Smartphone app testing evolves with AI! What is "Reflect Mobile" that is beginner-friendly?
Hello everyone! Welcome to this blog that explains AI technology for beginners. I'm John, your guide. It's exciting when new features are added to the smartphone apps we use every day or when the design changes, right? But before those apps reach our hands, they actually go through a lot of "testing." This is quite a lot of work.
However, some amazing news has come in recently!AI (artificial intelligence) will help with this testing work.Today, I'd like to give you an easy-to-understand introduction to the very smart AI tool "Reflect Mobile" announced by SmartBear, a company known for its software testing tools!
What exactly is "Reflect Mobile"?
"Reflect Mobile" is a new app testing toolkit developed by SmartBear. It is especially useful for testing apps that run on iPhone (iOS) and Android smartphones."Native apps" (apps made specifically for a specific smartphone OS)The test is carried out automatically using the power of AI.
The biggest advantages of this tool are these two points!
- Equipped with AI: Intelligent AI helps you create and run tests.
- No code: This is amazing! "No-code" means that you don't need to write any programming code. In other words, even people without programming expertise can easily create tests.
SmartBear originally had a testing tool for web apps called "Reflect," but "Reflect Mobile" is an upgraded version of that tool for smartphone apps.
How will AI change testing? A magical mechanism
You may be wondering, "What exactly does it mean for AI to help with testing?" Reflect Mobile uses SmartBear's proprietary AI technology, "HaloAI," and the recently popular"Generative AI" (AI that generates new sentences, ideas, etc.)We utilize the following.
And another interesting thing is"Recording and playback function"This is a system where you record the operation procedure of the app you want to test, just like how we operate a smartphone, and the AI remembers it and automatically reproduces the operation as many times as you want later. It's like taking a video of how you operate your smartphone and having the AI move according to that example.
This "no code" aspect is truly revolutionary. Previously, to automate app testing, a specialized programmer had to write complex program code. But with Reflect Mobile, you can intuitively "teach" the AI the test procedure just by operating the screen.
This allows non-programmers to"QA person" (quality assurance, i.e. someone whose job is to check the quality of the app)What's more, even team members who are not so familiar with IT may be able to contribute to smartphone app test automation. This is truly a technology that breaks down the barriers of expertise!
Who is it for? What are the benefits?
So, who is Reflect Mobile useful for, and what benefits does it offer?
Target User:
- QA professionals who protect the quality of apps
- Testers with little or no programming experience
Key benefits:
- Test creation is quick and easy: This could drastically reduce the time it takes to prepare for a test, which previously took hours.
- No programming skills required: Tests can be created intuitively, so you don't need to ask an engineer for help.
- Compatible with various smartphone apps： Recently, I often hear about "Flutter" and "React Native".Frameworks (a set of handy tools that make app development easier)In other words, with this one tool, you can efficiently test both iPhone and Android apps (thisCross-platform testingThat's what they say.
- Easy to install in your current development environment: Test management tools you already use,CI/CD pipeline (a system that automates the entire process from app development to release)It also makes it easy to integrate with other tools, making work smoother for the entire development team.
In fact, Reflect Mobile is part of a larger strategy called "SmartBear Test Hub" that SmartBear is promoting. This initiative is a test platform for testing websites, smartphone apps, andAPI testing (testing the "interface" where applications exchange information)The idea is to consolidate all these different types of tests into one platform, making them easier and more efficient!
Why is this important?
Smartphone apps have become an indispensable part of our lives these days. That's why it's so important for apps to have few bugs and be easy to use, in other words, to be of "high quality."
However, in the world of app development, every time a new feature is added or support is added for a new smartphone model, the number of items that need to be tested snowballs, creating a really difficult task for the development team.
AI-powered test automation tools like Reflect Mobile can help you do this hard work more efficiently and more accurately than a human could, freeing up your development team to focus on more creative tasks, like developing new features and improving the user experience.
At the beginning of 2024, SmartBear acquired a company called "Reflect," which has AI test automation technology. Then, they incorporated that technology into their product lineup and finally announced "Reflect Mobile" for the mobile app market. This is a sign of SmartBear's strong commitment to the ever-growing smartphone-centric market.
John's comment
Wow, the evolution of AI technology is really amazing! Behind the scenes of app development, a lot of steady work is done behind the scenes, invisible to users. In particular, testing is a lot of painstaking work, such as repeating the same operations over and over and finding small bugs. If AI like Reflect Mobile can intelligently support such parts, I think developers will be able to put new ideas into shape and focus on creative activities to make the app better. As a result, we may be able to get more exciting and amazing apps out into the world sooner!
This article is based on the following original articles and is summarized from the author's perspective:
SmartBear unveils AI-driven test automation for iOS and
Android apps