Live Mobile App Testing

Take control over our real devices with your mouse and keyboard, straight from your own browser, without having to install any plugin or program.

Simply upload your iOS or Android app to TestingBot, pick the device you want to test on, and TestingBot will give you a live session with the real device.

Uploading a mobile App

You can upload your mobile app either through the TestingBot UI or via an API call.

Upload via the UI

To upload a mobile app through the TestingBot UI, simply go to the member dashboard and:

Click Live App Testing
Under Select Source click Uploaded Apps
Either drag your mobile application on the page, or click Upload App to browser for the file

Currently we accept these file formats:

.aab, .apk for Android
.ipa, .zip for iOS

Deleting a mobile App

To delete a mobile app, you can use the TestingBot UI or use our REST API.

Delete via the UI

To upload a mobile app through the TestingBot UI, simply go to the member dashboard and:

Click Live App Testing
Under Select Source click Uploaded Apps
Click the trash icon in the bottom right corner of the list
Select one or more apps you wish to delete
Click Delete Apps

Selecting a Mobile Device

Once you've selected a mobile app, you will need to select the device you want to run tests on. You can choose to select a Virtual Device or a Real Device by using the navigation tabs on the page.

Real Devices

To use a Real Device, click the Real Device Testing tab.

Click an available device from the devices list
Make sure to select an iOS device if you've selected an iOS app (.ipa), or an Android device if you've selected an Android app (.apk)
Click the Start button

Virtual Devices

To use a Virtual Device, click the Emulator & Simulator Testing tab.

Select an app you've uploaded, or the sample Android/iOS TestingBot app.
Click the Android or iOS tab in the virtual device list
Select an iOS simulator if you've selected an iOS app (.ipa), or an Android emulator if you've selected an Android app (.apk)
Click the Start button

Time Limits and Timeouts for Live App Testing

Live tests will last a maximum of 5 minutes at a time for trial users.
Live tests for paid users will timeout after 15 minutes of inactivity

Live Test Interface

Below is some more information on the various functions that the TestingBot Live App Testing UI provides.

Icon	Name	Description
	Switch Device	Change to a different device. This will start a new session, you will lose the session with the current device.
	Zoom	Zoom in or out. This will make the device's screen appear larger or smaller. This only affects the view in your browser, it does not change anything on the device itself.
	Rotate	Rotates the device. Either from PORTRAIT to LANDSCAPE or vice-versa.
	Screenshot	Takes a screenshot from the device. A screenshot editor will appear, allowing you to annotate the image. Download the screenshot with the download button.
	Copy/Paste	Copy or paste from or to the device. If you've selected the copy/paste permission in your browser, TestingBot will automatically keep your local and remote clipboard in sync.
	DevTools	This will open the developer tools for the device. Retrieve realtime logs from the device. Use the Inspector functionality to drill down in the view hierarchy to copy element locators (such as XPath).
	GPS Location	Set a (new) mock location for the GPS of the device. If your app uses GPS functionality, it will receive this mock location
	Locale	Set a new locale for the entire device. Useful if your app is multilingual. Test your app in different languages.
	Device Settings	Change various device settings. Switch between light and dark mode instantly.
	Stop Session	Stops the current session. Logs and a video of the test will be available in the TestingBot member area.

Audio

Audio is available during manual mobile app testing, for certain devices.

Virtual Devices

Audio is available for all Android emulators and iOS Simulators. TestingBot will stream the audio generated by the virtual device to your webbrowser.

Physical Devices

Android devices with Android version 12 and higher will stream the audio to your browser, you will all the audio generated on the device.

For iOS devices with iOS version 14 and higher, you will hear the audio from the device in realtime.

Older physical devices do not have the audio streaming capabilities. These will only stream a live video view of the device.

Device Logs

TestingBot provides a real-time stream of the device logs during the manual live session.

You can switch between these device log levels:

VERBOSE (default)
DEBUG
INFO
WARNING
ERROR

You can use the search input bar to search between the generated logs.

Icon	Functionality
	The download icon allows you to download the entire device logs generated thus far, without any filtering.
	The trash icon will clear the history of the logs. Only new log entries will be added to the realtime view.

Testing Local Websites/Apps

With our TestingBot Tunnel you can easily and securily connect your local computer/network with TestingBot's Real Devices.

Known Limitations

Localhost testing does not work on iOS.

Due to an iOS Restriction, it is currently not possible to run tests against http(s)://localhost with TestingBot Tunnel.

A possible workaround would be to change the hosts file on the machine running TestingBot Tunnel, and add a custom hostname (for example mylocalwebsite and the IP address 127.0.0.1).
Then configure your tests to use http(s)://mylocalwebsite/... instead of localhost.