An Empirical Investigation on Android App Testing Practices

In an era where Android dominates the mobile operating system market, it is important to ensure high quality Android app delivery. In this paper, we delve into the essential need for effective Android app testing in a market characterized by diversity and widespread usage and empirically investigate testing practices for Android apps. We conduct an experimental study on 2965 open-source Android apps, examining the quantity and coverage of the tests used for open-source Android app development. We further conduct a survey to gather more insights in testing practices from Android app developers and testers. The results reveal a limited adoption of testing among Android app development, a restricted range of testing tools and frameworks being used, and low code and API coverage in testing. This investigation shows that current Android app testing practices are lacking the use of automated testing tools and embarks on a need for more awareness and adoption of state-of-the-art testing tools and techniques.