Achieving an impeccable user experience is a challenging endeavor. It entails an iterative process involving trials and testing to pinpoint and address bugs in mobile app testing. This article explores how to identify and resolve bugs in mobile apps.
What is a bug in a mobile application?
A bug in a mobile application denotes a glitch, defect, or inconsistency within the software, leading the app to operate unexpectedly, inaccurately, or contrary to its intended functionality. These bugs encompass a spectrum, ranging from minor visual aberrations or typographical errors to substantial issues that disrupt the app’s proper functioning.
Diverse factors contribute to the occurrence of bugs in mobile applications, such as coding errors, integration challenges, memory leakage, network or server complications, discrepancies with operating systems, and several other underlying causes. Developers and testers employ various approaches, including manual and automated testing, performance assessments, and user acceptance trials, to identify and rectify these bugs.
Common Bugs Identified in Mobile Apps
Before releasing a mobile application on the Play Store or App Store for public consumption, it’s crucial to identify common app bugs. Several prevalent bugs can be easily detected and rectified in your mobile application.
Here are some typical bugs encountered in mobile applications:
- Button-Triggered Crashes: A common issue occurs when the application crashes upon a user’s interaction with a specific button. This prevalent bug acts as a dormant problem, activating when users engage with the button, warranting immediate identification and resolution.
- Lack of Progress Indication: An observed bug arises when users attempt to download or upload a file within an application without any visible progress or process indication upon button selection.
- Slow Responsiveness: Speed issues are among the most frequent bugs that plague mobile applications. When an application takes longer than 5-10 seconds to open or process requests, it flags a significant bug requiring swift resolution.
- Cross-Platform Support: Mobile apps must cater to both Android and iOS systems. However, numerous applications fail to support various OS platforms, reducing market adoption and potential revenue loss.
- Orientation Compatibility: Mobile applications should seamlessly function in portrait and landscape views. Readability improvements are necessary to address this prevalent bug.
- Push Notification Reliability: While push notifications serve as a medium for user engagement, instances occur when the application fails to deliver user requests, hampering its functionality. This bug demands prompt resolution for consistent operation.
- Native App Permission Challenges: Permission-related bugs may hinder users from accessing the mobile application. Addressing these issues is imperative to ensure users have unhindered access to the application, encompassing permissions for security, requests, SMS, camera, video, and audio.
Why is Testing Mobile Apps on Actual Devices Important?
Prior to delving into the testing phase, it’s crucial to grasp the significance of identifying flaws in real devices.
Conducting app tests on real devices mirrors the user experience and reveals real-time challenges users encounter while utilizing the mobile application.
It enhances bug detection efficiency and comprehensively assesses the app’s performance.
Relying solely on emulators or simulators for testing isn’t advisable due to their limitations, like their inability to replicate battery conditions or cellular interruptions.
What coding mistakes commonly result in app bugs?
- Memory leaks: App failures to release unnecessary memory may cause performance degradation or crashes.
- Null pointer exceptions: When a program tries to access a null object reference, it can lead to unexpected app behavior or crashes.
- Input validation: Lack of input validation may expose security vulnerabilities, allowing attacks like injections or buffer overflows that jeopardize user data.
- Race conditions: Simultaneous access by multiple threads or processes to shared resources may cause unpredictable behavior and potential crashes.
- Hard-coded values: Embedding values directly in the code can complicate maintenance and result in bugs when alterations are needed.
- Incorrect variable scoping: Flawed variable scoping may cause unforeseen behavior and memory issues.
7 Effective Tips for Detecting App Errors on Mobile Devices
- Gain Comprehensive App Insight
Before delving into bug identification, ensure a thorough grasp of the mobile app’s functionalities and operational flow. Familiarity with its design and functionality aids in pinpointing problematic areas and strategizing bug identification effectively.
- Develop Test Scenarios
Upon compiling bug reports for the mobile application, prioritize and create detailed test cases for thorough exploration.
- Utilize a debugger tool
A debugger tool is software enabling inspecting and modifying your application’s state during runtime. This tool allows setting breakpoints, monitoring variables, evaluating expressions, and executing code line by line. Widely used debugger tools for mobile app development include Android Studio, Xcode, Visual Studio, and Chrome DevTools.
By connecting your app to a computer or emulator, these tools facilitate real-time debugging processes.
- Employ Automated Parallel Testing
Leverage automated testing tools to simultaneously conduct parallel testing across various mobile environments and device combinations, streamlining the bug identification process without manual intervention.
- Solicit Customer Feedback
Seek feedback from users to glean neutral insights into app bugs. Customers’ experiences provide invaluable pointers toward the application’s shortcomings and areas needing improvement.
- Perform User Interface (UI) Testing
Evaluate the app’s end-to-end performance through comprehensive UI testing, identifying bugs, accessibility issues, or functional inadequacies.
- Assess Performance with Limited Storage
Examine the application’s performance under low storage conditions, as inadequate storage often leads to sluggish app performance. Identifying and resolving bugs related to storage optimization can enhance app performance.
- Conduct Iterative Testing
Post bug resolution, perform repeated tests on the updated app version to ensure bug eradication. Encourage user engagement with the updated version to gather authentic feedback, aiding further improvements.
By implementing these seven pragmatic approaches, you can enhance your testing efficacy and efficiently detect bugs in mobile applications. Understanding these common bugs and employing these strategies is key to successfully identifying and rectifying app issues.
Mobile app debugging tools
Sure, here’s a list of popularly used mobile app debugging products available:
- Kobiton
- Mobile application testing platform offering flexible device lab management and AI-driven features.
- Industries: Information Technology and Services
- Instabug
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- Empowers mobile teams for stability, performance, and feature development through a lightweight SDK.
- Users: Software Engineers, Android Developers
- Industries: Computer Software, Information Technology and Services
- Genymotion
- Over 8 million professionals in the mobile app ecosystem use the Android emulator platform.
- Industries: Information Technology and Services, Computer Software
- Qt
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- Focuses on improving software development with a 25-year track record.
- Industries: Computer Software
- Embrace
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- Aids engineers in managing mobile complexity for better experiences.
- Market Segment: Small-Business, Mid-Market
- Bugsee
- Bug and crash reporting tool for iOS and Android apps that records app activity.
- Industries: Information Technology and Services
- BotKube
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- AI troubleshooting tool aiding in cluster troubleshooting.
- Market Segment: Small-Business
- BugBattle
- Offers entry-level debugging solutions.
- Market Segment: Small-Business
How automation testing can help in debugging?
Automation testing aids in preventing app bugs by employing tools and scripts to automate repetitive testing activities, thereby enhancing testing coverage and accuracy while minimizing human errors. Its benefits for bug prevention include:
- Comprehensive Testing Coverage:
Automation testing facilitates in-depth and thorough testing coverage by executing tests across various scenarios, encompassing edge cases and boundary conditions. This comprehensive approach uncovers potential bugs that are not easily identified through manual testing.
- Early Bug Identification:
By running automated tests early in the development phase, automation testing assists in detecting bugs at their inception. This proactive approach helps address issues before they escalate into significant problems.
- Detection of Regression Bugs:
Automation testing aids in identifying regression bugs, where new code changes inadvertently affect previously functioning features. By rerunning automated tests, developers can ensure the continued functionality of the app despite modifications made to the codebase.
- Continuous Testing Post Modifications:
After implementing changes to the code, automation tests can be repeatedly executed to validate the app’s functionality and integrity. This iterative testing process guarantees the app’s stability and helps prevent the introduction of new bugs.
- Enhanced Quality and Development Speed:
Overall, automation testing bolsters the quality and reliability of mobile applications while expediting the development process. It streamlines testing cycles, minimizes bug risks, and fosters efficient bug resolution, resulting in a more robust and reliable app.
LambdaTest is an AI-powered cloud-based platform that provides a spectrum of manual and automated testing solutions for web applications and websites. This platform allows users to test thoroughly across over 3000+ browsers, operating systems, and devices. Emulators and simulators on LambdaTest are furnished with Browser Dev tools, providing comprehensive support for all debugging requirements.
LambdaTest offers extensive debugging features enabling testers to diagnose and analyze their test sessions efficiently. Debugging mobile web pages becomes effortlessly manageable with LambdaTest’s integrated developer tools.
Accessing native developer tools is simplified to just one click, facilitating real-time debugging and ensuring smooth and effective troubleshooting.
Conclusion
Detecting glitches in your mobile app is crucial to enhancing its performance before its release. This guide aims to assist in understanding the process of locating bugs in mobile applications, including identifying common issues.
LambdaTest offers a comprehensive solution for cloud-based testing on real devices, featuring support for over 3000 real browsers and devices. This platform supports both manual and automated testing procedures.