Learn Mobile Testing from the Experts in 5 Minutes

As an experienced testing professional with over a decade of expertise evaluating apps and websites on thousands of mobile devices, I get a lot of questions around the best ways to test for mobile.

In this quick tutorial, we‘ll cover the key concepts, approaches, tools and best practices you need to deliver high quality mobile web and app experiences.

Why Mobile Testing Matters

With 6.65 billion smartphone users globally today, mobile is dominating both web traffic and app usage:

Over 58% of website traffic now comes from mobile devices.

And by prioritizing testing to optimize mobile experiences, businesses see real results:

• 206% higher conversion rates for mobile-friendly sites
• 60% longer mobile session durations
• 52% lower bounce rates on responsive pages

So if you aren‘t testing for mobile, you are leaving significant money on the table.

Top Mobile Testing Considerations

While validating web and mobile apps, key testing areas to focus on include:

Responsiveness – Ensuring a consistent experience across varying display sizes
Functionality – Validating all user flows work on touch interfaces
UI/UX – Optimizing mobile page layouts and microinteractions
Performance – Minimizing response times on cellular networks
Security – Assessing vulnerabilities across mobile attack surfaces

Testing on real devices is essential to catch device-specific bugs that only surface with certain hardware and OS combinations.

Emulators are faster to leverage but miss many mobile native capability issues, slowdowns and crashes.

Approaches to Mobile Testing

Two proven ways to structure a test automation strategy catered to mobile are:

1. Manual Exploratory Testing

Leveraging human insight to try different real-world usage scenarios across a range of devices. Uncovers unpredictable issues an automated script would miss.

2. Automated Regression Testing

Repeatedly executing automated test scripts against new versions of an app to prevent known defects from reemerging. Critical for continuous integration.

Blending both manual and automated testing combines benefits of human and scripted testing triggers.

Step-by-Step Mobile Testing with BrowserStack

BrowserStack makes it fast and reliable to test mobile web apps and sites on 2000+ real devices with debugging – here‘s how:

1. Signup for BrowserStack access at browserstack.com

2. Configure Tests by selecting target mobile devices and parameters

3. Write Automated Tests in Selenium, Appium and other languages

4. Execute Tests to validate functionality and UX

5. Analyze Results using dashboards and reporting

And integrating automated BrowserStack tests into continuous delivery workflows catches regressions quickly with every app change.

Here is an example of the BrowserStack mobile device selection dashboard:

Expert Mobile Testing Best Practices

Here are a few advanced mobile testing techniques I recommend:

Simulate Location Services – Validate region-specific application behavior and languages
Mock Push Notifications – Test without sending notifications to thousands of devices
Limit Background App Activity – Assess performance with common background processes disabled
Benchmark Battery Usage – Quantify battery drain under test to optimize power efficiency

Key Takeaways

Thanks for learning the fundamentals around testing for the mobile era. Key highlights:

• Mobile dominates web/app usage – optimized testing is mandatory
• Manual and automated strategies each play an important role
• Real devices from services like BrowserStack test how users experience apps
• Blend device lab reliability with cloud testing flexibility
• Implement test automation early across feature branches

Now you‘re ready to impress as the mobile testing expert! Reach out if any questions.