Improving Mobile Application Quality Through Performance Testing

January 27, 2026 · 14 min read · Mobile Testing

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Improve Mobile App Quality

Enhance the quality of your wandering applications with comprehensive performance testing, real device entree, and AI-driven insights.
Improving Mobile App Quality Through Performance TestingImproving Mobile App Quality Through Performance Testing

Improving Mobile Application Quality Through Performance Testing

Published on
January 2, 2020
Updated on
Published on
August 25, 2021
Updated on
 by 
ILYA DREYTSERILYA DREYTSER
ILYA DREYTSER

The mobile performance testing space is gaining attention, which begs the question:why does execution issue?

On blind, we ’ ve all experienced bad user experiences earlier. We ’ ve all experienced lagging (or even blank) screens, possibly reducing our affinity for certain apps. When it arrive to mobile apps, performance describes how expeditiously your app works and how bland it is to use.

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There are three considerationsto maintain in mind when opine about performance:

1. User appointment

Human appointment work date rearward to the 1960s have shown that actions that take under 100 milliseconds are comprehend to be crying, and actions that take a 2d or longer cause the human mind to be distracted. So, even the perception of slowness in your application can be a big killer of app engagement.

2. Sales and in-app purchase

Take, for example, an app with an e-commerce component. Company analytics testify that the average shopping session is five minutes long, that each product in the item UI view direct 10 mo to laden, and that it take 30 views on average to complete a sale.

Reducing the load-time for each product UI view by just one second grant for three additional screen view of product to load in an fair session, grant client to add more items to their cart, or complete the entire dealings 30 seconds faster altogether.Performance has a significant impingement on potential transaction.

3. Cost-saving on infrastructure

Mobile applications download mass of content from remote waiter, solowering the number of requests or reducing the size of each postulationcan return huge improvements in velocity in your covering. Taking these two steps will too give hugesimplification in trafficon your backend, allowing you to grow your infrastructure less expensively.

HeadSpin App Performance Sessions

At, we ’ ve developed a tool calledPerformance Sessions, which grant you to explore and understand your apps ’ characteristic. Performance Sessions are useful in name where to make improvement within your app, enhancing overall user experience.

The nearly powerful constituent?You can carry HeadSpin Performance Sessions via aremote control session, or a manual session on the program in which you can use a real Android or iOS twist from the comfort of your web browser. You can likewise trigger it viaautomation examinationlike, Espresso, or XCUI.

During these Sessions, we trance four components:

  • Network traffic from the cell interface
  • The video of the trial session
  • Client-server data
  • Client data

These comment are then fed into our AI-based issue detection engine, which generate the dashboard below, showcasing ourWaterfall UI.

UX Monitoring waterfall UI

This dashboard present a high-level view of how you can ameliorate app performance. It entails the:

  • Project Infopanel, which conveys the fix in which the test was carry, as well as the underlying information from the tryout session.
  • Metrics Graphpanel, which displays a live video of the test session. As you scroll through the waterfall, you ’ ll observation that the datum correlates with the video during test execution.
  • Issuespalette, which render an Issue Card for each issue detected, coupled with suggestions on how to combat the topic. For illustration, our platform can notice which servers be slow during the session, which downloads took long than ask, and what made those downloads slow.
  • Networktimeline, which provides an overlay of time-series datum and network minutes.
  • Detailpallet, which help you see request and response headers, which are all-important for debug and perceive the execution of your app on a real network.

Let ’ s conduct a deeper dive into the capacity of the Metrics panel.

Think of it as your heads-up presentation tool before you leap into the data. Metrics Graphs are utilitarian because they provide thetotal and average of different types of network datacaptured during the session, such as the entire number ofhttp requests and the average download speed.

We calculate the metric on four radical of requests.

  • The initiatory one issession-wide—consider this is your bird ’ s eye perspective for every meshing message in a session.
  • Second is thedomainview, which captures every message sent to or received from a specific field.
  • The third group concernhostmetric, or every message post to or receive from a particular legion.
  • Finally, the fourth radical isburstmetric, a set of mensuration we designed at HeadSpin. This captures every content in the area of continuous web activeness.

The Metrics panel captures data like theaverage wait timespent for a response from the waiter. From that metric, you can recognize what the traffic is caused by, the average rate of information transfer, and the turn of requests made.

In fact, the Metrics venire can also displayvisualisationon the traffic content and help you place the source of any unexpected content incur by your app.

When citizenry test or develop applications, they do so to emulate simulators, to monitor real devices, and in role broadband.Unfortunately, these conditions aren ’ t commensurate to the entropy and bedlam that can happen over the network.

Because of this, the Waterfall UI gives you powerful tools to answer interrogation that you wouldn ’ t differently be able to answer.

For autonomous testing across multiple user personas, check out SUSATest — it explores your app like 10 different real users.

Some common use cases of HeadSpin Performance Sessions are:

  • Improving slow downloads
  • Preventing duplication messages
  • Detecting duplicate messages

If your app contains lots of images that download over the network, consider havingserver-side abilityto configure the height and width parameters of these images through URL-cleared parameters. If you have question string parameters, resize images from the server side instead of the client side will.

You can also reduce the impact time to download images if query string argument return the breadth and height of the image that match thedevice ’ s screen resolution and pixel density. That aver, try not to download images larger than the device resolution, or else the essence falls onto the guest side.

Additionally, by performinglossless persona contraction, whether to PNG, JPG or, even best, the WEBP image formatting, you can reduce file sizing (meaning shorter download time, too) while conserve image caliber.

And, when you have video content, make the downloads for that contentresumableby specify the message range header, which will prevent against duplicate copies be download.

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Why net effect matterfor app performance testing?

The network on which customers receive data considerably encroachment app user experience.

Being able to test your app across different devices in different networks is crucial. At HeadSpin, because we experience device all over the world that arecarrier-activated—that is, real Android and iOS devices on carrier-activated SIMs—developers can understand how their app performs indifferent web conditions. Download speed and latency depends on network subtype.

For representative, HeadSpin ’ s platform automatically detects both frame rate and frame frost, or the perception of the user experience freezing. This is crucial because if you have an interactional, rich user experience, you don ’ t want the network to be the chokepoint between you and the content being deliver to clients.

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So, how can you optimise your network?

  • Make as few HTTP requests as potential
  • Use a content delivery mesh (CDN)
  • Reduce the routine of DNS lookup
  • Avoid redirects, because they involve new TCP connections, a TLS, and then a DNS search

And, to optimize file anddownload datum fasterover the network, consider:

  • Lowering the number of request
  • Reducing the sizing of those requests using gzip

With HeadSpin Performance Sessions, you ’ re able to see the breakdown of asking create, separated by new and used requests. When you ’ re delivering text content, like JSON, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, using gzip, you can constrict it on a server and deliver it to that covering. Smaller file size means fewer cycle trips and a fast speech.

If you have a intercrossed application or a mobile-responsive website, consider (just as you would require to do on a desktop) minify JavaScript and CSS.

File caching

Another way to optimise things from a file perspective is implementing file caching, which helps save roving datum usage. Great for users and their battery!

On the client side, download files that are used frequently and store them locally for use. The mantra here is todownload erst and use multiple times. And, on the server side, by setting aserver hoard content insurance, you can not alone ensure that customers incur up-to-date information, but also determine the number of matching file downloaded.

Performance Strategies

The benefit of mobile and browser apps on real devices on a real mesh is that you can learn what your execution is like under real existence conditions. To achieve optimum execution,make your app aware of the web it’s on.

On the Android and iOS platform, you can question the connectivity handler to see if the user is on a WiFi or cellular connection. If the user is on a cellular connection, you can defer non-urgent communication until they are on WiFi.

You can too make your app network-aware by delivering message and features establish on theuser ’ s connection. For representative, if the exploiter is on a cellular (and not a WiFi) net, deliver smaller picture. If you have a query string parameter that let for the image to be server-side, just insure if the exploiter is on WiFi or cellular and provide image and video substance that is optimal for their network speed.

Additionally, bypre-fetchingcontent, especially in the case of list, image, or table views, you can report for network latency. This way, when exploiter come at the pre-fetched aspect, they immediately see contented, result in a moretotal, rich exploiter experience. By pre-fetching, you also ensure that you ’ re get the appropriate number of requests in a mode that will still get the experience fluid for users.

As advert earlier, making downloads for video substanceresumableby apply scope head, and compressing images, you can improve app execution considerably.

About HeadSpin

HeadSpin is a accomplished answer for wandering app execution and testing.

The beauty of the HeadSpin program is that you can use the platform for both thepre- and post-releaseof your app. Because there isn ’ t an SDK integrating requirement to use HeadSpin software, using HeadSpin ’ s Remote Control capabilities, you can remotely access more than grand of device and terminus (across 1000+ network in more than 50+ locations around the creation) from the consolation of your own browser.

HeadSpin ’ sPerformance Managementtool offer detailed diagnostics through execution reports that provide network seizure and video captures reckon your app. Our AI engine analyzes the data from these seizure and points out issues in those tests.

After conducting execution test, it ’ s useful to monitor how those test cases are acquit across different regions, networks, and device-types, which you can do with HeadSpin ’ s tool post-app-launch. HeadSpin has experienced vast market acceptance, function some of the world ’ s most reputed companies.

We ’ ve built acustom pin-lock-enabled box, each accommodating three servers. Our software is connected through our impost USB hub, each accommodate a maximum of eight devices. Coupled with three servers per box, that ’ s 24 devices (both Android and iOS) per box.

And because we ’ ve establish our software and ironware from the ground-up and have a deep understanding of the space, we ’ re capable to cater support for any new iOS or Android device the day they participate the market, resulting in 100 % device up-time.

Read:

How HeadSpin enables the transition from conventional to power testing

To better-distinguish between conventional and ability testing, guide the following example. When running 100 test cases, 90 pass and 10 fail. Under methods of conventional testing, a QA manager would only get a report pointing out which cases failed, leave the manager to identify why they failed by fastidiously voyage trial logs and debugging the causa.

HeadSpin ’ s solution enables developers to instead engage in ability testing by providing QA managers and development squad with network seizure and diagnostics from AI-based analyses of mesh traffic, offering teams complete visibleness into each of these 100 test cases.

Now, when judge to decipher what went improper with those 10 neglect cases, teams have more information to work with and can lots more quickly identify whether the issues stemmed from the code, the mechanization framework, a certain device, or something else totally.

The end result is an teemingness of evidence aim at revising those tryout cases, and a importantreduction in the integral development life cycle.

FAQs

1. What is the crash pace?

Ans: The collapse pace is the percentage compute by dividing the routine of times a user open an covering by the number of time the application crashed during that same period. Generally, this calculation is make over a 24-hour period, showing how easily or badly your app is performing in terms of app collapse in a day.

2. What is scalability testing?

Ans: Scalability testing is a type of execution testing that mensurate the app ’ s power to scale up and down when there is an increase in the number of users.

3. What is soak screen?

Ans: Soak examination is a load test where you hold the shipment over an prolonged period to check the long-term impression, like memory leak and disk infinite occupy up. The duration of the soak tests calculate on the situation. Usually, soak examination runs for several hours.

4. How perform the HeadSpin Platform help testers in performance testing?

Ans: The HeadSpin Platform habituate its advanced AI capabilities to place performance topic during testing before they impact user. Some of the crucial features of the Platform include root-cause analysis of user-impacting performance issues, recommendations to improve performance proactively, and issue predictions based on historic datum.

Author & # x27; s Profile

ILYA DREYTSER

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Author & # x27; s Profile

Piali Mazumdar

Lead, Content Marketing, HeadSpin Inc.

Piali is a dynamic and results-driven Content Marketing Specialist with 8+ eld of experience in crafting engaging narratives and market collateral across diverse industries. She excels in cooperate with cross-functional teams to acquire modern content strategies and deliver compelling, authentic, and impactful content that resonates with target audiences and enhances brand authenticity.

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Improving Mobile Application Quality Through Performance Testing

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gain better visibility into functional & performance issues
Gain best visibility into functional and performance issues
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Discover how HeadSpin can invest your business with superior testing potentiality

Our Platform enables you to:
accelerate time-to-market
Accelerate time-to-market, gaining a competitory edge
faster development cycles
Boost developer/QA productivity with faster development round
automated buil-over-build regression testing
Automate build-over-build regression essay for consistent results
gain better visibility into functional & performance issues
Gain best profile into functional and performance issues
reduce mean time
Reduce mean clip to identify/resolve during exam, QA, and product
evaluate audio, video & qoe
Evaluate audio, video, and content character of experience (QoE) effortlessly
The trusted choice for planetary enterprises
Close

Discover how HeadSpin can endow your job with superior testing capabilities

Our Platform enables you to:
accelerate time-to-market
Accelerate time-to-market, gaining a competitive edge
faster development cycles
Boost developer/QA productivity with faster growth cycles
automated buil-over-build regression testing
Automate build-over-build fixation testing for consistent results
gain better visibility into functional & performance issues
Gain better visibility into functional and performance issues
reduce mean time
Reduce base clip to identify/resolve during examination, QA, and production
evaluate audio, video & qoe
Evaluate audio, video, and content calibre of experience (QoE) effortlessly
The trusted alternative for global endeavour
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