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Appium plugin support on BrowserStack
Use official Appium plugins like wait, gestures, and images on BrowserStack to extend Appium’s functionality and improve test reliability across platforms.
BrowserStack App Automate provides official support for key Appium plugins, enabling you to extend core Appium functionality for more powerful and reliable tests. This allows for greater parity between local and cloud execution environments.
Configuration
To use Appium plugins in your BrowserStack tests, specify them in your browserstack.yml file:
- Set
appiumVersionto2.15.0or later. - Add the
pluginskey and list the plugins you want to use in an array.
By default, the Appium images plugin is active.
To use a single plugin, add the following keys to your browserstack.yml file:
To use multiple plugins, list each one in the array:
Use the plugins key to enable plugins. Don’t use appiumPlugins or appium:appiumPlugins. If you set either key, the session starts without the plugin. Plugin commands then fail with an unknown method error, such as UnknownMethodException: Message: Method is not implemented in Python.
Supported plugins
BrowserStack uses the original Appium plugins without custom modifications.
The following plugins are supported on BrowserStack:
| Plugin | Description |
|---|---|
| Wait plugin | The Appium wait plugin automatically waits for UI elements to become actionable before performing interactions. This reduces test flakiness caused by timing issues and makes your tests more resilient by replacing hardcoded waits. |
| Gestures plugin | The Appium gestures plugin provides simple, high-level commands for complex and cross-platform gestures like swipe, pinch, and zoom. Use it to test gesture-heavy apps, such as maps or media galleries, consistently across Android and iOS. |
| Images plugin | The Appium images plugin is active by default. It compares images for visual testing. It also lets you find and interact with UI elements by using an image template. This is useful for testing visually driven components or when elements lack stable locators. |
Scope of support
- Plugin issues: Report bugs inherent to a plugin to its official source repository.
- Existing plugins: Plugin support does not change existing integrations, such as the images plugin.
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