Important Stats Every App Tester Should Know

App testers have a rough life. They are in charge of ensuring the quality and performance of mobile apps, which is the touchpoint of people’s digital lives.

The pressure of ensuring optimal app quality can be taxing, and sometimes testers may feel that they have to verify too many features. It is normal to want to test only the essential features due to increasingly shorter timelines. Additionally, apps keep becoming more complex, offering more features and functions. Testing all this can be exhausting in some cases.

However, comprehensive testing is not up for negotiation. App users demand perfection and rely entirely on first impressions to form opinions about an app.

This article will list a number of key statistics that app testers should know about, mainly to understand why their role is crucial to determining an app’s success and the organization behind it. These statistics will shed some light on user behavior so that testers can create effective user personas. Furthermore, these app statistics will also help them get a deeper sense of why apps need to be tested thoroughly in real user conditions to stand a chance of offering satisfactory user experiences.

1. Crashes cause 71% of app uninstallations

Apps cannot afford to be unstable and unreliable. Once again, the only way to ensure app stability is to test in on real mobile devices and platforms (iOS, Android, Windows, etc.). It needs to be tested in various real-world situations such as low battery, incoming calls, sudden changes in network strength, etc.

Ensuring flawless app performance is challenging enough on single devices. Now, consider the extent of device-platform fragmentation in the market. Let’s look at a basic list of Android OS versions as an example:

Source

An app has to work perfectly on every single one of these Android versions, as well as each device these versions operate on. Given that this is a basic list, apps have to be optimized perfectly for hundreds of device-OS combinations across the world. If cross device and platform compatibility are not ensured, then it will see increased uninstallation on certain devices or platforms.

Comprehensive app testing on real mobile devices ensures that the app adheres to the same high standards of operation on all possible devices and operating systems. That means that the app does not miss out on certain demographics, and stands a better chance of success.

Try testing on Real Devices and Platforms for Free

2. 70% of users abandon an app because it takes too long to load

All devices, platforms, and network connections are not born equal. An app can load lightning fast on some devices and lag intolerably on others. However, don’t expect users to be understanding of this phenomenon. Given the nature of device-OS fragmentation in existence, it is inevitable that any app will be accessed via a wide variety of smartphones, tablets and the like. If an app is in existence, it must be optimized for as many devices as humanly possible – legacy and latest versions alike.

3. More than half of downloaded apps are unused

204 billion apps were downloaded in 2019. The average individual has 40 apps installed on their smartphones. However, 89% of the user’s time is spent using only about 18 apps.

As it stands, people don’t use the majority of the apps they download. An app has to be on-point in terms of functions and aesthetics to even stand a chance of being in regular use, to start with. Ensuring this is only possible via thorough app testing on real mobile devices.

4. 29% of users will immediately abandon an app if it does not offer value to them

The point about testing must be repeated here. But it must be added that apps must be marketed accurately towards a relevant target audience. Other than being displeased with its performance, a key reason for app uninstallation is the user discovering that the app doesn’t do what they want.

In this case, preventing uninstallations has to start with market research that actually reveals what users want, implementing those offerings, and making the app visible to the right audience.

There is no way to perform said app optimization without real mobile device testing.

#5 65% of users think less of a brand due to poor mobile experience

In most cases, the app represents the company online. Apps offering sub-par user experiences leave negative impressions of the brand itself. If this happens, users will be less likely to use the app as well as other products by the same brand.

#6 The average mobile user checks their smartphone 47 times a day

If an app has to be good enough to be used with such frequency, it cannot afford to be flawed. Ensure that no matter how often a user accesses the app, it matches their expectations every single time. Once again, exhaustive app testing is the only way to guarantee such consistency.

The Role of Real Devices in App Testing

With mobile apps having taken over the world, developers and testers cannot afford to rely on emulators and simulators alone. They simply do not provide all the real world conditions that an app has to excel in. For example, they will not allow testers to simulate a low battery or a weak network connection. If an app cannot remain stable in these circumstances, it will be discarded by users.

Remember that every app has to compete against a large number of competitors (and the numbers increase every day). Users will lose faith at the slightest inconvenience, and they have multiple other options to choose from.

Apps need to be tested on real mobile devices. However, unless a testing team has an extensive in-house device lab (that is constantly updated with the latest devices), they will have to run their tests on a real device cloud.

BrowserStack’s cloud infrastructure provides real devices for iOS testing and Android testing. Testers can simply sign up, choose the required device-platform combination, and start running tests. Testers can run both manual and automated app tests and can speed up results with parallel testing.

Try testing on Real Device Cloud for Free

The BrowserStack app testing cloud offers a plethora of features. Testers can:

• Leverage 15+ native device features like GPS, network simulation, localization, and more to replicate real user condition
• Interact with an app on the remote device, as one would with a device in hand. Tap, scroll, zoom, swipe, and more
• Debug the app, view crash reports and logs, and use stacktrace to find and fix bugs instantly.
• Test native and hybrid apps out of the box on internal development and staging environments
• Upload, test, and collaborate on your dev APK/IPA files. Or install production apps from Play Store/App Store and start testing.

The app stats demonstrate how testing holds a place of significance in the development pipeline. By considering these stats in app-related development decisions, devs and testers can be clear on what standards they need to meet, and how to create tests that ensure top-notch performance.