Mobile App Quality Assurance | Definition, Process and Importance

Have you ever experienced a mobile app crash or found installation errors after downloading any app from the apple store or google play store? One of the most common reasons may be that the company needed to ensure mobile app quality. On the other hand, they may need to check the app’s quality as intended.

Before it hits the market, any company wants to avoid being in that dire situation where apps are not responsive. So, to solve these bugs or errors, we need to ensure an in-depth QA checking of all the bugs and errors in the mobile app.

Let’s dive into mobile app testing details to find out more.

What is mobile app quality assurance? 

Mobile app quality assurance checks whether the product or service works as intended. Its proactive process can save the company time, money, and, most importantly, its users. Lastly, it can protect the company’s reputation and enhance user satisfaction.

Mobile app QA helps to identify and eliminate possible bugs or errors and ensure whether or not it’s working coherently. 

Importance of Mobile App Quality assurance

Mobile app quality Testing is very important. If not, it could hurt the company’s reputation or cause them to lose new users. Mobile users today are very picky. A study by tweak your biz found that 62% of people deleted their apps after installing them because they crashed or had other problems.

These numbers show that mobile app testing is important because it can keep the company from losing money and protect its reputation. Remember, the first impression is so important to the success of any mobile app company. Here are some of the benefits of making sure mobile apps are good.

• Better user experience and enhanced user satisfaction. 
• Ensures security 
• Protect reputation 
• Consumer privacy regulation 

Mobile app QA ensures users’ satisfaction so that they can easily navigate the app and can get the best experience from that app; it’s important to remember that the marketplace for mobile apps is booming, as are our competitors. So there is no chance to compromise any quality. 

Better user experience enhanced user satisfaction.

If a product feature or service gives users the best experience, there’s a good chance they’ll stick with this app. This will bring in a lot of potential customers and revenue. That’s why quality assurance for mobile apps is so important.

Ensures security 

No matter how fully functional the app is, users won’t feel safe if left unsecured. So it’s vital to ensure the app is secure. Suppose the mobile app cannot protect users’ information data and passwords. In that case, it’s not a good sign for the mobile app company, and undoubtedly, it will lead to devastating results.

Thus, mobile app QA will help ensure users’ security and trust.

Protect reputation

There is a chance of losing the app company’s reputation if the users find it unbearably slow and unresponsive after installing it on their devices; then, it can lead to losing the company’s reputation and revenue at the same time. 

In this situation, to protect mobile app companies, Quality assurance ensures the process eliminates human error and ensures product features and services are working correctly.

Consumer privacy regulation

In this modern world, we live in an era where continuous digital threads are knocking on our devices. In this case, if the company app fails to ensure users’ privacy, it can affect them for a long time and damage any company’s reputation.

In circumstances like these, mobile app QA comes as a rescuer to protect consumer privacy regulation. So before releasing the app in the market, it will be fruitful to ensure via QA to verify the defect in-app.

Process of Mobile App QA Testing

How the mobile app quality assurance should be. 

Step-1: Handover the App to QA Engineer 

 In the first step, the Developer will send the mobile app feature to the mobile app QA specialist.

Step-2: Testing APP 

Each app’s functionalities vary. Without app testing, your app may fail. This mobile app must be responsive and user-friendly. Functionality, cross-platform, security, performance, UI, regression, and automated tests method will follow to ensure app quality.

Step-3: Make Report

The mobile app QA specialist will make a report based on the mobile app’s overall performance.

Step-4: Brief the report with App developer  

Mobile app QA specialists brief the developer with details about what bugs and issues they found on the app and what they need to improve on the app.

Step-5: Fixing the bugs

After getting feedback from the mobile app QA specialist, the app developer will fix all the bugs and glitches issues that they have been told by the mobile app QA specialist.  

Step-6: Recheck

After fixing all the details, the app developer will send it again to the mobile app QA specialist to confirm the final report. Then the mobile app QA specialist will recheck the app again and will ensure all the check marks for the release of the app in the market.

Methods Used for Testing Mobile App Quality

Every mobile app has different features. App testing is essential without making sure mobile app QA can be the reason for a lacking app. It has to go through some processes to make that mobile app responsive and user-friendly.

Functionality tests

During these tests, mobile app QA specialists review each function to ensure it works as intended. They will verify every feature and check that it works accordingly. It will ensure faultless functionality, which is vital to any mobile application.

Cross-platform tests

In cross-platform tests, both can effectively test iPhone and android versions, And it will ensure both deliver the same performance. At the same time, the cross-platform test can make tweaks depending on what each device requires.

As a result, how the user interfaces look and how the app performs comprehensive information can be obtained by cross-platform tests.

Security testing

A fully functional but unsecured app can’t win users’ credibility; counter-intuitively, it can lead to severe consequences. Including security testing through the QA process is important to avoid this. This step will assess the database structure and find any vulnerabilities in the app.

QA test will ensure proper authentication, secure private data storage, and a safely encrypted connection maintained.

Suppose the app is for the financial or healthcare sectors. In that case, the mobile app QA experts must take extra precautions to ensure compliance with industry regulations and that it is inaccessible to IP addresses that are not safelists.

Needs an extra bit of significant security steps To be compliant to maintain user data and only authorize the correct users and allow them to access their information.

Performance testing

Performance tests can help verify whether the app can perform on the actual device running other apps concurrently and identify whether the app is draining too much battery or taking too much memory space.

Performance tests determine whether the app can perform in a real-world environment. It helps to identify if the app has some lacking if it’s unbearably slow, unresponsive, or interferes with the device’s functionality,

UI testing

Apps need to be user-friendly to prevent the app from crashing or glitching and ensure it’s easy for the user to navigate smoothly and correctly. 

That is the place where UI testing plays a vital role in ensuring the app is responsive and has no bugs. If the users find any bugs in their app, they will conduct a bug-fixing process to ensure developers fix all defects.

So, in UI testing, some users use the app before it hits the market or official launch, and then they inform and provide valuable suggestions on how to improve the app. Then the company can move forward based on users’ recommendations and the type of bugs users find on that app.

When the app still needs to be completed, but you want to test specific parts during the development process, you can use the prototype.

The prototype is a great way to get the user’s opinion before coding for new functions or features.

Regression testing 

Regression testing ensures the app doesn’t crash while updating and ensures that the code is robust during app optimization. Sometimes minor code modifications can break unrelated features unexpectedly. In that case, regression testing always plays an essential role in ensuring all existing functions are working correctly.

Regression tests function as a charm to prevent crashes and identify weak points in the application that need to be corrected.

Automated test

Most of the time, quality assurance is conducted manually but can be supplemented with automated testing. Utilizing this testing type can benefit the company because of its cost efficiency and human error elimination.

The automated test will run through all the possible flows of the app on its own and identify potential problems and can release in the market faster than manual QA.

About Mobile Application Industry

The mobile app market is thriving now. Back in 2018, the mobile app market value was USD 106.27 billion. 2022 to 2030 is estimated to reach 565 billion in 2030.

The mobile app growth rate was 20.45% in 2021, and cagr (compound annual growth) was 20.65% over the forecast period, according to technavio. From 2020 to 2025, the market is anticipated to surpass USD 653.91 billion.

These reports show how these numbers are growing to rise in value in the coming years; It will create many job opportunities in the mobile app QA market.

It’s hard for a developer to find his own mistakes. Due to this reason, Developer companies usually hire a third-party mobile app QA specialist as an extra pair of eyes to test their feature or service. 

However, This report indicates that the more mobile app companies will grow, the more opportunity will open for the mobile app QA specialist.

App download statistics

According to a Statista analysis, the number of app downloads is increasing every year. From an estimated 140.7 billion in 2018 to 230 billion in 2021. This shows how many people use mobile apps. 

Conclusion

Any business will benefit from hiring a specialist in making sure mobile apps work well. Before releasing a mobile app, having QA specialists check it can help companies make more money and give users a better experience. This mobile app quality assurance process also makes sure the app is safe and works well without any bugs or crashes.