By 
Mobile applications have become one of the most important components of the modern user interface. Current users use these applications for not only simple tasks like browsing the Internet but also for important actions like completing financial transactions. Various reliable statistics show that mobile applications cover almost 50% of the modern user base.
This makes mobile applications one of the most important factors from a business point of view. To improve the functioning and stability of mobile applications, app-development companies must perform proper test cases on these applications. Various important tools like Appium help companies verify the proper functioning of their mobile applications.
Automating test cycles has become necessary for testing teams. With this article, we will take a detailed look into the possible future of mobile application development and testing with Appium.
This article will also take a look at some of the best platforms and tools that can help developers to improve their experience while working with mobile applications. Let us begin our discussion with the basics of mobile application development.
Understanding the Core of Appium
In simple terms, we can define Appium to be an open-source test automation tool for developers to verify the proper functioning of modern mobile apps. With this application, the developers can perform their test cases on hybrid, native, and even mobile web applications. Moreover, they can also test mobile apps that work on different platforms like Android, iOS, and windows.
It is important to understand that Appium is built with the WebDriver protocol and uses JSON wire protocol to interact with all mobile applications. Moreover, the open-source nature of Appium helps developers and testers access all of its features without worrying about any end-user licensing fee.
This is also a very important feature for developers and testers who cannot afford to invest in the business. Appium also has a community of developers who are always ready to help newcomers.
The Future of Mobile Automation Testing with Appium
To understand the future of mobile application development with Appium, we have divided all the important factors into separate paragraphs. This will help the developers to get a detailed idea about all the innovations and features that they must look out for in the coming years. It will also help the developers to prepare their testbench accordingly and maintain the company’s position in the competitive market. They are as follows:
1. Integration with Multiple Cloud Services
Cloud platforms are continuously gaining popularity in the application development market. So mobile developers need to integrate their Appium test cases with these services. Currently, there are multiple popular cloud platforms like LambdaTest, AWS device farm, and Sauce Labs. These platforms can help the developers not only improve the efficiency of the test cases but also integrate additional features for improving the overall quality of the application. With the increasing complexity and diversity of the app market. It will become almost impossible for future app-developing companies to maintain a physical test bench. So app developers need to look for an immediate alternative. For instance, platforms like LambdaTest can help developers to eliminate the need for a physical in-house test bench. We will understand more about this feature in the latter part of this article.
2. Addition of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are two of the most important factors in the modern technological world. The integration of these features can help the Appium test cases to identify patterns in mobile application usage and provide valuable data for testing purposes. It can also help the developers to understand the requirements of their target audience. With the integration of machine learning and artificial intelligence app development, companies can also automate the test cases with the help of previously executed functions. It is a very important feature that can save a lot of time and effort in the app development process. Moreover, artificial intelligence can also make recommendations to improve the quality of the application based on the data provided by the testers.
3. Integration with DevOps
DevOps is an approach to software development that focuses on improving the collaboration between the application development and testing teams. It is a very important feature that can massively reduce the overall development phase and quickly forward the application to the production phase. The primary concept of DevOps is to perform the testing processes side by side with the development phase. It also involves the active participation of the testing teams in the app development project. However, for the proper implementation of DevOps, the testing, business, and production teams must have a basic idea of the application development process. It also ensures that all the teams of the company must be aware of the current status of the application.
4. Introduction of Cross-Platform Testing
Diversity is one of the most important factors that has been dominating the mobile application market. One thing that the developers must remember is that the mobile app market isn’t platform restricted. This means that the end users will shift to different platforms as and when required. So to provide a stable performance to users and also to expand their possible customer base, the developers must adopt cross-platform application testing. Currently, the two platforms in the mobile segment include iOS and Android. So one of the most important practices is to develop applications that can perform equally on both these platforms. Cross-platform testing also helps developers to eliminate the hassle of developing native apps for every individual platform.
5. The popularity of Codeless Automation
Codeless automation is another feature of the application development market that is gaining a lot of popularity in recent times. We can define this process as the method of introducing test automation that does not require coding knowledge. This means that with this form all the non-technical developers can write the automation test cases and initiate them on the target elements of an application. Moreover, with this technology, the application testing teams can write the automation test cases using a graphical user interface and do not need to know multiple programming languages. Codeless automation also removes the hassle and time that companies had to invest to train the new automation testers about various programming practices before they can start with the test cases.
6. Sorting the Test Cases
With the increasing complexity of mobile applications, it will become very important for Appium developers to sort the test cases according to their priority. It is an essential feature that will help the developers execute the test cases according to their importance in the stable performance of the application. Moreover, it will become critical for the app developers to store this test data as it will be useful when the company rolls out a subsequent update to the application. Since automation test cases are reusable, the developers will not have any issues in storing and maintaining these test cases.
Integrating Tools and Platforms in Mobile Automation Testing
Tools and platforms play a very important role in complex application development processes like mobile apps. This is because the mobile platform is one of the most diverse platforms that currently exist. To justify this statement we can simply consider the example of Android devices as more than a thousand different Android devices come into the market every year. So we can simply guess the final numbers considering that there are other platforms like iOS and windows. It becomes increasingly difficult for developers to have all these devices on their test bench for proper testing. Moreover, it is also important to physically verify the performance of applications on all devices to avoid any unnecessary confusion. This is because simulation softwares cannot provide dependable data on the behavior of applications based on physical changes like low battery, broken display, or user interaction error.
So the most economical solution to this problem is integrating cloud platforms in a test bench. This is because cloud platforms can provide test results similar to a physical device test bench while conducting all the test cases over the cloud. These platforms also help developers to eliminate geolocation barriers on their test cases. This means that while using these platforms, the developers can initiate the test cases on their desired device from anywhere in the world. Moreover, with these platforms, developers can test the functioning of apps on devices that are no longer available in the market. This is a very important feature as many users have not updated their devices for the past two years. We can improve our knowledge of cloud platforms by bringing in LambdaTest as a discussion point:
To complete the basics, we can define this platform as an efficient way of initiating secure cross-browser test cases over the cloud. Cross-browser testing is an essential function considering the standards of the modern application development process. This is because with this platform the developers can ensure the stable performance of apps irrespective of users’ shift in the operating system, device version, or browser version. This platform also helps to efficiently conduct the test cases with the help of various features like parallel test execution. Parallel test execution allows the developers to initiate multiple test configurations at the same time. LambdaTest can input the automation test files from multiple well-known frameworks and test suites like Cypress, Selenium, and Playwright. The developers must know that while working with Selenium test files, they can run it on more than 3000 different browsers side-by-side.
LambdaTest also has various features to help the developers maintain an activity log for all the ongoing test cases. It also helps the developers to verify the proper functioning of locally hosted web apps for internal company operations. Lastly, the combination and integration of real devices with existing thousands of simulation softwares massively helped to improve the dependability of the test results.
The Conclusion
The primary focus of this article was to take a detailed look at the future of mobile application development and testing with various popular tools like Appium. Based on the discussions we can easily conclude that mobile applications will continue to gain popularity with time. Moreover, the developers must understand the influence of automation test cases on all the application development processes. So it is one of the most important practices for the developers to keep themselves updated with all the required testing trends and innovations. In this segment, app companies also have a critical role in spreading all the required knowledge and information in their company. Lastly, it is very important to choose the correct tool that can suit the development practices and requirements of app developers and testers.
Comments