Mobile and Web App Testing Made Easy by LambdaTest

Testing mobile and web applications is a crucial step in ensuring that error-free software that meets user requirements is released. Testing allows development teams to be certain that the application released is solid and works well across a variety of conditions that can occur in the application in production.

Testing individual features in an application also ensures that things work as they should. Testing is what guarantees the release of error-free software that effectively meets user requirements

As much as testing is an essential step in a software development cycle, it can be a very complicated and not the most enjoyable exercise for development and testing teams. To properly test a mobile or web app, you’ll need to test it across a variety of browsers, operating systems, and resolutions.

This can be a near-impossible task if the testing is to be done manually by investing in all the different devices, browsers, and operating systems where an application can be accessed.

Additionally, testing can be time-consuming, testers can encounter flaky tests which intermittently pass or fail, and you rarely can guarantee that an application is 100 percent error-free.

All these factors often lead to developers releasing software that is not tested at all or has very low test coverage. However, that does not have to be the case.

LambdaTest can help address all these issues that arise when testing and make testing a more effective and joyful experience for development and testing teams.

LambdaTest

LambdaTest is a cloud-based, cross-browser, and cross-platform testing solution that allows you to perform both native(Android and iOS) and web application testing across a variety of browsers, devices, and resolutions from your own computer. LambdaTest allows testing on over 3000 different desktop and mobile browsers. 

With LambdaTest you can perform a variety of tests, including live testing, where an actual human tester manually tests an application, and also automation testing, where software programs are used to execute predefined test cases on a system.

All these tests are executed on the cloud. LambdaTest is available on a free tier and also offers a variety of paid-for tiers with additional features that catered to different individual and enterprise testing needs.

LambdaTest is a favorite among many Fortune 500 and G2000 enterprises, where it shines in web and mobile application testing.

LambdaTest has unique live and automation testing features catered for web application testing and also unique features catered for mobile application testing.

Live and Automated Testing Features

Web applications are accessed over the internet through web browsers. The end users accessing your application will be using different browsers, with different versions on different screen resolutions and devices. As a business, you want to ensure that your web applications are compatible across different browsers.

Additionally, you need to guarantee a consistent experience for users accessing your web application across different devices and browsers.

It is there paramount that you test your web applications across different browsers, devices, and resolutions to ensure they work as expected. LambdaTest has just the features to do this. Some of these features include:

Real-time Cross Browser Testing 

LambdaTest allows performing real-time, live-interactive cross-browser testing across over 3000+ desktop and mobile browser environments.

LambaTest gives you the flexibility to choose your browser of choice, its version, operating system, and the screen resolution where the browser runs. This way, you can get very high browser coverage in your tests from the comfort of your own computer.

Easy Debugging 

A key objective of testing is to identify bugs and errors that may be present in an application. Since bugs are bound to arise in applications being tested, all the web browsers on the LambdaTest cloud have integrated native developer tools that are designed to help testers and developers easily debug their web applications.

Accessibility Testing

Web applications can be accessed by users with disabilities. Therefore, it is important to ensure that they are built in a manner that allows them to be accessed and used by people with disabilities.

In this regard, LambdaTest offers accessibility testing, which leverages Screen Reader and Speech Viewer to test the accessibility of your websites and web applications. This helps in ensuring people with disabilities have no trouble interacting with your web applications.

Testing with Browser Extensions

LambdaTest makes it easy to add Chrome extensions and use them in test sessions. This way, you can test your websites using Chrome extensions that are relevant to what you are testing.

Test On Real Desktop And Mobile Browsers 

LambdaTest guarantees accurate testing of web applications by allowing users to test on real device clouds, running real operating systems and real browsers.

LambdaTest also offers additional features for web application testing, such as the ability to test your web application from different geographical locations and the ability to test locally hosted web pages so that you can avoid bugs and errors in production.

LambdaTest supports Windows XP all the way to Windows 11 and provides all versions of Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox available for the different Windows versions. It also supports macOS from its Ventura to Monterey release.

In macOS, supported browsers include Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Safari, and Brave, which have all available versions for each MacOS release.

In Android, almost all smartphones from popular manufacturers are supported, and LambaTest also supports the different iPhone and Ipad devices that have been released.  

Mobile App Testing Features

LambaTest also supports testing native Android and iOS applications, which is done on its real device cloud, eliminating the need to have Android and iOS application labs. Some useful LambdaTest features for mobile app testing include:

Real device testing

LambdaTest allows live and automated testing of Android and iOS applications on over 3000 real devices made available through its robust real-device cloud. Additionally, LambdaTest also provides simulators and emulators for mobile app testing.

This allows individuals and enterprises to save on costs as they don’t need to keep an actual device lab to test their applications on a variety of devices.

Easy Setup and Use

LambdaTest allows you to hit the ground running as it requires no installations, downloads, or setups to test Android and iOS applications. Teams simply upload their application and instantly get access to emulators, simulators, and real devices to start testing their applications.

Test automation

Test automation involves using software to run tests. Automated tests have lots of benefits, including early bug detection and saving time spent on testing. LambaTest allows you to run automated mobile application testing using Appium, which is an open-source UI automation tool that works across a variety of different platforms.

When testing mobile applications, LambdaTest allows testing applications that are still under development and also those that have already been deployed.

Testing Demonstration on LambdaTest

To see LambdaTest in action, we’ll perform a cross-browser compatibility test in real-time for our website Geekflare. This will allow us to test the compatibility of our website across a variety of browsers and devices.

To do this:

1. Navigate to LambdaTest, create an account, and log into the account. You’ll be taken to such a dashboard screen as shown below. The dashboard provides all the details on the test you are running and tools you can integrate with LambdaTest.

2. Click on Real Time test on the menu on the left of the screen.

3. On this next screen, enter the URL of the page you want to test, then select the browser you want, its version, operating system, and the resolution you want to test on. Once done, click on START to start your test session.

4. LambdaTest will then start the process of allocating you a device that matches the configuration you selected. Be patient until the process is completed.

5. Once completed, you’ll be taken to a screen with an open browser window according to what you specified. On the left of the screen is a Control bar that allows you to perform a variety of actions, such as taking screenshots and videos, marking bugs, and changing location, among other things.

On this screen, you can start to live test the website by performing all the actions a user would take, such as opening an article, searching for an article, and changing the language so that you can see how the website behaves.

Once done with testing, click on the red button on the Control Bar to end the testing sessions. Feel free to experiment with other types of tests available on LambdaTest.

Other Testing Options: LambdaTest

LamdaTest has other additional features that enhance the testing process and makes it easier to test web and mobile application. One such feature is HyperExecute which leverages the power of artificial intelligence(AI) in test executions.

HyperExecute is an end-to-test test orchestration platform that offers extremely fast test execution and allows you to identify bugs in your applications much faster. HyperExecute also automatically generates detailed test reports.

LambdaTest also uses AI in its visual regression cloud, which allows for performing smart visual UI testing using Selenium and Cypress. This allows the identification of visual bugs in applications before they can make it to production.

Apart from Selenium and Cypress, LambdaTest allows you to test your applications using frameworks such as Playwright, Puppeteer, and TestCafe, among others.

LambdaTest has also utilized AI to provide detailed test analytics and observability, allowing testing teams to access key testing data and be able to make informed decisions. Finally, LambdaTest cloud allows automation testing of smart TV applications on Roku TV, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.

LambdaTest Alternatives

As much as LambdaTest shines in testing, it is not the only tool available for web and application testing. Other excellent alternatives include:

#1. Sauce Labs

Sauce Labs is a testing tool designed with the goal of supporting the development, testing, and delivery of high-quality web and mobile applications at an enterprise scale.

Sauce Labs achieves this by streamlining the testing process right from development to even after an application has been released. It also enables teams to get in-depth insights on their testing, allowing them to easily pinpoint the cause or errors and fix any issues in their applications fast.

Sauce Labs allows for cross-browser testing across all browsers, devices, and operating systems. Their cloud-based testing platform allows you to run multiple test suites in parallel across various browsers, devices, and OS combinations. Live testing is also supported.

Sauce Labs also has a mobile solution for testing mobile applications on real devices, emulators, and simulators. Additionally, you can run your mobile tests using automation frameworks such as Appium, Espresso, and XCUITest in the cloud. 

To address the issue of mobile and web testing being a very time-consuming process that can delay the deployment of applications, Sauce Labs offers Sauce Orchestrate to address this problem.

With Sauce Orchestrate, you simply package your test code in a docker image, then send the image to Sauce Labs so that your tests can be executed directly on their grid. This results in up to 70 percent faster testing and, in turn, expedite deployment.

#2. BrowserStack

BrowserStack is a feature-rich testing tool that allows you to achieve very high test and device coverage and significantly reduce the time you spend on testing. It supports testing of both web and mobile applications on a real device cloud, allowing you to test on actual real devices instead of using emulators and simulators.

For web application testing, BrowserStack allows you to test across a wide range of real Android and iOS devices and across a wide range of different versions of Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox on Windows and macOS. All this is done on real browsers running on real machines with developer tools for easier debugging.

With BrowserStack, you can test web applications that are hosted on development and staging environments, and also those behind firewalls, without making any setup, configuration, or compromising on security.

For mobile application testing, in addition to allowing you to test on real devices, BrowserStack allows the concurrent running of tests across thousands of devices to speed up the testing process. It also allows integration with Appium, Espresso, XCUITest, Flutter, and Detox for automation testing.

BrowserStack also supports visual testing of UI, testing gestures in applications, testing Smart TV applications, and extensive programming language support. All the tests generate detailed reports that give you insights into the actual performance of an application and make it easy to debug and improve an application.

Conclusion

LambdaTest is a very robust and comprehensive tool that shines in web and application testing. LambdaTest can comfortably handle any test you might want to execute on an application, and it will provide you with very high test coverage and device coverage.

Additionally, it is a very progressive testing tool that is on the frontier of application testing introducing new and exclusive features that are aimed to improve testing and introduce features that allow the shipping of high-quality applications.

Aside from LambdaTest, tools such as Sauce Labs and BrowserStack are excellent testing tools. Before making a decision on which tool to use, explore the three of them and find the one that is best suited for your business needs. Happy Testing!

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