the application. There are newer technologies in mobile apps like Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots, etc. These raise the bar for testing procedures with complex functionalities. Thus the automated software testing for mobile applications will see the maximum test automation coverage now.
Trend 4: Arrival of Open Source Tools and IP-led tools
Open-source tools will change the way commercial tools are developed. There is a huge market for open source tools now, and organizations are adopting them faster. This is due to the specialization of open source tools, making the work faster and easier.
Also, IP-led tools and stable platforms can provide the testing teams’ needed testing frameworks to work efficiently. These will help in keeping up the quality with a quick turnaround time.
Trend 5: Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning
AI has left no part of the technology world untouched. Machine learning will bring a lot of changes in the way mobile testing takes place. These may be both good and bad.
I have discussed more in detail on Benefits of Artificial Intelligence in Software Testing in my previous blog.
Source: https://www.360logica.com/blog/the-top-5-open-source-automation-tools-for-mobile-test/
Trend 6: Increase in Visibility
Complicated and high-performance Mobile applications will require better visibility for greater efficiency of testing. There shall be very few blind spots. The Mobile Test Automation shall provide complete visibility for better quality. It will allow the tracking of the issues, and testers can breathe easy too. Transparency will make technology more relevant and responsive.
The bottom line on the trends
Automated software testing in mobile testing is a growing field in the IT world today. New updates and changing technologies are bringing in innovations in the testing world. Since mobility is a promising field, it needs to have an improved and robust mechanism for automation testing inevitable. As there are many enterprises’ challenges, this field would require excellent technical skills from both developers and testers.
In these 5 top trends in Mobile testing discussed above, we can see the shorter testing cycles and faster testing tools as the common themes. These new trends will help in overcoming the challenges greatly. The innovation in the testing world will change the way we test.
Thanks for sharing your views regarding emerging trends in mobile testing. There is an urgent need for mobile app testing tools that can speed up CI test creation. These tools also need to be simple enough in design to allow for low level testers use. Testing of mobile applications should not require a development effort of their own. Use of SDETs for test creation generally costs 33% more than use of SQA testers. The development of such tests also require much more time than available under an agile product build model.
Thank you for sharing the top trends in automated testing for mobile application development. It can be a big-time saver because you have provided valuable information concerning faster, more reliable, and cost-effective software testing approach.