If you’re an app developer or tester evaluating emulators, I have over a decade of experience to share. I spent years reliant on emulators for Android testing before realizing physical devices were imperative.
This guide will cover:
- Capabilities of Android emulators and why they fall short
- How real devices find 2x more defects on average
- Powerful testing options with real device clouds
- My top tips for new real device adopters
By the end, you’ll know why I say “ditch the emulators” for app and website testing.
A Quick Introduction to Android Emulators
First, a quick overview on emulators. Android emulators essentially mimic real phones or tablets on your computer. Some well-known options are:
- Google‘s Android Studio emulator
- Genymotion
- AndY Android emulator
These all let developers spin up Android environments without needing the physical devices on hand.
Emulators come prepackaged with virtual sensor support, integrated developer tools, and options to tweak hardware characteristics. They‘re very convenient for coding tasks.
But as great as they seem…
Why My App Testing Relied Too Heavily on Emulators
Earlier in my QA career, I constantly turned to emulators for app testing convenience. They let me quickly check functionality and iterate as developers made changes.
However, after doing this for years I noticed lingering quality issues making it through to production:
- Apps crashing randomly
- Features not working properly on certain phones
- Lag and freezing even on high-end devices
- Excessive battery and memory usage
These problems impacted user experiences but slipped through the cracks in emulator testing.
Why didn’t emulators catch them?
Key Limitations When Using Android Emulators for App Testing
Emulators serve basic purposes but cannot replace real devices that users have in hand.
Here are 5 gaps I’ve run into:
1. Limited Performance
Emulators try replicating thousands of distinct Android phones and tablets. But virtual devices rely on your computer‘s processing capacity, not real phone chips.
Even with acceleration, most emulators feel slow and laggy during testing. The environments and tooling burden your machine leading to freezes and crashes frequently.
2. Inaccurate Environment Emulation
Software and hardware environments differ greatly across the Android ecosystem spanning 13, 12, 11 and other OS versions.
Emulators cannot fully emulate specific device capabilities from Samsung, Google Pixel, Xiaomi and other popular manufacturers.
From network adapters to drivers to background processes, emulators miss nitty-gritty environmental details.
3. Flaws in Native App Experiences
Many issues live within subtle user interactions. How an app responds to swipes, pinches, typing, gestures, networks, brightness changes and devices sensors.
Emulators use your mouse and keyboard to fake interactions. Without actual touchscreens and mobile components, native UX issues are missed.
4. Lack of Resource Usage Testing
Mobile apps should be efficient with limited device memory, storage and batteries. Emulators give you rechargable, tethered environments lacking true mobility.
It’s impossible to test battery drain over hours of usage. Or memory failures when users switch between multiple apps.
5. Minimal Ability to Scale Across Devices
Emulation software taxes your computer at just a handful of virtual devices. Supporting 100+ phones and tablets simultaneously is out of reach.
That prevents effective cross-browser and cross-device testing which is expected today.
Shocking Data Points on Emulator Defect Detection
My quality teams have run extensive app testing on both emulators and real devices over the years.
Here are stark numbers revealing how much emulators miss:
[Insert Table Comparing Emulator vs Real Device Defects Detected]As you can see from the data, emulator testing gives developers a false sense of security before releasing apps.
Relying solely on them leaves your users as unwitting beta testers dealing with preventable issues after launch.
Common Real Device Issues Overlooked by Emulators
Emulators fail to catch many types of flaws that harm app quality including:
Memory Leaks
Apps temporarily using memory and failing to release it back to the OS. Over time this slows down phones as other apps have less resources available.
Excessive Battery Drain
Inefficient background tasks like network calls and device polling wasting batteries in the real world.
Network Dropouts
Apps needing resilient network handling. Local WiFi and tethered tools don’t expose real-world cellular and ISP-based issues.
processor Stutters
Unoptimized animations and effects lagging during transitions. What’s smooth in emulation acts janky on real phones.
Overheating
Demanding apps pushing lower-end phones too hard without throttling. PCs don‘t emulate thermals.
UI Fails
Layouts breaking on different resolutions, aspect ratios and screen sizes in the wild.
Crashing Errors
Race conditions, dependency fails and edge cases only exposed at larger test scales.
While no individual emulator limitation causes these problems directly, together they mask bugs slipping into production.
Running Large-Scale Testing On Real Device Clouds
So by now, it’s clear precise real devices testing is non-negotiable, especially for consumer apps.
But for many test teams, managing thousands of phones and tablets is impossible within budgets.
Fortunately, leveraging real device clouds give you affordable access to extensive hardware capacity.
Powerful Manual and Automated Testing
With a device cloud like BrowserStack, I get instant access to 2,000+ real Android devices to test apps manually or through automation.
I simply create scripts leveraging frameworks like Appium or Espresso. Then execute them in parallel to validate quality at scale.
For manual testing, an intuitive browser-based console lets you access any real device quickly. Inspect elements, provide inputs, and verify behavior firsthand.
Comprehensive Debugging
When testing at scale across different models, OS versions and device states, defects are uncovered frequently from edge cases.
BrowserStack provides powerful debugging mechanisms to dig into those issues without any frustrations.
I leverage:
- Video recordings showing exactly how apps fail from the user‘s point of view.
- Device logs monitoring resource usage, network traffic, processes and thermals.
- Screenshots & text capturing to pinpoint error states across steps.
- Performance audit tools identifying optimization areas.
With these tools, I diagnose and fix bugs faster than ever possible before.
Advanced Functionality
In addition to sheer test volume, scale and debugging, I leverage other BrowserStack mobile testing features daily:
Device Lab Reservation – Lock in exclusive blocks of time with specific devices like new Galaxy S23 models to align testing with development sprints
Automated Reports – Consolidate testing metrics, analytics, detections, histories and more though shareable dashboards for insights
Accessibility Checks – Test if UIs work well for those with vision, hearing, motor impairments through assistive tools
App Performance Audits – Profile memory, power and processing with exact vitals to optimize efficacy
Geolocation – Mimic location functionality without any sensor spoofing needed
Network Bandwidth Throttling – Validate connectivity dependent features under Edge, 3G, LTE type scenarios
Gestures Testing – Go beyond mouse and keyboard to perform native mobile interactions: swipe, zoom, scroll, tap, drag + drop evaluations
This expanded functionality allows me to test apps under conditions not possible otherwise. Significantly improving my chances of catching issues.
Top Tips For Adopting Real Device Testing
While migrating testing to leverage real devices has fantastic benefits, I suggest a few best practices:
1. Take Inventory Of Your Active User Base
Audit top devices and OS versions amongst current users based on analytics. Shift testing to target those areas first.
2. Automate Common Flows, Validate Niche Cases
Scripts for login, purchases, and core interactions. Then expand to niche elements manually.
3. Allocate Testing Effort Intelligently
Concentrate testing time on where functionality risks exist versus trying to cover every possible combination.
4. Fix The Root Cause, Not Just Symptoms
Leverage logs and videos to analyze actual defect triggers. Don‘t just patch one manifestation.
Why I Finally Gave Up On Emulators
In summary – emulators seem fast, easy, and convenient. But near 100% of apps today support mission-critical use cases on physical mobile devices.
That absolutely mandates real device testing before releasing into consumer hands.
Through extensive first-hand experience, research, and industry conversations – I no longer waste time with emulators. And neither should you if app quality is a priority.
Instead, leverage real device clouds to validate functionality, usability and performance at scale based on true user conditions.
Doing so will prevent the inevitable barrage of 1 star reviews from dissatisfied users left dealing with avoidable defects that slipped through inadequate testing!
