How to perform mobile web testing

This guidepost aims to explain why it is critical for businesses to perform mobile web testing. Subsequently, it will also illustrate two different methods to conduct mobile web testing

Why Mobile Web Testing Matters for Businesses?

Let’s begin by going through some key statistics:

• Individuals tend to check their phones on an average of 58 times a day.
• The number of smartphone users worldwide is expected to hit more than 3.8 billion by the end of 2021.
• Smartphone users tend to spend an average of 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phones.

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 translates to having websites that are well optimized 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

How to Perform Mobile Web Testing

Now let’s study two 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 the DevTools for mobile emulation. To view the mobile version of a website on Chrome, follow the steps below:

1. Launch Chrome and navigate to the website to be tested on mobile.
2. Open the Developer Tools available in Settings -> More Tools -> Developer Tools. macOS users can use the shortcut fn + f12. Windows users can use Control + Shift + J.
3. Select the Device Toggle Bar.
4. Select the device to be emulated from the available list of Android and iOS devices.

5. Once done, it will display the mobile version of that website on the selected device. One can also inspect specific web elements in the mobile view using the Inspect feature besides the Device Toggle bar.

Method 2: Using Real Device Cloud for Live Mobile Web Testing on Real Android and iOS Devices

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.

A real device cloud provides QA teams with the ideal testing infrastructure for comprehensive mobile web testing.

BrowserStack is one such platform that provides teams with a real device cloud for accurate testing. To start with live web testing on real mobile devices, follow the steps below:

1. Signup for a free trial on BrowserStack Live.
2. Once done, choose the OS (Android, iOS) and the desired handset. The image below represents the Live Dashboard, where one can select the desired OS and device-browser combination.

The image above represents a Live mobile web testing session on Chrome running on Samsung S20+.

Developers and QA also get access to many valuable features. Listed below are a few:

1. Instant access to DevTools for inspection of target web elements.
2. Network throttling to simulate the performance of web pages in poor network conditions.
3. One can verify whether the website delivers location-specific results using Geo-location Testing.
4. Integrations with popular bug reporting tools like Jira, Slack, etc, as well as CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, Maven, etc.

This method of mobile web testing is the easiest 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 devices available 24×7 for on-demand testing.