Ways To Test Your Android Application Development

By Author: Kelly Burby
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A biggest obstacle in the way to successful Android application development is fragmentation. Android fragmentation has several sorts such as device fragmentation, platform fragmentation and operating system fragmentation. And together all these fragmentations make the testing of Android application one of the most difficult processes. It is really a big deal to test an app made for a heavily fragmented platform like Android.

The first thing every Android developer should consider while submitting apps to Google Play Store, is testing. Popular apps, which have received a million downloads, may already be expected to be tested for 400 hundred types of Android powered devices. But does it sound feasible to test an app for its compatibility with 400 types of handsets. New developers may instantly hold themselves from making apps for a platform that is available in hundreds of different customized versions. It is going to be a hard deal if they proceed with the idea of testing their apps for hundreds of devices. But there is an intelligent way to resolve this problem. They can follow the 80-20 rule for device testing.

Small ...
... companies and sole android developers can hardly manage to test their apps for various devices because the process takes too much time and requires heavy investment too. An effective method to test your app for almost all the Android powered devices, without testing for individual device, is that 80% of the market controlled by 20% of Android devices. This means that by testing on 20% alone, developers can cover most market. But how one can find the distribution of devices? Here is the way:

·Find the popular OS versions that are currently powering Android devices

·Find the popular DPI screen size combinations that most of the device makers are currently using

·Find the devices with equal matches for both the aspects mentioned above.

One major point to be kept in mind by Android developers is that they need to spend valuable initial resources even on outdated OS to increase their market. Because not all users do change their devices or update the OS with every new release of Android, there are millions of devices in the world that are still running older versions of the OS, and for this reason, developers need to test their applications for all the operating systems in use.

Use Android Emulators
Developers have choices to test their apps in emulator which is shipped with every Android SDK. It is easier to test Android apps in emulator running on your PC than downloading the app in device. But with advantages, there are several disadvantages in using emulator. Emulator cannot make phone calls; difference in terms of results when used on the actual device can be laughably awful. The good advice is that app must be tested at least once on actual device before being submitted to the app store.

Third party application testing services
There are also third party applications testing service providers in the Android application development ecosystem. They are offering a wide range of testing services for testing the app performance, integration, load and usability. Some companies find these services efficient and keep transferring the ended-up project to them.

For more information visit http://www.rapidsofttechnologies.com/android-application-development.html

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