Mobile App Testing That Actually Catches Problems

We've spent years finding the bugs that slip through automated tests. The ones that happen when real people use your app in ways you never expected.

Talk About Your App

Testing Like Your Users Actually Behave

Most testing follows perfect paths. Click here, then there, everything works. But your users? They rotate their phones mid-action, they jump between apps, they have terrible network connections on the train.

We test for the messy reality. Last month we found a crash that only happened when users switched from WiFi to mobile data while uploading photos. The automated tests never caught it because they didn't simulate real network behavior.

One financial app we tested worked perfectly in the lab but froze on older Android devices when users had more than 50 apps installed. That's the kind of thing you only find through actual device testing.

And debugging? That's where experience matters. Sometimes the error message points you in completely the wrong direction. You learn to recognize patterns after you've solved the same class of problem a few dozen times.

Mobile app testing across different devices showing real-world usage scenarios

How We Actually Work Through Problems

There's no magic formula. Just systematic investigation mixed with a lot of pattern recognition from fixing similar issues before.

1

Reproduce First

Can't fix what you can't recreate. We document exact steps, device specs, network conditions. Sometimes it takes twenty attempts to trigger the problem consistently.

2

Isolate Variables

Change one thing at a time. Different device? Different OS version? Different data set? Process of elimination tells you what actually matters.

3

Check the Obvious

You'd be surprised how often it's something simple. Memory leaks from images not being released properly. API calls timing out because someone changed server settings.

4

Deep Diagnosis

When it's not obvious, we dig into logs, memory profilers, network traces. Following the data trail usually reveals where things go wrong.

The Reality of Mobile Debugging

Some bugs are straightforward. Others? They're nightmares. We once spent three days tracking down an iOS crash that only happened on devices running in Turkish locale. Turned out to be a string formatting issue with specific characters.

  • Device fragmentation means testing on actual hardware, not just emulators
  • Performance issues often hide until you're dealing with real user data volumes
  • Memory management problems show up differently on budget devices versus flagships
  • Background app behavior varies wildly between OS versions

We keep a testing lab with about forty different devices because emulators simply don't catch everything. And yes, that includes that weird mid-range Samsung that somehow has 15% market share.

Mobile debugging process showing device testing and diagnostic tools

People Who've Seen These Problems Before

We're not a huge team. Just experienced developers and testers who've each spent years fixing mobile apps for companies that couldn't figure out why their apps kept crashing.

Mobile testing specialist Callum reviewing device test results

Callum Pemberton

Android Testing Lead

Specialized in Android fragmentation issues. If your app crashes on some random Huawei device, Callum's probably already debugged that exact problem.

iOS debugging expert Siobhan analyzing crash reports

Siobhan Fitzpatrick

iOS Debug Specialist

Eight years fixing iOS apps. She can read crash logs like most people read novels and has strong opinions about memory management patterns.

Performance testing analyst Briony conducting app optimization

Briony Wainwright

Performance Testing

Focuses on why apps feel slow even when they technically work. Battery drain, stuttering animations, delayed responses – that's her domain.