Featured Content | Product Updates | BrowserStack Testimonials

Featured Content

Mobile Testing Masterclass

[Webinar] Explore Swivel’s QA success story, and they test complex mobile-based use cases in the finance and payments sector. Watch now

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QA Leadership Summit

[Summit] Missed out on the Summit? Watch the sessions on demand to discover the future of testing and unlock QA success! Watch now

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Product Updates

Automate | App Automate | App Live | Test Observability | Test Management | Accessibility Testing | Percy

Automate

• IE mode on Edge browser: You can now test your websites compatible with older versions of Internet Explorer on Microsoft Edge using the all-new Internet Explorer mode. Learn more

App Automate

• Use regex to specify device attributes: You can use regular expressions (regex) to select devices to test on and the first available device is allocated from the device pool that matches your specifications. By widening your search through regular expressions, you get better test execution speed by reducing queuing and device tier limits. For Espresso | For XCUITest

App Live

• Video Injection on App Live: Test use cases such as video recording, facial recognition & identification, and others that require access to the device camera using the video injection feature. Learn more

See more updates in App Live Release Notes.

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Test Observability

• Configure visibility of hooks in test reports & metrics: You can configure visibility of all types of hooks in Test Observability - for failed tests or passed ones. Learn more
• Support for PyTest: You can now integrate PyTest test suite with Test Observability and unlock advanced reporting and debugging capabilities. Learn more
• Support for NUnit: You can now integrate NUnit test suite with Test Observability and unlock advanced reporting and debugging capabilities. Learn more
• Support for Jest: You can now integrate Jest.js test suite with Test Observability and unlock advanced reporting and debugging capabilities. Learn more

See more updates in Test Observability Release Notes.

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Test Management

• Admin Panel for Customizing Test Case Priority and Type: You can now add custom fields for test case priority and test case type at an admin level. Learn more
• Configurations in Test Runs: You can now add browser/device/OS configurations to your test runs and launch BrowserStack Live sessions directly from Test Management. Learn more

See more updates in Test Management Release Notes.

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Accessibility Testing

• Test behind authentication walls | Website Scanner: Now test webpages that are protected by login and uncover accessibility issues lurking in them using the Website Scanner. With this new capability, you stay ahead in web accessibility by conducting more comprehensive, efficient and precise monitoring of your web application. Learn more
• Sitemap Extractor | Website Scanner: Input your domain URL to extract the sitemap. Simply select the URLs you want to scan, download them as a CSV file, and add them to the website scanner to schedule a scan.

See more updates in Accessibility Testing Release Notes.

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Percy

• Layout Testing: This new feature allows users to evaluate web page layouts for any changes in positioning, styling, and content structure. Learn more
• Percy on Automate (Public Beta Launch): Integrate your functional and visual testing into a single pipeline. Seamlessly capture screenshots during functional test runs and compare them to baseline images for visual consistency. Learn more

See more updates in Percy Release Notes.

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BrowserStack Testimonials

We are thrilled to introduce a groundbreaking addition to the Percy platform – support for layout testing (alpha).

This new feature allows users to evaluate web page layouts for any changes in positioning, styling, and content structure. While layout testing doesn't identify specific content differences between two builds, it precisely highlights visual inconsistencies in element presentation and arrangement. This proves to be an invaluable tool for helping teams maintain a consistent and visually appealing user experience.

No longer will QA teams struggle with unexpected content changes when assessing visual differences at the layout level. This marks a significant leap forward in web development and quality assurance, ensuring that your users enjoy a seamless and appealing browsing experience.

What is Layout Testing?

Layout diffing has emerged as one of the most highly demanded features in Percy. Conducting comparisons in pre-production environments allows for consistent layout validation, especially when dealing with dynamic content. It's a powerful tool for cross-environment testing, assuring that the page structure remains intact across different operating systems, browsers, devices, viewport sizes, and orientations.

Content vs. Layout Diffs

Content refers to the actual information that users interact with on a webpage. This encompasses text, images, videos, and other elements that convey your message and provide valuable information to your website visitors.

On the other hand, layout pertains to the arrangement and presentation of this content. It involves the positioning, styling, and structuring of elements like text, images, headers, navigation menus, and other visual components. The goal of layout design is to ensure that the content is not only visually appealing but also well-organized, making it easy for users to navigate your webpage.

How Percy Solves Layout Testing

Percy's layout testing focuses on validating the structure of page layouts. It ensures consistent positioning of elements, making it a valuable asset for teams. The visual comparison is executed by providing a meticulous examination of layout changes without verifying content alterations.

How to get started

1. Setup: If you haven't already set up Percy and have builds running actively using the percySnapshot command, navigate to https://www.browserstack.com/docs/percy/take-percy-snapshots/snapshots-via-scripts for a step-by-step guide.
2. Enable Layout: Incorporate the required parameters to activate layout testing while capturing the screenshots. Example usage on Percy Web(Language Javascript): await percySnapshot(driver,name, enableLayout: true);
3. View Results: After the build is finalized,
   1. Navigate to the Percy review dashboard
   2. Look for the layout icon on snapshot thumbnails to identify the snapshots that are processed with layout diffing:

For a detailed guide on how to get started, please refer to the documentation page.

We are excited to unveil a game-changing feature that will revolutionize how Developers and QAs approach functional and visual testing.

Percy on Automate empowers users to integrate their functional and visual testing into a single pipeline, allowing them to seamlessly capture screenshots during functional test runs and compare them to baseline images. The result is enhanced capability in identifying UI regressions and ensuring the visual integrity of your application.

Key Benefits:

1. 3500+ device/browser combinations: Access 20,000 real devices hosted on the BrowserStack cloud to ensure optimum device and OS coverage.
2. Unified Testing Pipeline: Manage both functional and visual testing within a single pipeline.
3. Reduced Network Traffic: We've optimized the process by directly uploading screenshots from BrowserStack terminals to Percy's cloud, saving valuable network resources.

Enhancements:

• The build generation panel has been enhanced with a new device selection filter located on the left pane.
• Seamlessly switch between the Percy and Automate sessions for effortless navigation.
• When there are more than five screen widths, a dropdown menu will appear, offering various width options. This dropdown menu can display up to ten entries.

Please visit the documentation page for more details.

Debug in Automate:

• Percy builds now include direct links to your Automate builds, and vice versa, streamlining debugging and analysis.
• When Automate builds are generated, you can utilize a range of logging options, such as Text Logs, Network Logs, Other Logs, Issues Detected, and more, to comprehensively review your builds.

How It Works:

Step 1: Enable the percy screenshot command in your BrowserStack SDK settings.

Step 2: With the Percy command enabled, create a project on the Percy Dashboard and select 'Automate' under Browser Selections.

Step 3: Execute your build on Automate and seamlessly access visual comparison results within the generated Percy build.

In conclusion, Percy on Automate marks a significant advancement in the world of functional and visual testing, promising a seamless experience for developers and QAs. Say goodbye to UI regressions, and embrace a new era of visual testing excellence.

What is Percy?

Percy is an automated visual testing platform designed to streamline visual testing processes for teams. It works by capturing screenshots in every build you run, comparing them against baselines, and highlighting any visual changes. Percy increases visual coverage for teams, enabling them to deploy code changes with confidence after every commit.

Here's a quick overview of Percy's features and capabilities:

1. Teams can easily incorporate visual testing into their workflows without the need for any code changes.
2. Over 90% of builds executed on Percy are completed in under 2 minutes, thanks to DOM snapshotting and advanced parallelization. This quick turnaround accelerates your release cycle.
3. Percy uses advanced computer vision algorithms and runs your builds on more than 20,000 real devices across 19 data centers, all backed by a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This ensures reliable and high-quality visual testing for your projects.

For more information on Percy, please visit - https://www.browserstack.com/percy

Featured Content | Product Updates | BrowserStack Testimonials

Featured Content

Accessibility Automation Beta

[Just Launched] Experience effortless WCAG automation testing. Get accessibility-focused smart reports with just a single line of code. Register now

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QA Leadership Summit

[Summit] Have you saved your spot yet? Join our event to discover the future of testing and unlock QA success! Register now

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Digital Accessibility Excellence

[Panel Discussion] Join us to learn how to effectively achieve digital accessibility excellence in today’s ever-evolving regulatory landscape. Read more

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Test Management Simplified

[BrowserStack Originals] Watch our engineering leadership discuss test management strategies, best practices, and how they overcame engineering challenges. Register now

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Product Updates

App Live | Test Observability | Test Management | Accessibility Testing |
Percy & App Percy | Enterprise

App Live

• Accelerate manual testing with parallel tests: Test your mobile apps on two real mobile devices simultaneously in a single test session, or use different browser tabs to run two sessions in parallel. Save hours of effort and release bug-free apps as you test faster and with greater precision. Learn more

See more updates in App Live Release Notes.

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Test Observability

• Role-based Access Control: BrowserStack admins can now control and monitor team-level accesses for Test Observability, ensuring a seamless, secure, and tailored experience for every team member. Learn more
• Support for Serenity BDD tests: You can now seamlessly integrate Serenity BDD tests on Test Observability and experience advanced level test debugging and reporting. Learn more

See more updates in Test Observability Release Notes.

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Test Management

• Bulk edit test case tags: You can now edit tags for test cases through a bulk action, simplifying your test case maintenance. Learn more

See more updates in Test Management Release Notes.

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Accessibility Testing

• Test pages behind authentication walls in Website Scanner: Expand the use of Website Scanner to include pages that are protected by login and uncover accessibility issues lurking in them. Now you can stay ahead in web accessibility by conducting more comprehensive, efficient and precise monitoring of your web application. Learn more

See more updates in Accessibility Testing Release Notes.

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Percy & App Percy

• SDK integration for Percy platform: We are excited to announce the integration of Percy and App Percy with the BrowserStack SDK, which offers a plug-and-play solution, empowering users to run their test suites on BrowserStack without any code changes. Learn more

See more updates in Percy & App Percy Release Notes.

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Enterprise

We're thrilled to introduce the Overview Page, your one-stop solution for efficient management and comprehensive insights. Learn more

With this feature, you can seamlessly:

• Receive Security Policy Recommendations: Get tailored recommendations for the right security policies to protect your data and assets.
• Gain Utilization Insights: Unlock valuable insights into the overall utilization of your subscription and optimize your BrowserStack usage.
• Monitor Adoption: Stay up-to-date on the current state of feature adoption and usage of BrowserStack services.
• Discover Value: Explore new BrowserStack products and services that will help you unlock additional value from your subscription.

See more updates in Enterprise Release Notes.

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BrowserStack Testimonials

Meet Vinoth, an Engineering Manager with a twist. Not only is he a tech wizard wearing multiple hats as a Software Architect and Automation Framework Developer, but he's also passionate about environmental sustainability. Vinoth values family time, loves exploring new places, and advocates for the environment.

Vinoth's Career Journey: Elevating Excellence and Nurturing Quality

Looking back at Vinoth's career, his contributions to Fortune 500 companies stand out. He's been pivotal in enhancing products through Effective Test Automation Implementation, Pioneering Test Framework Development, and achieving goals like Higher Test Coverage and Reduced Testing Time. Vinoth's proactive approach led to early bug detection, innovative solutions, and timely high-quality product deliveries.

His creation, the Quality Monitoring Dashboard with AI/ML implementation, submitted for patient rights and its pending discussion. As an Engineering Manager, Vinoth skillfully oversees teams, managing automation, Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) responsibilities, and Performance Engineers for load volume testing (LVT). He also guides DevOps resources in creating automation pipelines.

Staying on Top in the Tech World: Vinoth's Skill-Boosting Approach

Vinoth, a dedicated tech enthusiast, keeps up with the rapidly changing tech landscape. His hunger for knowledge keeps him updated through various online sources, ensuring his skills remain sharp and current.

When it comes to essential tools for QA Engineers, he highlights tools such as playwright, Selenium for test automation, JIRA for efficient collaboration and issue tracking, Jenkins for automating software delivery pipelines, and Appium for cross-platform mobile app testing. Additionally, Vinoth emphasizes the importance of JMeter for performance testing, ensuring optimal software functionality under diverse conditions.

Time with BrowserStack: A Testing Paradigm Shift

For nearly three years, Vinoth has harnessed BrowserStack's versatility across platforms, devices, and beta versions, enhancing his testing approach. Integrated accessibility testing and the commitment to user feedback stand out to him as BrowserStack's strengths. Vinoth's suggestion for using regular expressions for device specifications led to the development of 'Dynamic Device Allocation,' a testament to BrowserStack's responsiveness

In his own words

From cross-browser and cross-device testing to realistic simulations, BrowserStack's impact has been profound. It reduces infrastructure complexities, offers swift feedback, fosters collaboration, and boasts an enhanced quality dashboard. - Vinothkumar Velusamy

QA Trends and BrowserStack Features on the Horizon

In the broader QA landscape, Vinoth looks forward to Security Testing, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Testing, and the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Particularly, he's excited about AI-driven test auditing to assess product quality based on various metrics.

Within BrowserStack, Vinoth anticipates better Test Management tools, stresses the importance of Accessibility Testing, and values Test Observability for in-depth test analysis.

Embracing Growth and Community: Vinoth's BrowserStack Champions Journey

In today's generation, staying updated with technology and connecting with peers outside of work has become crucial for his career growth. It offers exposure to global happenings, providing valuable opportunities for learning, networking, and personal development. Finding a platform to share knowledge and insights with the world can be challenging, as it's not always easy to connect with like-minded individuals.

He acknowledges that BrowserStack is doing an excellent job by bringing together people who share common interests, organizing public events, and offering free webinars through this community. Being able to share his learning experiences, knowing that it could help others, inspire them, and contribute to building successful careers, is important to him and he is thankful to the BrowserStack community.

There are many valuable aspects to being part of a community, and he highly recommends joining and showcasing your skills. It's an opportunity to both learn and help others along the way.

Transitioning from Senior QA to Successful Manager: Insights and Advice

He emphasizes the importance of understanding the organization thoroughly and identifying areas for improvement. He believes there's always room for improvement in every aspect of QA. He suggests keeping things simple and effective while assessing the efficiency of your ideas. He acknowledges the constantly changing nature of the field and advises adapting to the evolving QA landscape.

In his view, a successful manager should not only focus on self-management but also on fostering the growth of their team. Encouraging inclusive growth is key to standing out in the competitive field. He believes that leadership is what sets individuals apart in this fast-paced world, and aspiring QA managers should aim to be leaders who reach for the stars.

Vinoth's parting words: Aim high and all the best in your journey!

Connect with Vinoth: Linkedin

Join the global community of testing and QA professionals from around the world and start on your journey. By becoming a part of the BrowserStack Champions Program, you'll have access to the inspiring stories and insights from industry thought leaders. Discover the path to success and be motivated by the achievements of others. Apply now to share your own success story with the world!

BrowserStack Champions Program

Recognizing and celebrating the thought leaders and experts in the field of software testing and development.

BrowserStack

Welcome to the fourth edition of the BrowserStack device features blog series! Here's the link to the last one in case you missed it.

As promised, we'll share the latest device features designed to help Dev and QA teams increase their test coverage across mobile devices in this series.

This blog will focus on testing security workflows.

We’re excited to announce that now you can test security workflows via device passcode and biometric authentication on BrowserStack real devices to validate payment transactions, enable app login, access specific in-app content and test other advanced use-cases.

Both the device passcode and biometric authentication features are available on App Live and App Automate across Android and iOS devices.

How Does It Work?

Biometric Authentication on remote devices - Before we deep dive into the world of use cases that you could test with this feature, let’s discuss how it works.

Biometric authentication is a process of enhancing the security of applications by using biological or behavioral attributes of individuals such as fingerprint, face ID, and retina scanning to verify their identity. 

To enable Biometric Authentication:

1. Log in to the App Live dashboard.
2. On the App Live dashboard, upload your app from the left panel.
3. After your app is uploaded, click the configuration icon next to the file name of your app.

4. Under App Configurations, enable Biometric Authentication.

5. Select your device from the list of available devices in the device listing on the right panel, to launch your test session.

To test your app:

1. In your app, trigger the biometric authentication workflow.
2. On the Biometric Authentication prompt, click Pass or Fail to test authentication success or failure scenarios respectively.

Learn more about how to test device passcode on BrowserStack real devices.

Real-world Use Cases

Now that you have a brief understanding of how to enable and test with biometric authentication and device passcode, let’s explore different use cases that you could test.

Login Authentication 🛡️📱

Most apps today allow users to lock the app to alleviate security and privacy concerns. This is especially valid for payment wallets and banking apps. With biometric authentication and device passcode available on real devices, you can test and ensure that your users can securely log in. You can also customize the device passcode and check if your app workflows still work as expected. Moreover, you can test biometric authentication workflows via Face ID or Touch ID.

Payment Transactions 💼💰

Most payment and banking apps today enable users to confirm financial transactions via any additional security workflow. This is more often than not biometric authentication, device passcode verification, or pattern verification. This additional layer of security helps us double-check if we are making the right payment to the right recipient. With BrowserStack, you can test your app's payment functionality to ensure that biometrics or passcode can be successfully used to authenticate transactions.

Secondary Login 🔒🔑

It’s not uncommon for us to come across Apps where we need secondary authentication even for logged-in users. This is true for most BFSI apps where every time you need to access the app, you are asked to enter the device passcode or verify via biometrics. With BrowserStack, enable your logged-in users to securely unlock the app by testing workflows that require secondary authentication.

Specific In-App Content Access 🔓📂

Privacy has become more important than ever for users today. Whether it’s private photos and videos to confidential documents - users often like to restrict access to specific content within the app. These apps often use device passcode or biometric authentication to enable access to the restricted content. With BrowserStack, Test workflows of your app that require device passcode verification or biometric authentication for users trying to access specific content within the app.

At BrowserStack, we are devoted to helping our customers build and deliver best-in-class software and make mobile testing more robust and comprehensive. 

On BrowserStack real devices, you can test security workflows that need biometric authentication and device passcode validation. These functionalities are available across our manual and automated testing products and on both Android and iOS devices.

We're thrilled to share our latest features with you and hope you find them exciting and valuable!

Learn more about the - 

Biometric Authentication feature on App Live | App Automate and

Device Passcode Feature on App Live | App Automate

Learn more about testing security workflows on different test frameworks on App Automate.

Stay tuned to learn more about how you can leverage these features to ensure holistic mobile testing, broader test case coverage, accelerated bug resolution, and lightning-fast shipping cycles.

We are excited to announce a significant development in our visual testing products within the Percy platform: the integration of Percy and App Percy with the BrowserStack SDK. The BrowserStack SDK offers a seamless, plug-and-play solution, empowering users to run their test suites on BrowserStack without any need for code changes.

Previously, our integration on the Percy platform was an industry benchmark, allowing users to onboard with just a single line of code change. We just exceeded that benchmark ourselves by eliminating the need for manual code changes in your test scripts. You can easily incorporate the BrowserStack SDK into your existing test scripts, provide authentication details, and gain instant access to Percy and App Percy.

For existing users of BrowserStack products such as Automate, who already have the SDK installed, there's no additional action required. Simply enable the percy screenshot command in your settings, and you're all set.

Why BrowserStack SDK for Percy Platform?

• Minimal Installation: Enjoy a hassle-free setup process.
• Reduced Configuration: Streamline Authentication, App ID, and Parameter Requirements.
• Less Code Modification: Eliminate the mandatory addition of screenshot functions.
• Additional capabilities: If you use Jest or TestNG for functional testing, then you have a few additional values to which you can set the percyCaptureMode parameter:

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Create a test script.
2. Install the required BrowserStack SDK.
3. Set the BrowserStack credentials (username and access key).
4. In the browserstack.yml file:

• Set percy: true
• Set percyCaptureMode: auto
• Set a projectName

5. Add the PercySDK.screenshot(driver, name) method to relevant places in your test script to get the screenshots you want.

6. Run the test script.

Please visit the documentation page for more details.

Learn more about BrowserStack SDK

Priyanka Halder's journey in the realm of Quality Assurance (QA) is a remarkable tale of dedication, innovation, and global perspective. With Indian roots and a Californian identity, she brings a unique outlook to her work. Priyanka's career is a testament to her ability to tackle intricate DevOps and QA challenges using cutting-edge technologies while championing modern tech solutions like Kubernetes, visual validation, and CI/CD.

Champion of the QA World:

Priyanka's prowess in QA was underscored when she secured the prestigious title at the "World Bug Battle Championship 2014." Her voice resonates in the tech community through her appearances at various platforms, including Automation Guild, TestFlix, Star Canada, Star East, and more. Beyond her professional life, she is a passionate traveler, food enthusiast, and a dedicated mother to her daughters, Ariya and Adrika. Fitness is not just a hobby for Priyanka; it's a commitment, as evidenced by her achievements ( won 5 weight loss championships in the last 4 yrs) at F45, a renowned Australian gym.

A Trailblazing Career:

With over Two decades of experience, Priyanka Halder has made her mark as a QA leader. She has held pivotal roles in major corporations such as Oscar Health, GoodRx Inc., Heal, Homeme Inc., and Truecar, showcasing her expertise and adaptability.

Two standout achievements define her career. Firstly, her talent for rapidly building complex quality engineering teams for public corporations, often within just three months. Secondly, her recognition as a quality engineering influencer, sharing insights alongside industry leaders.

Innovating at Oscar Health:

In her current role at Oscar Health, Priyanka was tasked with establishing a quality engineering organization for a team of over 300 engineers, managing intricate microservice architectures. Leading a dynamic 30-member team of tooling and DevOps engineers, she focuses on developing cutting-edge automation tools. A recent milestone included her leadership in designing a new version of change management for Oscar Health, ensuring compliance with SOC SOX standards. Her role is intense, often leading to long workdays and a race against time that leaves her wishing for more hours in the day.

Tools of the Trade:

As a seasoned QA Engineer, Priyanka maintains her industry expertise through continuous learning. She engages directly with industry leaders, participates in webinars and conferences, and stays updated through tech blogs and Twitter threads. Her toolkit includes a diverse set of tools tailored to specific roles and technologies, such as JIRA, Selenium, JMeter, Jenkins, Git, BrowserStack, Postman, Docker, and Kubernetes, among others.

Transforming Testing with BrowserStack:

She's been using BrowserStack since 2018, and it's made a huge difference in how she approaches testing. Before using BrowserStack, testing was a bit of a mess with lots of different devices, and tackling compatibility issues, especially testing Internet Explorer on a Mac, was a big headache. She still remembers the days when they had to juggle between various mobile devices or even carry a Windows laptop just for specific browser checks.

Back in the early days of BrowserStack, when she was looking for a cross-browser testing tool, she compared it to several others. To her surprise, BrowserStack came out on top in every category, including speed, cost, and customer support. She took a chance on this newer company that was challenging the big players, and it paid off. Ended up, running over 2 million tests every month on BrowserStack, supporting a team of 700+ engineers.

But what really changed the game was BrowserStack itself. It's super convenient because it lets them test on a wide range of devices and browsers, all from one platform. Plus, it's easy to integrate with automation tests, which has cut down on the time they spend fixing issues. They can access logs and get real-time feedback, making it a breeze to find and solve problems.

Reflecting on my two-decade-long career, I often wonder how I navigated the first ten years without BrowserStack. It hasn't just simplified our testing approach; it's revolutionized it.- Priyanka Halder

Anticipating the Future:

Priyanka Halder is not only a practitioner but also a visionary in the world of Quality Assurance. She anticipates three key trends: the role of AI & ML in testing, the importance of accessibility testing, and the rise of QA in production environments.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) in Testing: AI and ML can make testing smarter by using past data to predict potential software issues. This means tests can be more focused and precise. AI can also help with tasks like optimizing test suites, predicting future issues, analyzing logs, and even automating the creation of test cases.

Accessibility Testing: Ensuring that software is accessible to all users is essential. This aspect is sometimes overlooked, and there's a need for tools that can easily check if software meets ADA(Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) standards. In sectors like health tech, this is especially important because it ensures that everyone can use the software.

QA in Production: Testing in real production settings is becoming more crucial. This approach involves continuously monitoring applications in live environments, collecting data on how they perform and how users interact with them. This data helps guide further testing and development. In complex systems like microservices, testing in production is gaining popularity. While it's not without its challenges, having out-of-the-box solutions would be a huge help.

These trends, she believes, will shape the future of QA, making it more efficient and effective.

Tech Communities: Catalysts for Growth:

Priyanka emphasizes the importance of tech communities in professional growth. She lauds the collaborative spirit of the BrowserStack Champions community and highlights the diversity of expertise it brings together. Direct access to experts, exclusive content, and a sense of belonging make such communities invaluable.

Advice for New QA Engineers:

For those embarking on a QA career, Priyanka offers practical advice. She emphasizes learning the basics, gaining hands-on experience, acquiring coding skills, staying updated, engaging with communities, seeking real-world experience, developing soft skills, and setting personal goals.

In a nutshell, this has been Priyanka's remarkable journey

Priyanka Halder's journey in Quality Assurance is not just a story of personal success; it's a testament to the ever-evolving landscape of technology and innovation. Her commitment to excellence and her ability to harness the power of tools like BrowserStack exemplify the spirit of innovation that drives the QA industry forward. As she continues to lead and inspire, Priyanka stands as a beacon of achievement in the world of Quality Assurance, illuminating the path for those who follow in her footsteps.

Connect with Priyanka: Linkedin | Twitter | Website

Join the global community of testing and QA professionals from around the world and start on your journey. By becoming a part of the BrowserStack Champions Program, you'll have access to the inspiring stories and insights from industry thought leaders. Discover the path to success and be motivated by the achievements of others. Apply now to share your own success story with the world!

BrowserStack Champions Program

Recognizing and celebrating the thought leaders and experts in the field of software testing and development.

BrowserStack

At BrowserStack, we are always striving to provide our customers with the most up-to-date and comprehensive real-device cloud. That's why we're excited to share the story of how we managed to bring you the iPhone 15 for testing on day zero!

The journey to offer the iPhone 15 for testing began long before the actual device hit the market. We understand how important it is for our customers to test their web and mobile apps on the latest devices to stay ahead of the curve, and that's why our plan to launch the iPhone 15 on our real-device cloud started months in advance. As soon as rumors of a new iPhone started to circulate, our team got in touch with distributors and retailers. Building strong relationships with these partners ensured that we had access to the latest devices as soon as they became available. Capacity planning has always been the backbone of our operations, ensuring that we had the resources and infrastructure to support the influx of users wanting to test on the latest device.

The launch of iOS 17 was a pivotal moment in our journey. Since the iPhone 15 would be running on this latest iOS version, our ability to provide testing on day zero depended on the availability of iOS 17. After the Apple announcements, we went back to the negotiating table with our distributors and retailers. These discussions were critical to securing the devices and ensuring that our customers had access to them as soon as possible.

Behind the scenes, our team worked tirelessly to prepare our data centers for the iPhone 15 launch. Our engineers went above and beyond, queuing in line to purchase the devices and transport them to the data centers. This dedication ensured that we had the devices on-site and ready for testing as soon as possible. The procurement team managed to secure the devices across six regions within two hours of the retail sales beginning. The hosting team efficiently accommodated all 300+ devices received within a matter of hours. Simultaneously, the mobile engineering and QA team began working to provide support within 24 hours. This record-time effort allowed us to launch the iPhone 15 on all our products for all our customers.

The actual launch day was a culmination of months of hard work. The BrowserStack team's dedication and commitment to building the world's largest device cloud was the driving factor in ensuring the iPhone 15 was available for testing as soon as it was launched in the US. BrowserStack is proud to be the first to deliver iPhone 15 devices for testing to our customers, enabling them to get their apps ready before the majority of their users could get their hands on the iPhone 15 device.

Why It Matters

You might wonder why all this effort was worth it. The answer is simple: we are committed to helping our customers stay ahead in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. Offering the iPhone 15 for testing on day zero meant that you could test your apps and websites on the latest and greatest devices as soon as they were available to the public. This ensured that you could deliver a flawless user experience to your customers.

So, the next time you test your app on the iPhone 15 using BrowserStack, know that it wasn't just technology at work—it was months of meticulous planning, dedication, and hard work that made it all possible.

Stay tuned for more updates, and keep testing with BrowserStack to stay ahead of the curve!

Featured Content | Product Updates | BrowserStack Testimonials

Featured Content

Mastering Test Management the BrowserStack Way

[Fireside Chat] Learn how you can transform your test management processes to boost your team’s efficiency and improve delivery quality. Register now

Implementing a Winning Test Automation Strategy

[Panel Discussion] Join us for exclusive insights from Walmart Global Tech and F5! Learn how to craft a robust test automation strategy for your team. Register now

Now Test Media Injection via Camera

[Blog] You can now test advanced use cases such as video calls, facial recognition, image searches, and identity verification. Read more

QA Leadership Summit 2023

[Summit] Our much-awaited summit is back! Get ready to discover the future of testing and unlock QA success at your organization! Register now

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Product Updates

Live | Test Observability | Test Management | Enterprise

Live

• Parallel Testing on lower iOS versions: We've got great news! iOS versions 11,12 and 13 are now enabled for Parallel testing. Learn more

See more updates in Live Release Notes.

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Test Observability

• Test Observability now generally available: The GA release of the product brings with it many new features like collaborative debugging, downloadable and shareable reports, enhanced data retention up to 2 years and a lot more performance and stability improvements. Get started
• Experience Test Observability on Sandbox: Sandbox environment allows you to try out Test Observability and its capabilities without integrating your test suites. The sandbox environment also has all the experimental data that you will need to do so. Try now
• Custom Views for personalized observability: You can now create Views in Test Observability to focus on the relevant information. Manage and switch between different contexts seamlessly for quicker insights and improved productivity. Learn more
• Add Comments to test results and insights: You can now add real-time comments on individual test results and build insights, right from Test Listing and Build Insights pages. It enables you to ask questions, add information, tag teammates and enhance team collaboration without losing the valuable context. Learn more
• Archive your build runs in Test Observability: Archiving a run allows you to do away with irrelevant runs and cleans up your testing metrics. Archiving a build also re-calculates all smart tags and manages the QA metrics accordingly. Learn more

See more updates in Test Observability Release Notes.

Back to Top  Product Updates

Test Management

• Test Management is now Generally Available: Test Management is now in GA with new features empowering you to achieve faster releases, higher software quality, and enhanced team productivity. Learn more
• Clone Test Runs: You can now clone test runs from your previous runs, while cloning you can also filter test cases on the basis of results. Learn more

Back to Top  Product Updates

Enterprise

• New SSO Flexibility Options: Administrators have the power to choose between two distinct SSO settings. Required SSO: Boost security with mandatory Single Sign-On for all users. Optional SSO: Specify the domains for which SSO is mandatory. Ideal for guest users and vendors. Learn more
• Service Accounts access for Org Admins: We've redefined the service account permissions, granting Admins the authority to View, Update, and Delete any service accounts within their organisation. Learn more
• Usage Reports REST APIs: Enterprise customers can now access Usage Reports programmatically through our REST APIs allowing for a more convenient way to gather insights for business decisions. Learn more

Back to Top  Product Updates

BrowserStack Testimonials

We are delighted to announce that BrowserStack has been mentioned in 135 reports and won 102 badges in the G2 Fall 2023 Report. This is our biggest-ever haul in the G2 reports. 🚀

Our users have rated us and helped us continue our leadership in the Software Testing, Automation Testing, and Mobile App Testing categories!

Read more:

1. G2 Grid® for Software Testing Tools

2. G2 Grid® for Automation Testing

3. G2 Grid® for Mobile App Testing Software

We’ve been innovating non-stop at BrowserStack and recently announced the GA of three of our newest products:

➡️ Test Observability - Debug faster with Test Observability to improve the quality of your automation suites.

➡️ Test Accessibility - A single platform to identify basic and complex accessibility issues at blazing speed.

➡️ Test Management - Say goodbye to scattered testing efforts and experience this all-in-one Test Management for manual & automated testing.

Below are some of the top G2 badges won by BrowserStack in the following segments and geographies:

Software Testing

• Leader
• Leader for Enterprise
• Leader for Mid-Market
• Leader for Small-Business
• Best Relationship Enterprise

Automation Testing

• Leader
• Leader for Enterprise
• Leader for Mid-Market
• Leader for Small-Business
• Best Results Enterprise

Mobile App Testing

• Leader
• Leader for Enterprise
• Leader for Mid-Market
• Leader for Small-Business
• Most Implementable

DevOps

• Leader Americas
• Leader Europe
• Leader United Kingdom
• Leader Asia
• Leader EMEA

More than 50,000 customers use BrowserStack globally to build world-class products. Learn what our users have to say about us.

Welcome to the third edition of the BrowserStack device features blog series! Here's the link to the last one in case you missed it.

As promised, we'll share the latest device features designed to help Dev and QA teams increase their test coverage across mobile devices in this series.

This blog will focus on testing media injection on real devices.

We’re excited to announce that now you can test image and video injection via device camera on BrowserStack real devices to test advanced use cases such as video calls, facial recognition, image searches, and identity verification.

The camera image injection feature is available across Live, App Live, and App Automate while the camera video injection feature is currently supported for Automate.

How Does It Work? 🔍

Camera Image Injection

Before we talk about the scope of use cases that you could test with these features, let’s look at how it works -

1. Once you log into BrowserStack solution - let's consider App Live, go to the App Live dashboard, and upload or install your app.
2. Once you select the app, click on the setting icon and you will get a list of additional configurations that could be toggled on for the app
3. Enable image injection with the toggle
4. Select a relevant device - we have selected the iPhone 13
5. Once your app loads, on the App Live vertical toolbar, click Files & Media.
6. On the Files & Media prompt, select the Image injection tab.
7. To upload an image, click Upload asset, select the image/QR code/barcode that you want to upload from your system, and click Open.

To test your app using an uploaded image, QR code or barcode:

1. In your app, trigger the image capture or QR code/barcode scanning workflow.
2. Give your app permission to access the device camera.
3. Click the camera shutter button and select Use Photo.
4. Your image has been added

Camera Video Injection

Similarly, camera video injection is available on Automate and will be available across other products in the future. Click here to understand how it works on Automate.

Real-world Use Cases for Media Injection

Now that you have a brief understanding of how to add a video or an image via camera to your app, let’s explore different use cases that you could test.

Capture Images 📱📷

Most mobile apps today enable consumers to capture and upload pictures for different use cases across different industry verticals.

Most social media platforms enable users to click pictures and upload them as stories or posts. Retail and online shopping industries enable customers to search for a product by image, upload pictures for return/ replacement tickets, and even capture a 3D version of their surroundings to assess how a piece of furniture would look at their place. Banking, payment, and financial service-based firms enable users to scan checks, upload signatures, and scan credit or debit cards to capture relevant information. Quite often, even the govt. trusted apps enable users to capture critical documents like passports and driving licenses to keep them handy.

This just goes to show the scope of use cases that QA teams need to test to ensure that the end users are able to leverage the device camera for uploading pictures. Moreover, while simulators and emulators could be used for primitive mobile testing, they are far behind when it comes to testing such critical workflows that need access to device sensors like the camera. With BrowserStack real devices, it’s no longer a hassle and you can test image capture workflows with ease.

Scan QR codes 📱🔍

As per a report by GSM, the digital transaction values grew by 22% over 2022. The same report states that in 2022, bill payments rose by 36% year on year, becoming the third most common transaction type.

Most of us today are used to scanning a QR code to make a payment via mobile banking apps and payment wallets. It’s not uncommon to go to a restaurant and scan a QR code on the table to get an embedded link for getting access to a menu, ordering food, and paying the bill. What’s more the IKEAs of the world need you to scan a product QR code to get more information on the product like raw material, durability, and size. With BrowserStack's real device features, you can easily test workflows that need a QR code scan.

Scan Barcodes  📱🔍

Just like QR codes, we come across bar codes very often every day. Whether it’s a water bottle sitting next to your table, a cell phone, or a hand sanitizer, almost every product in the market has an associated barcode. These barcodes are often scanned to check critical product information such as expiry dates and key ingredients, say for an FMCG company. Moreover, they are also used by businesses to do inventory management, take stalk of the product in the warehouse, and digitally itemize the products sold by a unique ID.

Consumers often use mobile apps to scan the barcode of the product based on their use case. With BrowserStack real devices helping you with access to a real camera, you can test these advanced use cases.

Video Calls 📱📹

Most interaction and collaboration tools provide the functionality of video calls for personal, professional, and social use - from apps like WhatsApp and Facetime for personal conversations, to Zoom and MS teams for official collaboration, to community and matrimony apps that help users connect.

With BrowserStack, you can enable video injection via the camera on real devices. Test your app with video call simulation to ensure that your users are able to leverage the camera for making video calls.

Identity Verification 🕵️🔒

Banking and financial institutions often rely on video captures and face scans to confirm your identity. This is especially critical and common in order to enable bank KYC processes, adhere to AML regulations, and prevent identity fraud. With BrowserStack, you can test your app’s identity verification workflows to ensure your user’s data security and safeguard their identity.

Facial Recognition and Multi-Image Scan 👤🔍

Facial recognition has become a common use case in the industry today. Most app providers support app lock functionality where the user can unlock the app with the help of a facial scan. Moreover, universities, schools, and ed-tech platforms enable students to mark their attendance via facial scan. Service-based apps such as Uber or Urban Company need their drivers and service providers to regularly upload videos as proof of sanitation or service completion. Even the retail industry has app providers that provide a personalized retail experience to their users based on their facial features and recommend what products work best for them.

With BrowserStack you could test one and all of the use cases above with access to video upload via camera on real devices. You can also enable your users to scan multiple images without refreshing the camera by testing the app's functionality based on video input.

At BrowserStack, we are devoted to helping our customers build and deliver best-in-class software and make mobile testing more robust and comprehensive.

With BrowserStack media injection via camera capabilities, you can test workflows that need access to the device camera. These functionalities are available across our manual and automated testing products and on both Android and iOS devices.

We're thrilled to share our latest features with you and hope you find them exciting and valuable!

Learn more about the Camera Image Injection feature on -

Live | App Live | App Automate

And the Camera Video Injection feature on Automate

Stay tuned to learn more about how you can leverage these features to ensure holistic mobile testing, broader test case coverage, accelerated bug resolution, and lightning-fast shipping cycles.

We recently hosted Gulshan Shaikh, Director of QE at Nasdaq, for the ‘Powering Nasdaq.com: Real-Device Testing on Cloud’ webinar. Gulshan outlined how her team overcame the most common testing challenges to deliver world-class experiences to all their customers.

Interestingly, a poll conducted during the webinar revealed ‘real device coverage’ to be the biggest challenge faced by development teams with their testing solutions. Below are the results in order of decreasing magnitude:

1. Real Device Coverage
2. Instant Access to Devices
3. Latency
4. Data Security
5. Customer Support

Gulshan’s team, too, was facing similar challenges before they moved testing to BrowserStack. The bottom line - as software testing becomes increasingly complex, selecting the right test infrastructure platform becomes an important task!

Here are the key takeaways from Gulshan’s session that will help your team transform testing:

1. In-house device labs are difficult to maintain and scale

While in-house device labs seem like a convenient option at the onset, they are difficult to maintain and scale, slowing down your release cycles as your testing requirements increase. Procuring devices and ensuring round-the-clock availability, coupled with maintenance and ad-hoc troubleshooting, introduces inefficiencies into your testing process while adding to the resource load. This ultimately leads to frustrated, blocked teams, delayed releases, and negative customer experiences due to declining product quality.

2. A real device cloud with low latency can help increase release velocity

Today, most development teams are spread out globally. Stable real devices on the cloud, coupled with low latency, are a boon for geographically distributed teams. Whatever the location, the availability of the latest devices to test with minimal effort drastically improves efficiency and collaboration.

Testing on a performant real device cloud like BrowserStack helped Gulshan’s team cut testing time by over 80%.

“What took days was now being achieved in hours.”

- Gulshan Shaikh, Director of QE, Nasdaq

This helped them achieve multiple releases under tight deadlines and turned the testing teams into dependable units.

3. Device coverage greatly impacts customer experience

With popular new mobile devices being launched frequently, development teams need to test on the latest devices as soon as they reach their end users. This is difficult to achieve with an in-house device lab due to logistical constraints and the costs involved. Ensuring you choose a testing solution with diverse device coverage helps your team avoid issues with new devices and have greater confidence in the product.

“Early access [to devices] makes it easier for the design team, developers, and product owners to get feedback early.”

- Gulshan Shaikh, Director of QE, Nasdaq

Take your testing to the next level

If you missed the webinar or would like to watch it again, here’s how Gulshan Shaikh’s QE team at Nasdaq leveraged BrowserStack to transform into a highly available team with quick response times that supported dynamic release cycles.

Want to supercharge testing with BrowserStack’s real device cloud and speed up testing by 80+%, like Gulshan’s team? Get started for free!

We are thrilled to announce the general availability of BrowserStack Test Management, a modern and unified way to manage all your test cases. After an extensive beta launch, we're excited to bring Test Management with new features, empowering you to achieve faster releases, higher software quality, and enhanced team productivity.

At BrowserStack, we understand the challenges that testing teams face in managing manual and automated test cases and test runs. This includes:

😫 Lack of a unified view of the overall testing progress.

⏳ Manual processes in managing test cases and test runs.

🧩 Switching across multiple tools and platforms.

🤝 Limited integrations and complex workflows.

🚧 Lack of scalability to manage increasing test cases.

These challenges can often slow down the test management process, impacting the overall development timeline. That's why we developed Test Management as a comprehensive solution to empower testing teams and drive efficiency in the testing workflow.

Test Management: Key Features and Benefits

💨 Create test cases at lightning speed

• Manage all your test cases in a central location, well-organized using folders and tags.
• Import test cases from existing tools using APIs or CSVs.
• Create test cases with custom fields or define custom values.
• Easily search, sort, and filter test cases with pre-defined parameters.

⚡️ Accelerate manual and automated test execution

• Plan what needs to be tested across manual & automated test cases.
• Track the real-time status of all your test executions.
• Upload standard JUnit-XML/BDD-JSON reports generated by test automation frameworks.
• Integrate with BrowserStack Test Observability to add automation test run results.

🔍 Improve traceability with powerful workflows

• Easily track test cases & test runs through two-way binding via the Jira app.
• Support multiple test automation frameworks such as TestNG, WebdriverIO, Nightwatch.js, etc. Click here to see the full list
• Scale up test automation by integrating with various CI/CD tools.
• Integrate with BrowserStack solutions such as Test Observability, Live, Automate & App Automate.

👀 Gain complete visibility across all your testing activities

• Get high-level overview or drilled-down details of test cases & test runs through a rich dashboard.
• Gain debugging insights into the performance & quality of test runs through Test Observability.
• Monitor historical data, automation coverage & testing trends across tests executed.

By simplifying test execution, enhancing collaboration, and providing valuable insights, Test Management empowers testing teams to achieve faster time-to-market and deliver outstanding software experiences to end users.

To learn more about BrowserStack Test Management, visit our website and sign up for a free trial today.

We can't wait to see how Test Management supercharges your testing efforts!

Stay tuned for future updates and enhancements as we continue to innovate and evolve to meet your testing needs.

Happy testing!

Join our fireside chat, “Mastering Test Management The BrowserStack Way” on 5th Oct 2023, and learn how you can modernize your test management processes.

Welcome to the second edition of the BrowserStack device features blog series! Here's the link to the first one in case you missed it.

As promised, we'll share the latest device features designed to help Dev and QA teams increase their test coverage across mobile devices in this series.

In this blog, we will focus on testing SIM-enabled use cases on real devices.

We’re excited to announce that now you can test your mobile app and web workflows with physical SIM-enabled devices. You can ensure that your users have a seamless experience logging in or making payments on your app and test OTP/SMS-based use cases.

The SIM device testing feature is available across Live, App Live, Automate, and App Automate and is supported across the globe. It is available across Android and iOS devices.

How Does It Work? 🔍

Before we talk about the scope of testing opportunities unlocked by this feature, let’s dive into how it works.

1. Once you login into BrowserStack solution - let's consider App Live, go to the App Live dashboard, and upload or install your app.
2. You would be able to see a list of devices, click on the 'With SIM' tab.

3. The device listing displays the list of SIM and eSIM (iOS only) enabled devices, with device names, OS versions, phone numbers, and network service providers.

4. Select the device to launch your test session. During your test session, you can view the device SIM information by clicking on the device name in the App Live vertical toolbar.

Real-World Use Cases for SIM Testing

Now that you have a brief idea of how to access SIM information on BrowserStack real devices, let’s explore different use cases possible with SIM-enabled devices -

Mobile Payments 📱💸

As per a report by GSM, global mobile money registered accounts rose to 1.6 billion and transaction volumes hit $1.26 trillion in 2022 alone. This just goes to show the scope of mobile payments and why QA teams across the globe are more invested than ever to ensure that their mobile transactions are safe, secure, and successful. With BrowserStack, you can test entire mobile payment workflows including OTP validation and biometric authentication from any part of the globe.

Transaction Processing 📱💰

Most banking and financial institutions have OTP verification to ensure the security of the transactions. Now, you can test the same with physical SIMs available on BrowserStack devices. Ensure your users can securely make payments across the web and mobile apps via OTP-based authentication enabled with the relevant contact number associated with the SIM on your device.

Login and Signup 🔐💻

A lot of apps today, such as Uber, MakemyTrip, and Gmail, need OTP verification when you create an account, log in for the first time, or log in via a new device. This is also called two-factor authentication or 2FA. With BrowserStack, you can test workflows that require OTP-based authentication to allow login and signup on your app.

Here’s a sneak peek into how it works -

Password Reset 🔐🔄🔒

To ensure security, most apps need 2FA for a password reset. This is especially relevant for mobile banking apps and broadly the BFSI industry. With BrowserStack SIM testing, you can test your app’s password reset workflow to ensure users don’t get stuck when they want to change their password.

SIM Binding 📲🔗🔒

Now you can also test app workflows that require SIM-based authentication to make sure your users are protected against scams.

SMS Messaging 💬📱📨

In a world where you get SMSs on anything from retail sales, and hair salon discounts to financial transactions and government notices, it’s unrealistic to expect that your app usage wouldn’t be interrupted by an SMS. What’s more, it might fit right in your product wheelhouse to run SMS-based drip campaigns for your target customers. With BrowserStack, test international MO and MT SMS delivery and all related technical features. You can also test automated SMS campaigns to ensure that they work as expected on your mobile app.  

With BrowserStack SIM functionality, you can access and test on devices with physical SIMs or e-SIMs. These functionalities are available across our manual and automated testing products and on both Android and iOS devices.

At BrowserStack, we are devoted to helping our customers build and deliver best-in-class software and make mobile testing more robust and comprehensive.

What Our Customer's Say 👥 🤝

Here’s a quick read on what our customers feel about BrowserStack device features

OLX Autos is a mobile-first company today, and considering the ever-growing variety of Android and iOS devices in the market, cloud-based testing is the only solution. The way BrowserStack is helping us to scale, especially in automation, is commendable.

Ravinder Singh, QA Team Lead, OLX Autos

With BrowserStack, we get stable results. We run 30 tests on 4 versions of iOS and 4 of Android. Because we have been running our mobile tests on a wide variety of devices and OS combinations on a nightly and weekly basis, we have caught issues before release and done hotfixes. We are able to catch regression issues that weren’t possible before unless we repeatedly did manual testing on our regression builds.

Vidya Sundararaman, QA strategist for front-end applications, Q2 E-banking

We're thrilled to share our latest features with you and hope you find them exciting and valuable!

Learn more about SIM-based device features on -

Live | App Live | Automate | App Automate

Stay tuned to learn more about how you can leverage these features to ensure holistic mobile testing, broader test case coverage, accelerated bug resolution, and lightning-fast shipping cycles.