A major part of the web is now mobile-driven. This is also obvious from the fact that Google is now indexing all websites mobile-first. If you are someone who has a website – more often than not, chances are that it will be majorly consumed on a mobile phone. Mobile phone usage has seen rapid growth in the past and is expected to grow at a good rate in the future too.
A long time ago, we started building software, basic calculator stuff. Small, uncluttered, and light software. Then we increased the size, complexity, and dependencies. As the complexities of the software applications increased, the need for software testing became more and more apparent. That was when Manual testing of software applications came into being. Soon, when the software was big and hefty, manual testing became a hectic and time-consuming job too.
Cloud-based testing has become quite integral these days. Most businesses have already done the shift towards cloud-based testing. The main reason is – it is faster, inexpensive, flexible, and requires no maintenance. The best part is that we do not own it, can easily lease it from a service provider, can easily scale up and scale down according to requirements and only have to pay for the amount of time we use the cloud resources.
In the good old days when we were using a basic phone, the web application used to run on only a desktop. Mobile phones were not so evolved to run a web application in the browser. But today, each of us uses a mobile phone for running web applications and websites. When we are talking about web testing, we mean web applications and website testing in web browsers. Here, we are dealing with the web-based programs accessed by multiple users at a time.
When we write scripts for one browser, they may not necessarily run on all browsers. It’s a no-brainer. And, we all know that a few browsers can limit certain features. For instance, if we design features that run on Safari on Mac OS, those features may not function across other browsers. To ensure the features run uniformly across various browsers and OS versions that our users have, we should perform multi-browser testing.
We, engineers, love automation! We love it so much that we devise new ways all the time to incorporate automation in each and every field of software development. Today, automation is like the fuel that keeps the project going and helps us finish within deadlines and allotted budget. But automation is most needed to manage the responsibility of something that is 14.9 billion in number and has become the part and parcel of our lives; the mobile phone. Mobile applications are taking the world by storm.
Selenium is a tremendously popular automated testing tool for desktop, web applications. Testing on mobile devices is a major requirement that has grown exponentially in recent years. Why has the mobile testing requirement grown so much? The answer is pretty clear. Just look at how dependent each one of us has become on a mobile phone. Today mobile phones are as vital as breathing for us. That is the reason that going without a mobile phone for even a few hours seems impossible for us.
It’s 2021 and we now have a mobile app for everything. Whether it’s social media, shopping, productivity or fitness, there’s a visible surge in the number of mobile apps and their users. Simform (as of 2019) stated that an average user has at least 40 apps installed on their phones while millennials have around 67 apps. So, there’s a solid reason why mobile app testing is a crucial step in any app development process.
With the increased usage of smartphones in recent years, enterprises and the software industry now have to cater their applications to mobile devices for web testing in addition to desktops. Usually, there are three types of applications that are meant to be used in mobile phones. These are – i. Native Apps: Apps that are written and built using SDKs and native APIs. These can be downloaded from the official app stores. ii.
Mobile apps are not just the next (or current) big thing. They have become a part of our lives — in a way, steering our choices and decisions. By merely sitting on our couch, we apply for jobs, manage our projects, talk to our friends, the order in essentials, and even pay our bills. The convenience is unsurpassable, and thanks to the user-friendly functionalities, even our grandparents seamlessly book cabs, play games, and video call us. Mobile apps are here to stay. Imagine the possibilities.
