Location Based Mobile Testing Tips
Sophisticated mobile apps are equipped with location aware features nowadays. And testing them can be a daunting task for software testers. Ensuring that location based functionalities work fine requires some serious testing efforts. Therefore to help you test those features effectively, we have listed down some tips for location based mobile testing in this article.
Location based mobile testing tips:
- When you test your app, make sure the location it displays is accurate. A difference of even 100 meters can make your app look unreliable to users.
- Test location features by keeping your device in airplane mode.
- Some devices have power saving mode. This may affect GPS. Check your app behaviour when power saving mode is on.
- Turn GPS off and verify app behaviour. Also, try using your app when WiFi and other data connections are off. You can then try combination of GPS, WiFi and data connections toggles to test whether app can handle all scenarios successfully.
- Use location faking tools to test your app in a location where your intended user base would be using the app. Fake GPS Location and Lockito are some location faking apps for Android.
- Test your app by remaining stationery and while on the move. Verify app is able to track your location properly.
- Check that your app is able to handle interruptions(Eg. call, SMS, notifications, signal drop, connection outage etc.) properly while using location aware features.
- If possible, conduct field tests. Test your app from locations where GPS reception is good (Eg. open space, plaza), moderate (Eg. crowded place, moving train) and poor (Eg. tunnel, building).
- While testing your app, simultaneously keep track of device power consumption. Your app shouldn’t be a hindrance to device’s battery life.
- Test with outdated Maps(Eg. Google Maps, Apple Maps) software.
- Test your app in different network conditions (Eg. 2G, 3G, LTE, WiFi).
We hope you have enjoyed our coverage of location based mobile testing. Let us know in comments if we have missed out on any points here.
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Comments
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I need some test cases for this functionality to understand the deeply how to test a mobile application manually for this module.
Hi! This is very interesting in terms of scenarios, but I would like to highlight something: you are not testing the GPS (that was done by the mobile manufacturer), but how the app is responding to a certain location reading. So this is still functional testing, because you’re testing the expected behavior of the app. Obviously that for example in airplane mode, but with GPS on, the geolocation will be less accurate, and if you’re app needs a max 5 meters error, there’s actually nothing you can do about it (other than refuse to execute, until the user enables all connectivity). It’s good to try all these scenarios in order to adjust how often the app reads GPS position and adjusts, but other than that the purpose of testing location features is to render the expected content or behavior for that location (like playing some audio when you’re next to a landmark, or unlocking something when you’re in a geofenced area, running ads based on your location and so on).
Great article! Thanks a lot. It is nice experience to read this article. The way you presented each tips was very clear. The tips given on Mobile Testing was very useful. Keep sharing more such informative articles!
Thank you for sharing this informative article. The tips you shared are really helpful. Looking forward to such more informative article from you.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the wonderful article. Learnt a lot from it.
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