How Mobile App Testing Differ from Web App Testing??

by Fanboy SEO · January 14, 2023

Statista estimates that close to 299 million apps will be downloaded in 2023 up from 247 million from last year worldwide. What this essentially means is that Web and mobile apps are the primary interfaces today to cater to the digital information.

The advent of smartphones has turned the table for humans to communicate with the latest technology. Be it fitness, lifestyle, travel, services, and video games; everything is just a few steps away. We need to look at the increasing bushes of tablet or smartphone users vs. desktop users to conceive the reality.

In this article, we’ll highlight mobile app testing, web app testing, and the significant difference between these two testing apps.

What are Web Applications?

A web or website app is an app that runs on different browsers and doesn’t require it to be downloaded. Web apps are a collection of services or programs that leverages the internet to provide users with detailed information. Each web app comprises an interface accessible via a back-end server and a web browser that manages the data and executes specific procedures.

Web apps can contrive stand-alone and powerful tools for a particular reason. For instance, Gmail is an Email web app that overcomes the requirement for email storage and a desktop mail client on Google’s servers. Another instance of a web app is the OTT platform Amazon Prime design with the main reason of media streaming via browser.

Apps are usually designed in a particular programming language. The most famous ones are PHP, C#, JavaScript, and Python. Moreover, Web apps can be into stand-alone programs accessed from a browser but run on servers. Some web apps are referred to as “Rich Internet Applications” (RIA) precisely when they possess advanced technologies, including Silverlight, AJAX, or Flash.

What are Mobile Applications?

Mobile applications are software programs that run mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. Mobile applications run on an OS and can be downloaded from a Google Play Store or Apple App Store. These programs offer users several services and tools to aid in accomplishing tasks.

Mobile apps increase the functionality of mobile devices, which involves:

The capability to run a wide variety of applications,
Send and receive emails,
Take pictures and videos, use internet services,
Play games,
Receive text messages,
Read books,
Access social networking sites,
Calculate mathematical problems, and much more.

Mobile applications are made explicitly for mobile OS, like Android, iOS, Windows, and particular devices, including phones or tablets. It can be paid or free and may or may not need a subscription. Apps are either pre-installed on mobile phones during manufacture or installed afterward.

Mobile applications can be broadly categorized into:

Native apps
Web apps, and
Hybrid apps

Sounds Similar, But It’s Different

Some people think that mobile and web applications are the same. They leverage both types of programs to purchase, transfer money, get information, listen to music, order a service, watch videos, etc. They may sound similar in many ways, but there are some disparities between them in testing and development.

Testing Difference Between Web & Mobile Apps

Let’s look into some major disparities between web application testing and mobile application testing:

Testing Types	Web Applications	Mobile Applications
Usability Testing	It is easy to test web applications as users deal with them with the help of a restricted number of devices requiring a touchpad, mouse, or keyboard.	We do fun activities with mobile apps, like voice interactions, movements, swipes, and taps. The QA team should monitor all these functions to ensure that users communicate seamlessly with the application. Otherwise, 90 percent of customers will delete the app because of the bad performance.
RAM & Storage Capacity Testing	This software type is tested for memory storage, but it could be more serious, as laptops and computers have much more storage capacity than mobile devices.	Mobile applications’ RAM and storage capacity is restricted as compared to a computer/laptop. 50.6 percent of users are ready for application uninstallation if it requires much space. Quick updates can severely affect your devices’ storage capacity, while large amounts of data lower the mobile application. The QA team should keenly monitor these moments.
Screen Size Testing	The QA team would not test all the functions as web apps do not rotate when viewed on a laptop or computer. They adjust their size according to the window size of the browser. Developers monitor how web applications react when the browser window screen is narrow or wide.	Testers should do an excellent job of ensuring that users can handle mobile application optimization on billions of devices. The screen automatically rotates when we move our smartphone from portrait to landscape and vice versa.
Compatibility Testing	Web applications are advantageous when it comes to ease of compatibility testing. QA engineers require testing to work with multiple browsers.	Mobile applications are advantageous when it comes to ease of compatibility testing. QA engineers require testing to work with multiple browsers.
Install/Uninstall Testing	It runs via a browser; hence there is no sense in going for this testing.	Mobile applications need to be installed on devices to monitor if everything runs smoothly.
Internet Availability Testing	Accessing the internet is an exceptional circumstance of the impressive functioning of web apps. Similarly, the QA team will check the performance of the software at distinct data connectivity speeds.	Some mobile applications can also work offline; testers should monitor the functioning while disconnected from the web. Smartphones are constantly searching for a network. The primary task of QA engineers is to test the mobile application operation at various data exchange rates.

Final Words

Web application testing and mobile application testing are vital to guarantee the quality of an application. Different OS and mobile devices must be tested to ensure that an application is functioning correctly or not. Similarly, multiple web browsers and their versions need compatibility testing with a website.

One of the most prominent disparities is that mobile application testing is done on actual devices, while web application testing is performed on simulators and emulators. Moreover, mobile application testing is tricky as it needs numerous OS versions, screen sizes, or devices.

To perform mobile application testing, you will require to test your app on a cloud based app testing tool or an on-premise device lab to execute. We hope you learn a lot in this guide about disparities between mobile and web app testing to choose your testing app wisely.