Introduction
The SDK has become an integral part of the mobile app development process, but it can be confusing to distinguish between testing an SDK and testing a mobile app with an embedded SDK. This post describes how mobile SDK testing differs from mobile app testing and what you need to consider when trying your mobile SDK. Get in touch with the best mobile application development company in USA.
What is a mobile app test?
When testing a mobile app, you need to run three main types of tests to make sure your app is working as expected.
- Functional testing: This is where you make sure your app performs all its features as expected, including tests for business operations, UI, cross-platform coverage, and more.
- Environmental testing: This is where you can verify that your app works as expected in various real-world environments, including network conditions, interruptions such as calls and text messages, background/foreground conditions, and more.
- Non-functional testing: This is where you test your app for things that aren’t necessarily feature-related, such as app performance, security, and accessibility.
What is a mobile SDK test?
When you test the mobile SDK, you need to test the core features of the SDK. You can verify that the SDK works in different scenarios by evaluating each component of the SDK and the overall architecture and flow. However, testing the SDK ensures all features are working correctly. You also need to minimise the impact on the host app’s UI, UX, and performance.
Mobile SDK testing challenges
The SDK is software designed to be integrated into any mobile application. This presents many challenges to enabling the SDK to be used without leaving a negative footprint on the host app or device. Therefore, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Our users are developers.
The most important thing to remember is that mobile SDK users are app developers. Their goal is to make lives easier and focus on building great apps. In short, the SDK requires a fast and straightforward integration process to prevent the adoption of the SDK from becoming a nightmare. More importantly, you need to maintain solid stability in your SDK so that it doesn’t cause problems for users.
Raise the quality bar
Both mobile SDKs and mobile apps require quality standards. Mobile app users don’t tolerate poor app quality, so they need to provide an experience that meets their expectations.
However, when testing the mobile SDK, we need to raise quality standards even higher. The SDK is exposed to different types of apps with varying cases of use and requirements. These apps also target various devices and OS versions.
The SDK can run on more devices and environments than the average app. This wide variety of scenarios increases the likelihood of bugs, crashes, other glitches and performance issues. Also, because the SDK runs on many low-end devices and older OS versions, you need to pay attention to the resource efficiency of your app, and you will not be able to use some of the features and APIs in the new version. Contact us for the best mobile app development services in USA.
SDK test essentials
With these two points in mind, let’s look at some essential things to be tweaked and tested in the SDK.
- The SDK should work fine on all supported platforms and versions. The SDK needs to be able to adapt to different locales based on the site of the device or app.
- The SDK should not adversely affect the device’s CPU, memory, battery, or data usage.
- The SDK needs to work well with other SDKs that may be integrated with your host app. It does not adversely affect the SDKs or libraries used by the host app.
- The SDK should have a minimal impact on the UX of the host app.
- If your SDK has end-user-centric UI elements, you need to make sure they can adapt to your host app design to ensure a seamless UI experience.
Conclusion
When testing your mobile SDK, you should always keep your host app in mind. The SDK should be able to work behind the scenes and enhance the host app’s capabilities and experience without impacting the app’s performance. A good SDK should look, feel, and work as part of your host app, not third-party code. Reach out to us for the best mobile app development agency in USA.