Getting Started with Real Device Testing

With a remote/hybrid workforce and the ever-evolving mobile device and operating system (OS) landscape, maintaining physical devices or devices on premises can be costly, risky, and unsustainable. These challenges can negatively impact the speed and quality of your organization’s mobile app release cycles – and your company’s bottom line.

Real device testing is the practice of installing the latest build of a mobile app on a real mobile device to test the app’s functionality, interactions, and integrations in real-world conditions. Real device testing is a recommended component of a comprehensive mobile app testing strategy, especially when used in combination with virtual devices (Android emulators and iOS simulators).

Organizations committed to their mobile application quality efforts are faced with making an important choice regarding where to run their mobile tests. The default for development teams in large enterprises is to use real mobile devices. While this gives them more accurate test results, it is not ideal for scaling and automation of testing.

In an attempt to move away from testing on physical devices, some organizations have switched to using emulators and simulators for their mobile app testing. However, it’s a best practice to incorporate a combination of real devices and virtual devices (mobile emulators and simulators) for the most comprehensive mobile app testing strategy. Let’s dive into what emulators and simulators are and when they should be used for mobile testing.

A mobile emulator, as the term suggests, emulates the device software and hardware on a desktop PC, or as part of a cloud testing platform. It is a complete re-implementation of the mobile software written in a machine level assembly language. The Android (SDK) emulator is one such example.

A simulator delivers a replica of a phone’s user interface and does not represent its hardware. A simulator is a partial re-implementation of the operating system written in a high-level language. The iOS simulator for Apple devices is one such example.

A real device is the actual hardware (plus OS and built-in support resources) on which your software will run in production. For mobile software, it's the mobile phone or tablet. For specialized industrial, scientific, or medical monitoring software, it's the actual monitoring device.

Here’s a summary of when to use real devices and emulators and simulators in your testing:

A real device cloud is a mobile app testing environment that provides on-demand access to real iOS, Android, and other mobile devices (smartphones and tablets). Mobile app development and QA teams can test their apps on different device/OS combinations to get real-world feedback and ensure optimal coverage for their organization’s target customers. A real device cloud can integrate with popular mobile testing frameworks like Appium, Espresso, and XCUITest.

Like real devices in a device lab, real devices in the cloud run tests on actual phone hardware and software. However, the key difference is that cloud-based devices are housed on a vendor’s premises and are accessed remotely by sending test scripts to the devices over the web. These scripts are executed on the devices, and test results are sent back in the form of detailed logs, error reports, screenshots, and recorded video.

Whether your company works on-site in the office or in a remote/hybrid arrangement, the benefits of a real device cloud for mobile testing platform offer many advantages.

Test from anywhere. Your teams can be centrally located, spread out globally, or working from home. No more worrying about stolen competitive data due to lost, misplaced, or stolen devices.

A cloud-based testing platform can scale to support both manual and automated testers running scripts. Developers can get immediate access to clean devices and OS combinations when they need them.

With everything needed for mobile app testing in one place, distributed development and QA teams can more quickly and easily share test results and collaborate on resolving application issues.

Test your native and hybrid apps across a wide range of Android and iOS devices. A cloud-based testing platform provides your teams with immediate access to a broader mix of devices.

Eliminate the pain to maintain physical and on-premises devices. You don’t need to worry about ensuring the right device mix, or dealing with the complexity of constant device, OS, or browser updates.

Run larger volumes of real device tests with low error rates.

Getting started with cloud mobile testing first requires a cloud-based solution (such as the Sauce Labs Real Device Cloud) that supports the mobile test automation frameworks you use to run tests (like Appium, Espresso, or XCUITest).

You should also ensure that the cloud solution supports the specific device/OS combinations you need to test against. It’s a safe bet that all major mobile testing clouds can support popular Android and iOS device models, but if you deploy your app to other types of mobile devices, you should make sure your cloud-based mobile testing vendor supports your unique testing requirements.

A cloud-based mobile testing strategy is more cost-effective, scalable, agile, and easier to implement than one that depends on an on-premises infrastructure. However, there are additional best practices that can help testing teams get even more value out of a real device cloud:

The Sauce Labs Real Device Cloud provides instant access to the most extensive range of iOS and Android devices, new/beta OS's, and test automation frameworks such as Appium, Espresso, and XCUITest. Test your mobile apps securely from virtually anywhere, anytime, on any device/OS combination.

Sign up for a Sauce Labs free trial to start testing your mobile apps on real devices today.