In a nutshell: By 2026, mobile apps will no longer be just another channel—they will be the beating heart of companies’ digital strategies. This guide covers: Increasing fragmentation, Smarter automation, Testing the actual user experience—not just functionality, and The limitations of app stores.
By 2026, mobile apps are no longer just another channel—they are the beating heart of companies’ digital strategies. With global app market revenue projected to grow by more than $151 billion by 2027 (Source: Statista), the bar for quality has never been higher.
The rise of low-code/no-code and generative AI now allows non-technical users to participate in the creation process. However, while development is becoming simpler, successfully launching a mobile app remains a complex challenge. Whether in e-commerce, healthcare, or entertainment, your solutions must be intuitive, secure, and compatible with an ever-changing ecosystem.
1. Increasing fragmentation
Testing a mobile app in 2025 means dealing with unprecedented fragmentation. The mobile ecosystem is characterized by great diversity:
- Android 14
- iOS 18
- Foldable smartphones like the Galaxy Z Fold
- Smartwatches running watchOS or Wear OS
- Tablets
- Connected Devices
- Embedded interfaces in vehicles or household appliances.
It is no longer enough to validate an app on just two or three flagship models. It must be tested across hundreds of combinations of operating systems, versions, screen sizes, processors, and hardware configurations.
For example, a banking app must work just as well on an iPhone 15 Pro as it does on a Samsung A20e from 2019, while ensuring a seamless experience on a paired smartwatch or an Android Auto dashboard.
To address this challenge, cloud-based testing platforms have become the standard. They make it possible to launch automated campaigns on fleets of physical devices without investing in an in-house lab.
2. Smarter automation
With the pressure to get products to market quickly, production rollouts are becoming more and more frequent.
Posting an update every week has become commonplace. Of course, it's impossible to keep up with that pace using traditional manual testing.
By 2025, automation alone will no longer be enough—it must be intelligent. Artificial intelligence makes it possible to:
- Generate test scenarios based on actual user behavior
- Automatically identify and prioritize critical paths
- Keep tests up to date using self-healing scripts.
For example, if 80% of users follow the purchase funnel for a featured product, the AI detects this and prioritizes increasing coverage of that path.
These approaches help increase the reliability of tests while reducing maintenance, thereby enabling faster delivery while maintaining a consistent level of quality.
3. Test the actual user experience, not just the functionality
An app can be 100% functional in a pre-production environment but crash as soon as it is subjected to real-world conditions.
A crash on a less common Android device can trigger a flood of negative reviews, directly affecting the app's rating in the app store.
Testing the user experience involves simulating real-world scenarios (loss of network connection, low battery, interruptions from notifications, slowdowns caused by multitasking)—all situations that cannot be anticipated through functional test cases alone.
The shift-right approach, combined with production monitoring tools, makes it possible to detect these errors and improve the quality as perceived by the end user.
4. The Limitations of Blinds
The App Store and Google Play guidelines have become stricter than ever. An app may be rejected for:
- Slow startup
- Unjustified Collection of Personal Data
- Instability on certain versions of the OS.
The negative consequences are immediate: loss of visibility, a drop in downloads, or even removal from the app store.
Testing must therefore include a thorough verification of compliance with app store guidelines by incorporating tools specific to these environments into CI/CD workflows.
5. Security and Compliance Starting in the Testing Phase
Mobile apps today handle sensitive data such as banking information, location data, and health records.
Starting with the testing phase, it is therefore necessary to:
- Check the data encryption
- Test the permissions requested by the app
- Detect any potential leaks using APIs
- Ensure GDPR or CCPA compliance through explicit management of user consent.
The integration of automated security tests into the DevOps pipeline is now standard practice, and for good reason.
6. New Challenges Related to 5G and Foldable Devices
5G promises unprecedented speeds, but it also requires more rigorous testing.
Data rates vary depending on geographic location, network, or time of day. A videoconferencing service, for example, should be tested under 5G coverage as well as in situations where it falls back to 4G or Wi-Fi.
Foldable and multi-screen devices add a new dimension. A messaging app will need to adapt dynamically when switching from portrait to landscape mode or when two windows are open simultaneously.
UX testing is essential here to ensure that components remain accessible, readable, and functional in all configurations.
7. Connected devices expand the scope of testing
By 2025, mobile apps will be integrated into an ecosystem of connected interfaces. A fitness app will interact with an activity tracker, a smartwatch, a smartphone, and a cloud interface.
Every connection is a potential source of error. Therefore, you must test:
- Synchronization Reliability
- Battery Life of Secondary Devices
- The responsiveness of voice or gesture commands.
Testing a mobile app involves testing an entire system, taking into account hardware, software, connectivity, and the user experience.
No-Code Automation—A Solution to the Complexity of Mobile Apps in 2025
At Mr Suricate, we see the benefits of automated testing every day in the context of mobile testing in increasingly complex environments.
Thanks to our no-code platform, product, business, and QA teams can work together to build test scenarios without writing a single line of code, leading to better collaboration, faster implementation, and increased functional coverage.
The result? Ever-higher quality standards!
Testing a mobile app in 2025 means overcoming technical challenges, ensuring impeccable security, meeting app store requirements, and delivering a seamless experience across a wide range of devices. It also means moving quickly, frequently, and without errors.
With its no-code automated testing platform, Mr Suricate companies through this transformation by offering them a robust, agile solution tailored to the challenges of modern mobile technology.
Further Reading
To see the solution in action, check out our functional tests.
FAQ
Why is testing mobile apps so critical?
Because they are exposed, frequently updated, and used in a variety of contexts. A bug can quickly lower app store ratings and erode user trust.
How can we speed up deployments without breaking the app?
By incorporating automated tests that validate user flows with each release, we can deliver faster while maintaining a safety net.
Which aspects should be prioritized for testing on mobile devices?
Critical user flows (login, purchase, key features), performance, cross-device compatibility, and behavior under degraded network conditions.
How Can We Secure the Mobile User Experience?
By continuously testing and monitoring user flows to detect regressions before they reach users.
How does Mr Suricate here?
By automating testing and monitoring of mobile user journeys, for both business teams and key accounts.
Take it a step further: mobile app testing.
