Mobile website testing is testing websites or web applications across numerous mobile browsers. It essentially helps verify the performance and appearance of a web app across different mobile browsers like Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc.
This guidepost aims to explain why businesses must perform mobile web testing. Subsequently, it will illustrate three different methods for conducting mobile web testing.
Table of ContentsWhy Mobile Website Testing Matters for Businesses?
Let’s begin by going through some key statistics:
The numbers above clearly reveal how smartphones have become an inseparable part of human life. An increase in mobile usage has also led to heightened user expectations as they expect everything to be easily accessible through their smartphones.
For individuals and businesses (of any size) seeking to establish their digital presence, this means having well-optimized websites for smartphones of widely different make and models. In simple terms, for a website to reach a broader audience, it needs to undergo mobile web testing to deliver a flawless mobile experience.
Benefits of Mobile Website Testing
Mobile web testing also endows development teams with the following benefits:
- Enables teams to test and optimize their websites for multiple mobile browsers like Chrome, Safari, Samsung Internet, etc.
- Allows developers to evaluate how a website renders on mobile browsers installed on unique operating systems like Android and iOS. This helps in ensuring that there are no compatibility issues for the target device-browser-OS combination.
- Optimizing websites for mobile devices increases the overall user-friendliness of a website. Additionally, it helps achieve higher rankings on search engines as Google considers mobile-friendliness a ranking factor. This results in better visibility of web pages.
At a high level, mobile web testing helps create faster and more mobile-responsive websites. These websites deliver enriched user experiences across a wide range of mobile devices.
How to Perform Mobile Website Testing
Now let’s study three intuitive methods to perform mobile web testing.
Method 1: Using Mobile Emulation in Chrome
One can view or test the mobile version of websites using DevTools for mobile emulation. To view the mobile version of a website on Chrome, follow the steps below:
Note: This method only simulates standard viewports in the Chrome browser. However, it is not the most accurate way to test the mobile version of a website, as it is just a device simulation. It cannot simulate all aspects of a real mobile device.
Method 2: Using a Real Device Cloud for Mobile Website Testing
The most effective and accurate way of running mobile web tests is to test them on real devices. This helps developers and testers evaluate how a website behaves in mobile browsers installed on actual Android or iOS smartphones.
With 3000+ real devices and browsers, BrowserStack’s real device cloud provides QA teams with the ideal testing infrastructure for comprehensive mobile web testing.
Test Your Website on Real Devices Now
The real device cloud offers:
To get started with live web testing on real mobile devices, follow the steps below:
The image above represents a Live mobile website testing session on Chrome running on Samsung S20+.
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Developers and QA also get access to many valuable features. Listed below are a few:
This method of mobile web testing is the most accessible and most convenient, as team members get instant access to a wide range of real devices directly from their browsers without any complex setup. Additionally, the device cloud is updated at regular intervals, which makes the latest gadgets available 24×7 for on-demand testing.
Method 3: Using BrowserStack’s Responsive Checker Tool
The web is highly fragmented into thousands of device types and browser versions. Consequently, having a responsive website is mandatory for any business in 2021 and beyond. This is why responsive web design is of utmost importance for businesses to grow in the digital world.
BrowserStack’s Responsive Checker is a free tool that allows individuals and teams to test how their website renders across various devices, including popular ones like iPhone X, Galaxy Note 10, iPad Pro, etc. This helps identify any rendering bugs or inconsistencies across devices’ viewing experience.
The tool is highly intuitive to use. One needs to enter the URL of the target website and then click on the Check button. Once done, the website is loaded across various devices with unique screen resolutions, and users can click on the desired device to verify if the web page renders correctly.
Few Best Practices to Consider for Mobile Web Testing
As mentioned earlier, the proliferation of mobile devices will continue. Businesses have no choice but to optimize their websites for mobile platforms to cater to the largest possible audience.
The methods highlighted above will make it convenient for developers and QAs to identify bugs in their websites’ mobile versions. It will keep mobile websites bug-free, implement positive user experiences and retain a competitive edge in a constantly shifting domain.
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