Mobile Testing Overview
End-to-end automated testing for iOS and Android apps on ContextQA's real device farm — no emulators, no local device lab required.
Who is this for? SDETs and QA managers who need to test iOS and Android apps without maintaining a local device lab or writing platform-specific automation code.
ContextQA extends its no-code AI test automation to native mobile applications. You can upload an APK or IPA, select a real device from the cloud device farm, generate test steps from a plain-English prompt, and execute across multiple device/OS configurations — all without writing a single line of code.
What Mobile Testing Covers
ContextQA supports the full mobile QA lifecycle:
Platform support: Android (APK) and iOS (IPA)
Real device farm: Tests run on physical devices, not simulators or emulators, giving accurate performance and rendering results
AI test generation: Describe a user journey in plain English; ContextQA generates and executes the steps against your uploaded app build
Mobile gestures: Tap, swipe, scroll, long press, pinch, and zoom are all supported as first-class test actions
Session recording: Every execution is video-recorded; review replays and AI logs from the Run History page
Parallel execution: Run the same suite across multiple devices simultaneously using mobile concurrency slots
Test plans: Combine multiple device configurations (iOS 16, iOS 17, Android 13, Android 14) in a single orchestrated test plan
How Mobile Testing Differs from Web Testing
App entry point
URL
APK or IPA file upload
Device selection
Browser + OS
Real device from device farm
Interaction model
Click, type, navigate
Tap, swipe, scroll, long press, pinch/zoom
iOS signing
Not applicable
Provisioning profile required
Concurrency unit
Browser session
Device slot
When creating a test case, selecting Mobile Application as the target platform switches the UI from URL input to app build selection.
Key Concepts
Device Farm
ContextQA operates a cloud-hosted fleet of physical Android and iOS devices. You do not need to provision, maintain, or connect any local hardware. Devices are identified by make, model, and OS version (for example, Pixel 5 on Android 14, or iPhone 14 on iOS 17).
Mobile Concurrency
Each workspace has a fixed number of concurrent mobile device slots. When a test plan runs with parallel execution enabled, ContextQA distributes test cases across available slots. Use the get_mobile_concurrency MCP tool to check how many slots are available before triggering a large run.
Provisioning Profiles (iOS Only)
iOS apps distributed outside the App Store must be signed with an Apple Developer provisioning profile. Before running any iOS test, upload the .mobileprovision file to ContextQA via Settings → Provisioning Profiles. ContextQA stores it securely and applies it automatically when installing your IPA on the device farm.
App Builds
Uploaded APK and IPA files are called "app builds" within ContextQA. Each build is stored centrally in Test Development → Uploads and can be referenced by name across test cases and test plans. You can maintain multiple versions of the same app and select the correct build per test run.
Navigation Map
Mobile testing spans several areas of the ContextQA workspace:
Upload APK / IPA
Test Development → Uploads
Manage provisioning profiles
Settings → Provisioning Profiles
Create a mobile test case
Test Development → New Test Case → Mobile Application
Filter mobile test cases
Test Development → Filter → Test Type: Mobile
Create a test suite
Test Development → Test Suites → Create Test Suite (Platform: Mobile)
Build a test plan
Test Development → Test Plans → Create Test Plan
View execution results
Test Development → Test Plans → View
In This Section
Prerequisites — app file requirements, iOS provisioning profiles, device farm regions
Uploading Apps — APK and IPA upload workflow, versioning, file size limits
Creating Mobile Tests — test case creation, device selection, gesture support, AI generation, execution
Mobile Test Plans — test suites, multi-device test plans, concurrency, environment setup, scheduling
Test iOS and Android in parallel — same workflow as web Book a Demo →
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