Welcome to the third edition of the BrowserStack device features blog series! Here's the link to the last one in case you missed it.
As promised, we'll share the latest device features designed to help Dev and QA teams increase their test coverage across mobile devices in this series.
This blog will focus on testing media injection on real devices.
We’re excited to announce that now you can test image and video injection via device camera on BrowserStack real devices to test advanced use cases such as video calls, facial recognition, image searches, and identity verification.
The camera image injection feature is available across Live, App Live, and App Automate while the camera video injection feature is currently supported for Automate.
How Does It Work? 🔍
Camera Image Injection
Before we talk about the scope of use cases that you could test with these features, let’s look at how it works -
- Once you log into BrowserStack solution - let's consider App Live, go to the App Live dashboard, and upload or install your app.
- Once you select the app, click on the setting icon and you will get a list of additional configurations that could be toggled on for the app
- Enable image injection with the toggle
- Select a relevant device - we have selected the iPhone 13
- Once your app loads, on the App Live vertical toolbar, click Files & Media.
- On the Files & Media prompt, select the Image injection tab.
- To upload an image, click Upload asset, select the image/QR code/barcode that you want to upload from your system, and click Open.
To test your app using an uploaded image, QR code or barcode:
- In your app, trigger the image capture or QR code/barcode scanning workflow.
- Give your app permission to access the device camera.
- Click the camera shutter button and select Use Photo.
- Your image has been added
Camera Video Injection
Similarly, camera video injection is available on Automate and will be available across other products in the future. Click here to understand how it works on Automate.
Real-world Use Cases for Media Injection
Now that you have a brief understanding of how to add a video or an image via camera to your app, let’s explore different use cases that you could test.
Capture Images 📱📷
Most mobile apps today enable consumers to capture and upload pictures for different use cases across different industry verticals.
Most social media platforms enable users to click pictures and upload them as stories or posts. Retail and online shopping industries enable customers to search for a product by image, upload pictures for return/ replacement tickets, and even capture a 3D version of their surroundings to assess how a piece of furniture would look at their place. Banking, payment, and financial service-based firms enable users to scan checks, upload signatures, and scan credit or debit cards to capture relevant information. Quite often, even the govt. trusted apps enable users to capture critical documents like passports and driving licenses to keep them handy.
This just goes to show the scope of use cases that QA teams need to test to ensure that the end users are able to leverage the device camera for uploading pictures. Moreover, while simulators and emulators could be used for primitive mobile testing, they are far behind when it comes to testing such critical workflows that need access to device sensors like the camera. With BrowserStack real devices, it’s no longer a hassle and you can test image capture workflows with ease.
Scan QR codes 📱🔍
As per a report by GSM, the digital transaction values grew by 22% over 2022. The same report states that in 2022, bill payments rose by 36% year on year, becoming the third most common transaction type.
Most of us today are used to scanning a QR code to make a payment via mobile banking apps and payment wallets. It’s not uncommon to go to a restaurant and scan a QR code on the table to get an embedded link for getting access to a menu, ordering food, and paying the bill. What’s more the IKEAs of the world need you to scan a product QR code to get more information on the product like raw material, durability, and size. With BrowserStack's real device features, you can easily test workflows that need a QR code scan.
Scan Barcodes 📱🔍
Just like QR codes, we come across bar codes very often every day. Whether it’s a water bottle sitting next to your table, a cell phone, or a hand sanitizer, almost every product in the market has an associated barcode. These barcodes are often scanned to check critical product information such as expiry dates and key ingredients, say for an FMCG company. Moreover, they are also used by businesses to do inventory management, take stalk of the product in the warehouse, and digitally itemize the products sold by a unique ID.
Consumers often use mobile apps to scan the barcode of the product based on their use case. With BrowserStack real devices helping you with access to a real camera, you can test these advanced use cases.
Video Calls 📱📹
Most interaction and collaboration tools provide the functionality of video calls for personal, professional, and social use - from apps like WhatsApp and Facetime for personal conversations, to Zoom and MS teams for official collaboration, to community and matrimony apps that help users connect.
With BrowserStack, you can enable video injection via the camera on real devices. Test your app with video call simulation to ensure that your users are able to leverage the camera for making video calls.
Identity Verification 🕵️🔒
Banking and financial institutions often rely on video captures and face scans to confirm your identity. This is especially critical and common in order to enable bank KYC processes, adhere to AML regulations, and prevent identity fraud. With BrowserStack, you can test your app’s identity verification workflows to ensure your user’s data security and safeguard their identity.
Facial Recognition and Multi-Image Scan 👤🔍
Facial recognition has become a common use case in the industry today. Most app providers support app lock functionality where the user can unlock the app with the help of a facial scan. Moreover, universities, schools, and ed-tech platforms enable students to mark their attendance via facial scan. Service-based apps such as Uber or Urban Company need their drivers and service providers to regularly upload videos as proof of sanitation or service completion. Even the retail industry has app providers that provide a personalized retail experience to their users based on their facial features and recommend what products work best for them.
With BrowserStack you could test one and all of the use cases above with access to video upload via camera on real devices. You can also enable your users to scan multiple images without refreshing the camera by testing the app's functionality based on video input.
At BrowserStack, we are devoted to helping our customers build and deliver best-in-class software and make mobile testing more robust and comprehensive.
With BrowserStack media injection via camera capabilities, you can test workflows that need access to the device camera. These functionalities are available across our manual and automated testing products and on both Android and iOS devices.
We're thrilled to share our latest features with you and hope you find them exciting and valuable!
Learn more about the Camera Image Injection feature on -
Live | App Live | App Automate
And the Camera Video Injection feature on Automate
Stay tuned to learn more about how you can leverage these features to ensure holistic mobile testing, broader test case coverage, accelerated bug resolution, and lightning-fast shipping cycles.
