How to Test Natural App Gestures and Interactions on iOS & Android Devices
By Tom Collins, Community Contributor - October 3, 2022
When it comes to mobile usability testing, natural app gestures and interactions are primary elements that need to be tested on before launching in the market. The reason being, they are the controllers for users to operate the functionalities. So product teams must test their app’s gestures and interactions.
According to the statistics, 58% of apps are abandoned by users due to frustration with UI. This is where the need for testing comes in.
In this guide, we will discuss everything about natural gesture testing and interactions, their importance in applications (iOS & Android), and the accurate method of conducting mobile gesture testing on a real device cloud.
Table of Contents
Difference between App Gestures and Interactions
When it comes to App gestures and interactions, most people assume that both elements are similar. Gestures and interactions are used synonymously, but they have different roles to play. Hence testers need to know the actual difference to conduct detailed gesture testing. Let’s discuss both with an example.
App Gestures: When a user performs any task by making gestures on a mobile screen, then it’s considered app gestures. App Gestures are one of the crucial UI elements, where users send any requests through a gesture, and the app responds.
Example:
- Suppose an user wants to open a menu on the top right side of the app, and to open the menu, the user needs to tap on the menu bar icon.
- Resulting to the menu appearing on the screen based on the user’s gestures.
- To complete this task, the user taps on the mobile screen, which is counted as a gesture.
In Android and iOS devices some mostly used gestures are like pinch, tap, scroll, swipe, rotate, long-press, drag and more.
- App Interactions: It’s an upper layer of gestures that depends on the device’s OS (Android or iOS). The interface and mobile gesture testing are completely different for Android and iOS.
Example:
- App Interactions support gestures as per device OS.
- iPhone users’ experience will be different from that of Android users’ experience as the required gestures, UI and interactions will be different.
- App interactions are not merely visual or sound based but can also involve haptic feedback.
Follow-Up Read: Mobile App Performance Testing Checklist
App Interaction Elements to Consider for iOS & Android
Whether it’s an Android or iOS device, these UI elements and interactions are crucial for mobile gesture testing:
- Graphics: Graphics are the most obvious UI elements forming the visual representation of an app letting users interact & navigate its functionalities.
- Sliding: Sliding is mostly required to perform tasks like viewing images in the gallery or to read eBooks.
- Overflow screens: Whenever any user taps on the menu bar icon, there is a pop-up menu bar which overflows the screen on both Android & iOS.
- Multiple App Interactions: Whenever any user selects any application or files and makes the long-press gesture, it pops three-four more options to use edit, uninstall, remove, app info, etc.
- Sound: When a user is using a camera, filling out a form, or using any application, there are specific tones which signifies the task completion, for example after capturing a photo, there’s a shutter tone, after payment, there’s a specific sound, and many more areas where sounds signifies a task completion.
Why Test Natural App gestures & Interactions on Real devices?
For testing natural app gestures and functionalities, QA testers have three options:
Each type of testing comes with its own advantages and disadvantages but mostly testers prefer testing on the cloud as compared to emulators/simulators. Let’s find out, why?
In mobile app testing, QA teams need to access every possible device-OS combination for successfully finding bugs and errors. Simulators/emulators come with limited features and cannot test native device features like a real person would end uing. This is where the demand of real cloud devices increases rapidly. With real cloud devices, testing natural app gestures and
Follow-Up Read: Testing on Emulators vs Simulators vs Real Devices
How to Test Natural App Gestures and Interactions on Real Android & iOS Devices?
When it comes to testing gestures and interactions, QA testers must use multiple real Android & iOS devices to test the functionalities. However, mobile device farms can prove to be time-consuming and costly. So instead of spending time, energy, and money, a better alternative would be using BrowserStack App Live.
Interact with your mobile app on the remote device, just as you would with a real device in hand. Use trackpad to scroll, swipe, tap, long press, and pinch to zoom. Follow the step-by-step process to test the app gestures and interactions with BrowserStack App Live:
Step 1 – Go to the App Live Dashboard. Choose from any device-OS combination to test the app gestures and interactions from the list of 3,000+ real devices & browsers (Android & iOS) on App live.
Step 2 – Upload the “Application” that needs to be gesture tested. You also have the option to test a sample App, Install via TestFlight, App Store, or Play Store.
Step 3 – You’ll be now redirected to the testing dashboard, where you can start testing. You can see in the below screen that long-press gesture on an iPhone has been tested directly through App Live without having to buy an actual device.
Get a detailed report – After testing the application on all parameters, get a detailed bug report for further escalation to your dedicated teams.
BrowserStack App Live offers many more testing options including network throttling, geolocation, screen rotation, installation/uninstall, and many others to test actual usability in real user conditions. Moreover, you can do it on multiple devices-OS combinations.
Key Takeaways for Testing Gestures and Interactions on Android & iOS Devices
Gestures and Interactions are the crux of any mobile device and corresponding app functionalities. That’s why gesture testing on real Android & iOS devices is a must for QA testers. Testing gestures and interactions make the user’s experience convenient & smooth which is why product launches these days are incomplete without improving these two elements to enhance the UI.
- By using BrowserStack App Live, testing the gestures and interactions on real devices and browsers, it becomes easier for QA testers to find & fix bugs and enhance the user’s experience.
- Also, it helps QA testers to test the gestures and interactions without buying real physical devices as BrowserStack App Live provides 3000+ real devices and browsers to test the gestures and interactions and identify bugs to resolve.
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