Why Appium Is The Best Mobile Automation Tool?

Smartphones- what were we and more importantly how were we without them? Speaking of the millennials, in particular, this is the generation that has seen it all - the advent of mobile phones, them becoming a norm, the launch of smartphones, and now a staggering 7.26 billion (approx.) smart-phone users in the world (Android, iOS) which makes up for almost 90.72% of the world's population.

Data shows that an average person has about 40 apps installed on their phones. Now, isn't that much big of a deal that such a large number of applications find their way to a person's mobile phone and we are practically glued to our screens now - staying connected with friends on social media, online shopping, pedometers for counting steps, getting groceries delivered, booking travel tickets and what not, making it in itself such a booming career industry for mobile applications development, testing, and performance.

Now, with a steep growth curve in the customer base, more and more mobile applications are being rolled out in the market today because there is so much growth potential and vast business opportunities. Now that we have briefly outlined the mobile app development, it is time to jump onto the other most important aspect of this - Mobile testing.

Mobile Testing – Introduction!

Mobile applications or apps as we call them are akin to follow the obvious SDLC and STLC routines depending obviously upon the framework you are following and whether the app being built is – Native or Hybrid. So of course they require a rigorous testing approach. There are so many points that need to be taken into account which does not even pop up when doing traditional testing. For example- Mobile apps need to be much better equipped in areas like security, robustness, app warm-up time, etc. And because we are dealing with an entirely different UI and requirements with each app, this area of Software testing is branched out and called as – ‘Mobile Testing.’

Mobile Testing Automation

It is an automated software testing technique that is used to conduct various performance parameters for a mobile application in order to test its functional behavior, UI, Security, how usable it is, how the app interacts with devices with hardware, software specifications, battery life, and whatnot. This is done by using the mobile testing automation tools that are available in the market today.

To name a few here-

• Appium

• Calabash

• Frank

• Robotium

• UI Automator

• Ranorex Studio

It is really important to pick out the best tool depending upon the software testing requirements for your product or application as it will ensure that the end user gets the best experience without any delays or technical glitches.

APPIUM

You are living under a rock if you have not heard of Appium in the Software testing world. It is arguably the most popular mobile automation testing tool out there which is making the software testers’ life much easier by speeding up the test process, reducing errors, rapid test cycles, parallel test execution, simplifying regression test cycles, etc.

It is the best open-source framework that is available out there for mobile automation testing which is compatible with all the major Operating Systems like – Windows, Android, and iOS. It can be used to test the whole plethora of applications, be it – Hybrid, Native, or Mobile web applications.

What makes Appium the best?

• It is an open-source tool meaning it is available free of cost and can be used by almost anyone making it very accessible and usable.

• It does not require any extensions or any further installations for it to be used.

• It is really simple to install and use Appium as there is an Appium community presence across the world making it really simple to just reach out and get your queries resolved.

• It is really easy to understand and use Appium as it is compatible with Selenium WebDriver and functions quite identically to the Selenium tool.

• Appium provides cross-platform usability and can be used on iOS, Chrome as well as Windows which is really important and useful as an aspect of mobile testing in particular as it allows the maximum test coverage in terms of device range.

• Appium supports all the languages that support HTTP requests like – Java, Javascript with Node.js, Python, Ruby, Perl etc.

• Following Appium’s 2-tier architecture, it does not require a server machine setup or anything for running tests.

• Different file types can be tested like - .apk files, .aab files, etc.

• Using Appium Inspector, we can record and play the tests performed.

• Appium allows multi-device parallel test execution.

• Appium can be directly integrated into the CI/CD pipelines thus making it so easy and convenient to work with.

• It uses a standard API for all the platforms thus making it much efficient to create and run the tests for iOS, Android as well as Windows platforms.

• Appium supports all types of mobile applications like – Native, Hybrid, and Mobile web.

Appium Cons –

• It takes time to acquire skills to learn coding in order to write automation test cases when using Appium.

• The test scripts written in Appium require some serious maintenance which can incur costs.

• Since it is an open-source tool, it can be unreliable sometimes.

• There is a limitation to its availability for lower Android versions.

CONCLUSION –

Creating mobile applications with a sturdy built ensuring their compatibility with different operating systems, devices, and versions is such a mean feat to acquire and is such a competitive market. Appium being an open-source tool makes it a much more accessible and reachable tool, to begin with, which allows it to explored more and thus refined. There are millions across the world today that are being benefitted by the implementation of tools like these. It clearly is a winner owing to its success, popularity, and its ability to just intertwine with any framework or app type or platform and work its magic.