Testing Android Mobile Applications: Challenges, Strategies, and Approaches

Recently, the rise in popularity of mobile applications for mobile devices and the growth estimates for this market make mobile application development a strategic business sector. As a variety of new scenarios for mobile devices and applications emerges, users and developers will require improved reliability, usability, performance, and security. In such a context, open platforms for mobile application development, such as the Android operating system, are assuming a preponderant role.To satisfy this growing request for high quality applications, developers must devote greater effort and attention to software development processes. In particular, testing and its automation play a strategic part for assuring the quality of applications.This chapter analyzes the main challenges and open issues in the field of mobile application testing for the Android platform, with an emphasis on advances in the field. We present suitable and effective principles, guidelines, models, techniques, and technologies for Android application testing and conclude with an outline of future perspectives.