Ever since humankind was introduced to the very concept of the internet, lives have changed tremendously. Especially, the continuously increasing interest of people in social media has made businesses across the world shift their focus on social media based interactions.
As per the reports shared by Statista, there are presently 4.66 billion people having access to the internet, while around 4.2 billion people have an active social media presence. And the ever-increasing reach has it vital for the leading social media platforms to offer the seamlessness and reliability of using applications, websites, and software to the users.
More importantly, security and safe browsing have become even more important factors to consider for mobile app testing companies as most social media platforms have started leaning towards marketing and sales. The current situation has pushed testers to relentlessly grow up on procedures that can help aid the future of social media app testing.
However, experimenting on social media apps needs testers to understand the perspective and objectives of the real-world users in order to eliminate any possible edge cases that can impact the end results. In this blog, we will try to highlight the importance of software testing in an active social strategy and accommodating intelligent automation to improve the entire agenda of social media app testing.
But before we jump on the essential detail of social media test automation, let us quickly run through a few statistics understanding the present stage of social media.
The Present Stage Of Social Media
The present stage of social media is all about effective content and an even more effective representation of it. And it should not be a party that does not involve the interests of its guests and makes it a dead duck.
The present picture depicts how important it is to take the right content to the audience as 77 percent of companies share the same content one to three times on social media while it takes an average of more than 4 hours to create one piece of content for 60 percent of marketers while 35 percent of other spend a time of seven hours or even more.
This simply means people are investing time and effort in creating content, but there is no such hard work seen with its distribution, or rather we can say right distribution. The stats say it all a minimum of 55 million people post on Facebook while 500 million tweets are made.
However, the only thing that defines the success of your social media application within all that competition is the influence you can build with user experience. Though it may appear like a task to launch a perfect application and survive within an already occupied market, it is the right development paired with the right testing and selection of the best automation tools to ease the launch of your social media application.
Let us quickly jump on social media app development and testing best practices that one must follow to create an impact:
- Aim For Engagement: when it comes to social media, Engagement is not something that begins when an application dives into the market. Rather it the concept of Engagement needs to be targeted first place by the developers and testers by working on all the features that can make an app more interactive. Also, richer Engagement and improved functionality help to encourage the Engagement and overall UI.
- Usability Goals: An app that does not flow well for usability is of no good. Thus, DevOps and QA teams should keep their focus on creating solutions that resonate with the needs of the users. Either it is some platform made for interactions or anything like Instagram where people have access to share their photos or videos, it is vital that the application must be tested for offering clear visuals, high usability, and maximum security for the information they share.
- Advanced Features: The next important factor that testers and developers need to yield is performance through all the advanced features that the existing applications have. Besides, testers can aim to improve the overall experience with the application overcoming all the flaws that users are likely to face with the existing applications in the market.
- Analysis & Iterations: Even if software testing services have managed to yield all the features and functionalities with the application, it is necessary to measure the success. It usually needs testers to track the test requirements and documents all over again to find out what is not working or needs improvement. Moreover, it is always a good idea to look into the market again for all the best performing platforms in order to avoid missing any important details.
Wondering how testing your mobile app could help boost ROI?
Find out here: Boost Your ROI With Mobile App Testing Techniques
Testing A Social Media App: The Stages
As we all are familiar with the fact that the best performing apps are those which are tested with the perfect combination of manual and automated testing, here we have highlighted all the steps that are followed by our QA testers on their way to improve the overall experience and launch of a social media app:
Planning The Requirements
The first step is all about analyzing the requirements of the test and documenting what must be tested at first. Either it is a feature, function, or navigation, it is necessary the priorities must be defined for testing a social media application. Moreover, analyzing the social media application for all the technological components could help you underline all the innovative features that might pose a challenge to automation. Furthermore, understanding these features allows you to choose the right testing strategy and technique like security testing, usability testing, or performance testing, etc., that satisfies the purpose.
Know The Locations To Serve
The next stage of testing a social media app works by understanding the locations that you need to target with your application. Either it is restricted to a particular region or needs to target users across international boundaries, the mobile app testing services provider could help you with localization testing. Such an approach helps you to create a mobile app that supports different languages and locations.
However, localization testing usually involves automation testers working across various customized features and options to confirm that the application under test must offer a relevant and uniform language experience to the users.
Device Coverage
Once you are done with all the fundamentals of testing a mobile application and meeting the localization goals, you can start working on the device coverage. The process needs you to test the application for different operating systems like android, iOS, or windows to offer similar functionality.
Most testers recommend testing a mobile app on 24 or more different devices to verify that the application under test could offer even design and features to all the users, irrespective of the devices.
Planning The Mobile App Testing
Since quality is the ultimate concern associated with mobile app testing, it is necessary to plan the entire test process. This includes defining the role of testers in the research, manual testing, automated testing, and any respective activities that are best handled by a particular individual or set of QA testers.
Manual & Automation Testing
It is the right combination of manual and automated testing that can help yield the best results. Therefore, it is necessary that testers must not stick to only one form of the testing method.
You can put Automation testing to use when you need to handle tasks that involve extensive repetition and technical errors. It may appear consuming in the first place, but having the right team of QA Automation testers could bring the required knowledge to lead the social media app testing.
Also, automated scripts are not easy to change, and it is vital that users must feel good about the social media app when using or exploring it. Here comes the role of manual testing as it can help understand the usability of the application, while automation could aid in testing all the integrations and builds for their accountability.
Picking The Best Approach
If you are planning to hire testers to help you with automation testing on your social media application, it may turn out to be consuming and inconvenient. Testing is a rapid process and must be accomplished in short periods, which means partnering with an experienced mobile app testing service provider could help you resist over-demand blasts.
Performing The Tests
Once you are done identifying the test cases and scripts for your social media app, the next stage is implementation. This might need you to make careful consideration to your requirements and approach adopted by the QA company you have hired. Besides, it is vital that location and coverage goals must be planned in advance to ensure the perfect testing approach is implemented.
Error Control
As error control is necessary for launching a successful social media application, developing insights into the solutions can help prioritize and prevent errors. A good way to curb the errors can be defining a hierarchy of management where all defects and issues must be recorded and reported to the managers for the earliest resolution.
The Crux
Social media apps have developed a great demand as more and more people are being connected to the internet. Thus, it is necessary that these apps must be tested in the right way using the best techniques and tools. As testing is the only way to ensure quality with these apps, it is necessary that testers must understand the perfect balance between automation and manual testing in order to create the most precise products.
After all, intelligent automation is all that is worked with careful consideration to methodologies, approaches, tools, techniques, and a combination of manual and automated testing. As minor errors could lead to big problems, the above steps and process can aid any software testing company in planning and executing the perfect testing strategy without compromising on features, functionalities, and security.
Happy Testing!
Need help testing your social media app? Partner with BugRaptors, one of the top software testing companies recognized by Clutch, Manifest, and other popular tech Magazines. Contact us through info@bugraptors.com
