The challenges of mobile application testing in 2025

In 2025, mobile applications will play a central role in companies' digital strategies.

According to Statista, global sales in the applications market are set to rise steadily between 2024 and 2027, with estimated growth of over $151 billion!

The rise of low-code/no-code and generative AI tools enables non-technical profiles to participate in the creation of mobile applications, accelerating the growth of this economy.

But while development may be getting easier, guaranteeing the quality of the user experience remains a major challenge.

Whether for e-commerce, healthcare or entertainment, they need to be high-performance, intuitive, secure and compatible with a growing number of terminals.

In this article, we explore the key challenges to consider in 2025 and beyond.

1. Increasing fragmentation

Testing a mobile application in 2025 means facing unprecedented fragmentation. The mobile ecosystem is marked by great diversity:

• Android 14
• iOS 18
• Foldable smartphones like the Galaxy Z Fold
• Connected watches under watchOS or Wear OS
• Tablets
• Connected devices
• On-board interfaces in vehicles or household appliances.
  

It's no longer enough to validate an application on 2 or 3 flagship models. It has to be tested on hundreds of combinations of operating systems, versions, screen sizes, processors and hardware configurations.

For example, a banking app needs to work just as well on an iPhone 15 Pro as it does on a 2019 Samsung A20e, while ensuring a smooth experience on a paired smartwatch or Android Auto dashboard.

To meet this challenge, cloud-based testing platforms have come into their own. They make it possible to launch automated campaigns on fleets of physical terminals without investing in an in-house lab.

2. Smarter automation

With the pressure of time-to-market, production launches are becoming more and more frequent.

Publishing an update every week has become commonplace. Of course, it's impossible to keep up with traditional manual testing.

In 2025, automation is no longer enough: it has to 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 with auto-repair scripts.
  

For example, if 80% of users follow the purchase tunnel of a headline product, AI detects this and reinforces the coverage of this path as a priority.

These approaches make it possible to increase test reliability while reducing maintenance, and thus deliver faster with a constant level of quality.

3. Test real experience, not just functionality

An app can be 100% functional in a pre-production environment and crash as soon as it is subjected to real-life conditions.

A crash on an uncommon Android model can lead to an avalanche of negative reviews, directly impacting the rating on the store.

Testing the user experience means simulating real-life situations (network loss, low battery, interruptions caused by notifications, slowdowns linked to multitasking) that are impossible to anticipate with functional test cases alone.

The shift-right approach, combined with production monitoring tools, enables us to capture these errors and improve the quality perceived by the end-user.

4. Blind constraints

App Store and Google Play rules have become stricter than ever. An app can be rejected for :

• Slow start-up
• Unjustified collection of personal data
• Instability on some OS versions.
  

The negative consequences are immediate: loss of visibility, reduced downloads, even removal from the store.

Testing must therefore include rigorous verification of compliance with blind guidelines, by integrating tools specific to these environments into CI/CD workflows.

5. Safety and compliance right from the test phase

Today's mobile applications handle sensitive data such as banking details, locations and health documents.

Right from the test phase, you must therefore :

• Check data encryption
• Test the permissions requested by the app
• Detect potential leaks via APIs
• Ensure RGPD or CCPA compliance with explicit management of user consent.

Integrating automated security tests into the DevOps chain is now standard practice, and for good reason.

6. The new challenges of 5G and foldable devices

5G promises unprecedented speeds, but also imposes more demanding tests.

Speeds fluctuate according to geographical area, network, or time of day. A videoconferencing service, for example, will need to be tested under 5G coverage, but also in fallback conditions to 4G or Wi-Fi.

Foldable and multiscreen devices add a new dimension. A messaging app will have to adapt dynamically to switching from portrait to landscape format, or to opening simultaneously on two windows.

Here, UX testing becomes essential to ensure that components remain accessible, legible and functional in all configurations.

7. Connected objects extend the scope of testing 

In 2025, mobile apps are integrated into an ecosystem of connected interfaces. A fitness app interacts with an activity tracker, a connected watch, a smartphone, and a cloud interface.

Every link is a potential source of error. You must therefore test :

• Reliable synchronization
• Autonomy of secondary devices
• Responsiveness of voice and gesture commands.
  

Testing a mobile app involves testing a complete system, taking into account hardware, software, connectivity and user experience.

No-code automation - a response to the complexity of mobile applications in 2025

At Mr Suricatewe see the benefits of automated testing in the context of mobile testing in increasingly complex environments.

Thanks to our no-code platform, product, business and QA teams can build test scenarios together without writing a single line of code, enabling better collaboration, reduced implementation time and increased functional coverage.

The result? An ever-increasing demand for quality!

Testing a mobile application in 2025 means overcoming technical challenges, guaranteeing impeccable security, meeting store requirements and ensuring a fluid experience on a large number of devices. It also means going fast, often, and without error.

With its no-code automated testing platform, Mr Suricate supports companies in this transformation by offering them a robust, agile solution adapted to the challenges of modern mobile.