Mobile App Testing Scenarios: Top Scenarios and How to Create Them

Mobile apps are a rapidly developing industry with over nine million apps available on different app stores. More and more applications are being developed daily, bringing competition and alternatives to your existing apps. For people to continue using your app, you need to give them the best possible experience. One such way is by continually testing your apps with testing scenarios that make them free from bugs and errors.

What is a mobile app testing scenario? Mobile app testing scenarios are a set of test cases designed to ensure that an app works correctly and provides a good user experience. These tests can help detect flawed application logic and bugs, optimize app performance, and improve the user experience.

This article discusses some of the top mobile app testing scenarios, highlighting why they're important and how to create them.

Mobile application testing scenarios are designed to simulate real-world usage of your application. They test an app's functionality and usability so that your users will not face any challenges once you ship your app.

Testing an app in various scenarios can help developers identify and fix bugs that might affect the user experience. Ensuring that users have a positive experience when using the app, in turn, improves user retention and engagement.

Testing an app in different scenarios can also help developers identify and fix flawed application logic and bugs that might affect the app's functionality. Such tests make sure the app works as intended.

Lastly, testing helps developers identify and fix performance issues, ensuring that the app runs smoothly and efficiently. This reduces the risk of users abandoning the app due to slow performance or other technical issues.

Test scenarios can be confused with test cases. While both are important testing artifacts, there are several differences between them. Test cases are specific and detailed step-by-step instructions for testing a particular feature or functionality. Test scenarios, on the other hand, are high-level descriptions of the overall testing process.

Test scenarios can cover multiple test cases. They are often used to provide a broad overview of the testing process and to help identify potential areas of concern or issues that may need to be addressed.

To create effective test scenarios, you'll need to consider the different elements of your app and how users might interact with them. At a glance, these are the steps for writing mobile testing scenarios:

First, identify the key features and functionality of the software application that needs to be tested. This may involve reviewing the requirements and specifications for the software as well as conducting research and analysis to determine the most important aspects of your app.

Based on this information, come up with a list of potential test scenarios. You should prioritize the scenarios based on their importance and potential impact on the overall functionality of the software so that the most critical aspects of the application are tested effectively.

Once the test scenarios have been identified and prioritized, detailed test cases can be developed for each of them. These test cases should outline the specific steps and conditions that will be used to test the software, and they should be designed to verify whether the application is functioning correctly according to its specifications.

Test cases should be reviewed and refined for comprehensiveness and accuracy. They must also be executed to verify the functionality of your mobile applications.

Below is a list of common test scenarios for mobile applications. Make sure your scenarios cover all the ones relevant to your app.

Installation testing involves testing the app's installation process to see that it's smooth and error-free.

For this testing scenario, installation must be tested across a range of devices that your users might use. It's common for an app not to be supported on lower-end devices, and that could exclude some of your potential users.

Also, you should see to it that downloading, installing, and setting up the app is hassle-free. A poor installation experience can lead to users abandoning the app before they even start using it.

Because the mobile application space is expanding to include flip phones, tablets, TVs, cars, and even fridges, your apps have to look and run well on the different devices you're targeting.

In this test scenario, you must check how your app looks and functions on devices with different screen sizes and resolutions. The app must be easy to use and display well on all of them.

This scenario tests how the app behaves on different mobile operating systems, such as iOS and Android. You need to provide the same functionality across platforms so that you're shipping the same quality experience to all your users.

It's especially important to test hybrid apps—i.e., apps developed for multiple platforms using a single codebase. Different mobile platforms have subtle differences in how they manage state, deliver notifications, and request permissions.

This scenario examines how the app performs under different network conditions, such as low-bandwidth or high-latency environments. Users may be accessing your app in a variety of locations and network conditions, and you want your app to perform well in all of them.

It's especially vital for applications targeting a global audience, as your target users will likely be affected by different network conditions.

This test scenario checks whether users can successfully create an account and log in to your app so that they can actually access the app and use its features.

This type of test should include a variety of scenarios, such as verifying that the app sends any sign-up confirmation emails or texts and that it accepts valid login credentials and rejects invalid ones. It should also check that the app displays appropriate error messages in case of sign-up or sign-in failures.

This type of test scenario ensures that all interactive elements of the app work correctly and as expected so that users can rely on these elements to navigate the app and access its features. Any issues in this area can cause users to uninstall your app.

This type of test should include scenarios such as clicking all buttons, selecting all items from menus and dropdown lists, and checking that the app responds appropriately to all these actions.

Push notifications see to it that critical information such as updates and alerts reaches users promptly. They are also important for keeping them engaged. You need to test push notifications so that they're delivered on time and displayed correctly in the app.

Test scenarios for push notifications should include sending different types of notifications to the app, checking that the app displays the notifications correctly, and verifying that the app provides appropriate options for interacting with the notifications.

This scenario should test your app's integrations with other systems and services that it may need to interact with, such as cloud storage, analytics, authentication, and other third-party APIs. Where relevant, it should also cover your app's interaction with other apps on the user's phone, such as the camera, dialer, and email client.

Testing these integrations can be complex since other systems and services are provided by third parties and require a thorough understanding. It is, however, important that you test that all these integrations work smoothly and seamlessly to give your users the best experience.

Creating and executing mobile app testing scenarios can be challenging as it involves testing the app in various scenarios and environments. Some common challenges you might face are the following:

App developers may not have access to all the devices users may use to access the app. This can make it challenging to create and execute testing scenarios that are representative of the full range of devices that users may use.

As mentioned, it's important to test an app using different network speeds and types. However, these network conditions may not all be available during testing.

Manual testing is tedious and requires much time and intense focus. It's also hard to test performance issues accurately when testing manually as results are sometimes subjective.

To combat such issues, you can use emulators and simulators for device and network conditions. Where possible, also use a combination of manual and automated testing to ensure all test scenarios are covered well.

Mobile app testing scenarios are essential in ensuring that an app is ready for release to users. Testing your app helps you quickly and easily identify bugs, improve user experience, and boost performance.

In this article, you learned about common testing scenarios and how to create them. Testing mobile apps also comes with challenges. It's best to use a testing platform like the Sauce DevOps Test Toolchain to help you overcome them.

Sauce Labs offers a comprehensive test and error monitoring toolchain for mobile apps. You can use it for continuous, automated, and manual testing of your mobile application regardless of the stack, whether native, hybrid, or PWA.

A digital product manager by day, Michael Nyamande is a tech enthusiast who is always tinkering with different technologies. His interests include web and mobile frameworks, NoCode development, and blockchain development.