Cross Device Testing – What it is, Why and How to Perform?

With time, the software industry has become very competitive, and different users use different devices and tools. Thus it is not enough to launch an application that works only on one or two devices and operating systems. This is why cross device testing becomes more important. 

This article discusses what is cross device testing, why it is really important, popular strategies, benefits, challenges, best practices, cross device testing tools, and how to perform a cross-device test using Testsigma.

What is Cross Device Testing?

Cross device testing is the technique of validating the functionality and performance of software applications across different devices such as smartphones, tablets, and desktops. This process verifies that users have a good experience regardless of the device they use. It also considers factors like screen size, resolution, device type, operating system, and OS version to confirm compatibility and usability.

Why is Cross Device Testing Required?

Do you think that cross device testing is important and we should pay attention to it during a release cycle? Yes, Cross device testing is very important when it comes to delivering a smooth user experience and it makes sure that applications perform consistently across different devices and screen sizes. This consistency is mandatory for user satisfaction and engagement because it guarantees a smooth and accessible experience for all users, including those with different abilities. 

Additionally, cross device testing helps maintain brand integrity by creating a uniform design and functionality across all platforms. With more types of devices available, cross device testing is important for developers to confirm compatibility and provide a high-quality user experience.

Cross Device Testing Strategies

To effectively perform cross device testing, effective strategies should be followed. Next, let’s look at some key strategies that can be used for cross browser and device testing.

• Planning and Analysis: Start by identifying the target devices, operating systems, and browsers used by the customers through research and analytics. Create device matrices to prioritize testing based on usage data to confirm comprehensive coverage across different device types.
  
• Responsive and Adaptive Design Testing: Implement responsive design principles to make sure the application adapts to different screen sizes and orientations. Test adaptive features to confirm that different layouts and functionalities are correctly displayed and function across all targeted devices.
  
• Visual and Interface Testing: Conduct thorough visual testing to verify that UI elements, layouts, images, and text display correctly across all devices. Test the application’s interface usability to confirm a good user experience, especially on devices with smaller screens.
  
• Functional Testing Across Devices: Validate cross-platform consistency by testing all functionalities across different devices. This includes assessing how the application handles user inputs, processes data, and maintains feature accessibility across various platforms and devices.
  
• Performance Testing: Measure load times, responsiveness, and resource utilization across different devices to verify consistent performance. Monitor CPU, memory, and battery usage to identify any performance bottlenecks.
  
• Security Testing Across Platforms: Test the security of data transmission and storage on all devices and platforms to gurantee the security measures are effective. Furthermore, test authentication mechanisms and data access controls to safeguard user data.
• Test Automation: Automate repetitive tests using tools to execute tests consistently across different devices and platforms. Integrate automated tests into a CI/CD pipeline to continuously verify application functionality as new code is deployed.

Issues to Identify in Cross Device Testing

• User interface and design inconsistencies across different devices or platforms.
• Security vulnerabilities that occur due to device-specific code dependencies or external libraries.
• Compatibility issues with device-specific features like notifications and touch gestures.
• Integration challenges with services offering functionalities such as push notifications and in-app purchases.
• Variations in screen sizes, resolutions, and hardware capabilities affect app performance and layout consistency.

Key Considerations for Cross Device Testing

• Identify the most popular devices among the customers to prioritize testing efforts effectively.
• Make sure the application follows responsive design principles to adapt smoothly to various screen sizes.
• Test interactive elements such as buttons and forms across different devices to verify consistent functionality.
• Evaluate touch interactions to verify that gestures and inputs work as intended on different touchscreens.
• Test load and response times on different devices to guarantee optimal performance across varying hardware capabilities.

Approaches to Perform Cross Device Testing

Manual Approach

This involves human testers manually verifying the software application’s usability and performance across different devices. Testers interact with the application as end-users, exploring functionalities to detect bugs and test user experience. This approach is important when it comes to identifying issues that may occur due to different screen sizes, resolutions, and operating systems. It requires thorough test planning to prioritize critical functionalities and commonly used devices.

Automated Approach

This uses automation tools and frameworks to validate the functionality, performance, and compatibility of applications across multiple devices. By automating repetitive test cases, this approach accelerates the testing process and increases test coverage. Test scripts are created to simulate user interactions and verify app behavior across different device configurations. Integration with CI/CD pipelines confirms consistent testing with each code change, providing fast feedback on application compatibility and stability.

Where to Run Cross Device Tests?

When deciding where to run cross-device tests, we have to consider utilizing physical devices, real devices in the cloud environments, and emulators/simulators. 

Physical devices provide real-world testing conditions and support device-specific features, but it will include higher costs and maintenance efforts. 

Real device clouds offer accessibility to a wide range of devices without the need for physical ownership, thus they are cost-effective and convenient for scalability. 

Emulators and simulators provide virtual testing environments that are efficient for initial testing and automation but may not replicate real-world conditions more accurately. You need to choose the right platform depending on your testing objectives, budget and need for real-world accuracy.

Cross Device Testing on the Cloud

Cross device website testing on cloud platforms offers a scalable and cost-effective solution to test applications across a wide range of real devices and virtual environments. By accessing a huge pool of devices and tools, testers can validate app performance across different devices and operating systems without the need for extensive infrastructure management. This approach simplifies the testing process.

Benefits of Cross Device Testing

Cross device testing confirms that your software application functions smoothly across all devices while offering a lot of advantages. Here are some of those benefits,

• Make sure optimal functionality and a positive impression on all devices that are used to perform testing.
• Expands the number of customers by making your application accessible and well-performing across various devices.
• Delivers a consistent experience, while keeping trust and loyalty.
• Identifies and fixes problems that can occur in different devices, making it easier for users to complete their goals and increases sales and business success.
• Saves resources and costs by detecting and fixing issues early in the development process.
• Prepare the software product to adapt to new devices and technologies.

Challenges of Cross Device Testing

Some of the major challenges of Cross browser and device testing can be listed below.

• Testing across a wide range of devices and resolutions requires a large inventory of devices and it can be costly and more complex to manage.
• Making sure that web applications work smoothly across different browsers and their different versions, which frequently update, can be challenging.
• Differences in hardware capabilities affect application speed and responsiveness, and it complicates performance testing.
• Some devices support unique gestures and navigation patterns that others do not, and it makes input method testing difficult.
• Creating and maintaining automated tests for different device scenarios requires a wide range of test environments which might create complexity.
• Setting up and maintaining the necessary systems and environments for cross device testing requires a considerable amount of cost.

Best Practices for Cross-Device Testing

Here are some of the best practices in cross device testing that will help to optimize the testing process.

• Use tools like Google Analytics and user surveys to determine the devices and screen resolutions that are most commonly used by your customer base.
• Prioritize features and functionalities that are important to users and create a comprehensive test plan that includes the necessary devices and operating systems.
• Use emulators and simulators for initial testing, and always validate on real devices to ensure an authentic user experience.
• Include older devices and versions of operating systems in testing to ensure compatibility for users who haven’t and do not like to be upgraded.
• Verify whether the software application performs well on different network types, including Wi-Fi, cellular data, and other slower networks.
• Gather feedback from real users and customers to make sure the application is not only functional but also user-friendly.

Tools for Cross-Device Testing

Cross device testing tools help testers make sure their applications work smoothly across different devices. Here are the top 6 tools,

• Testsigma: It is an AI-powered tool for no-code test automation. It lets you automate and execute your tests on web, mobile, desktop applications and APIs. You can execute these tests on the browser and device of your choice as it lets you connect to the device cloud of your choice.

Automate and execute your cross-device tests with Testsigma [Try for free]

• LambdaTest: It is an AI-powered tool for testing web and mobile apps via real devices, browsers, and various platform combinations. It supports manual and automated testing through different frameworks.
  
• BrowserStack: This is one of the most famous cloud-based testing platforms that provides developers and QA teams access to a wide range of browsers and devices for testing websites and mobile applications. It provides around 3000+ devices and browsers for you to test and verify your application. BrowserStack supports automated and manual testing and integrates with multiple development tools and frameworks.

• Sauce Labs: Sauce Labs allows you to run tests in cloud-based environments on hundreds of browsers and devices. This tool supports the open-source community. It supports automated testing for desktop, mobile web, and native apps, and it integrates with CI/CD pipelines for efficient workflows.

• Kobiton: Kobiton is a tool specialized for providing real mobile devices for testing mobile applications. They market their product with the tagline “Real Device Testing” and Mobile UI Automation Testing. It allows manual and automated testing and offers features for performance monitoring and debugging. Kobiton supports both iOS and Android platforms and provides access to real device conditions, which can be critical for understanding user experiences.

• Perfecto by Perforce: This is another famous tool that provides a cloud-based platform for web, mobile, and IoT software testing. It supports automated testing and continuous testing within DevOps cycles. Perfecto offers access to a variety of mobile devices, browsers, and operating system versions, and it includes advanced features like AI-driven analytics to identify and fix defects efficiently.

How to Achieve Cross Device Testing?

To achieve effective cross device testing, the following approaches can be considered.

• Using Physical Devices:
  • Select devices based on the target audience’s demographics and usage patterns.
  • Build a device lab with several devices covering different OS types, screen sizes, and resolutions.
    
• Emulators and Simulators:
  • Utilize Android and iOS simulators to simulate different device configurations.
  • Emulators recreate real device behaviors and simulators mimic iOS devices on Mac machines.
    
• Real Device Cloud:
  • Use a cloud-based testing platform for comprehensive testing across different real devices and browsers.

How to Choose What Devices to Test On

To choose what devices to test on, focus on configurations that can behave differently on various devices, time constraints, and budget. Follow the below tips to choose the best devices to test on.

• Identify the devices, operating systems, and browsers the target audience uses most frequently.
• Use web analytics tools to gather real-time statistics on OS and device screen sizes.
• Analyze usage data to prioritize specific devices and configurations.
• Choose a mix of popular devices and those with different specifications to confirm a broad coverage.
• For projects with specific requirements, focus on testing on the most relevant devices.

How to Conduct Effective Cross Device Testing?

To conduct effective cross device testing, it is important to view the application on different platforms and devices to verify compatibility and optimal performance. This can be achieved through a combination of methods.

• Utilize emulators, which are useful for testing mobile devices and viewing changes in real time during development and testing.
• Use tools like VirtualBox or BrowserStack to access actual copies of operating systems, providing accurate testing environments.
• Use the actual devices that end users will be using since it provides the most accurate testing environment.
• Use tools like Ghostlab to control multiple devices and browsers from a single interface since it allows simultaneous testing across different platforms.
• Balance the use of emulators, virtual machines, and physical devices to maximize test coverage.

How to Perform Cross Device Testing using Testsigma?

Testsigma is an ideal tool for cross-device testing. In this section, we are going to use Testigma as the tool to perform a cross-device test. First, we will be writing a simple test case and then change the configurations accordingly.

Step 1. Log in to the Testigma application, hover on the “Create  New” button, and click on the “Test Case” option.

Step 2. In the “Create Test Case” screen, give a meaningful name such as “Verify login with valid credentials” for your test script.

Step 3. Under the URL area, give the URL to the login page of your application.

Step 4. In Testigma, there are several ways for you to define test steps. For example, let us take the test step which is “inserting a valid username”. There, you can define the test step like “Enter <Valid Username> in the <Element> field. Please note that no need to keep the ways of defining the test steps in mind since Testigma gives you suggestions automatically.

Step 5. It is important to have assertions in test scripting. This is why we need to add a test step in Testigma like “Verify that the current page title contains <Successful Login>”.

Step 6. Simply click on the “Run” button at the top.

Step 7. After clicking on the Run button, the Ad-hoc Run section will appear. There, you can configure the run settings by changing information such as Test Running Environment, Operating System, OS Version, Browser, Browser Version, Resolution, Headless Run, etc. Through this, the cross device website testing targets can be achieved.

Step 8. After setting those settings and executing the test, you will be able to see the results of the test run.

Conclusion

Effective cross device testing guarantees a smooth user experience across different platforms and devices. By using a mix of emulators, virtual machines, and actual hardware, testers can cover various test scenarios. Even though it gives a lot of benefits, it is better to follow different approaches and best practices to bypass the challenges of that. At the end of the day, cross device testing helps deliver high-quality applications that work well for all users.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I need Cross-Device Testing?

Cross device testing is important to verify that an application functions smoothly across different devices, browsers, and operating systems. It helps guarantee a consistent user experience regardless of the device they are using. Cross device testing increases user satisfaction, minimizes future negative reviews due to functionality issues, and ultimately boosts the overall success and adoption of the application.