Develop Reference

Android: How to I test for bugs on a device I don't have?

I just finished my first Android app. I tested it in the emulator and on my personal device (Nexus 6p). Other folks are installing it and it's working for them. My dad, however, also gave it a try. He has a Samsung Galaxy S6 running 6.0.1, and the app crashes on startup for him.
My guess is it's something touchwiz related. The thing is, he's not the most technical person, as far as getting a logcat would go. So... what are my options to try and investigate this issue?

Crashlytics can help you to retrieve the stack trace and exceptions when your app crashes.
But if you want to test and fix before the deploy, another options is Xamarin Test Cloud, it's a paid solution, but have a free-trial
[EDIT]
Searching in the internet, I found something similar to Xamarin Test Cloud, I personally have not tested this solution, but you can check it out.
TestMunk, they have a free plan.

This is an aspect of the extreme fragmentation of the Android ecosystem. I've seen bugs that manifest only on a specific device from a specific carrier. For example, at one point, Verizon broke ACTION_HEADSET_PLUG on one of their tablets, so that no app would ever receive it. It had worked fine on an earlier firmware version. Naturally, they refused to acknowledge the problem. The same tablet model from T-Mobile never exhibited this issue.
This is why I don't trust the emulator. It's fine for early testing, but you still need to test on the actual hardware that you intend to support. There are online services that test your app on a wide variety of real devices to try to uncover the weird vendor-specific issues. I've never used these services, so I can't recommend one.

Is it possible to develop Android Native apps on cyanogenmod?

considering new high-end smartphone, so choices are hard.
Been looking at OnePlus One but it says it's running it's own OS cyanogen which is based off 4.4 .
Question: If I get that phone, can I still develop apps the normal way? or is there any problems that arise?

You can never precisely know what kind of stuff the vendor did.
But... considering that OnePlus One is just an Oppo child brand (used to fool the buyers :) ), it could be assumed that they have some experience in the field and haven't done anything utterly stupid to the native layer that would make it non-usable.
I believe it should be OK, as it is still mostly android, sometime even more orthodox than other vendors.

WinPhone7 needed for a porting?

I have an android app with more than 500,000 users. I want to try to port it to WinPhone7, but I haven't any smartphone with WinPhone7. Is a real device needed to publish an app on WinPhone? Is there some developper phone?

First of all, I will say that for some scenarios, there is no real substitute for have a physical device to test against. Having said that, I would suggest that 99% of what most apps will do can be developed and test perfectly well on the emulator that comes with the developer tools.
The advantage of the emulator is that you can write and test without shelling out for the hardware and then signing up to create.msdn.com to get it (officially) unlocked, but once you are ready to deploy to the marketplace you will need to sign up anyway.
In your case, I'd say the main word in your question is "try". You don't seem confident in being able to port to the platform so the emulator route seems like the best starting point.

Your will find a Windows Phone 7 emulator in the Windows Phone SDK. You can download it for free on create.msdn.com.

There is an Android to Windows Phone API mapping tool and Windows Phone 7 Guide for Android Application Developers white paper as described on the Windows Phone Developer Blog that you should find very useful.
For getting a development device, you should reach out to Brandon Watson or your local Microsoft WP7 dev rep.

Simple answer - no, you don't. There are plenty of applications out there that were published without being tested on an actual device. Whether it's a good idea or not - that is the main question here. Depending on your application type and its behavior, you might actually need a device.
Also, another problem is the fact that the resources used by the emulator are different from the resources used by the actual device. That being said, if your application runs just fine in the emulator, it will not necessarily run the same way on a device.

You can use the WP7 emulator to test your application. But if you want to deploy it on a real phone, you will have to unlock it though the App Hub portal. That will cost you 100 dollar/year though.

As you and others have rightly pointed out, you can start porting your application using the emulator. There are differences in the emulator and real devices. In particular, to answer your question, emulator does not take pictures.

If your Android app really has half a million users, MS will happily give you a developer device (nearly) for free.
Contact #BrandonWatson or #FrankPR on Twitter.
From my experience I can tell you, that the emulator works very well. But once in a while you will stumble about a problem that you don't understand why it happens. Then you try it on the phone and it works... So... The answer is yes...not!

Is it possible to virtually test Android application on different hardware?

I am looking for a way (maybe impossible) to test my PhoneGap Android application on different phones / hardware. As I am able to obviously test it only on my phone, but some people are reporting that my app doesn't work / crashes / explodes on their phone. Is there any way how can I test my app on different phones without buying actual device ? Maybe virtually like running Android in an emulator or somehow ?
It is kind of frustrating knowing that the app works perfectly, but some people are not able to even start it...
EDIT: I am certainly testing the app in Android emulator, but that only helps to test on different Android versions. But I am looking for a way how to test in on different phones without actually buying it - if it is possible ?

There is a company called DeviceAnywhere: http://www.deviceanywhere.com/ that seems to be doing that.
But it may cost you. If you don't want to buy all those devices, somebody else will have to. Plus they have to build the infrastructure to support remote access. Does not sound like something you would get for free.

Like DeviceAnywhere, there is another company that will let you test your application on multiple hardware devices. It https://appthwack.com/ . They do have 100 mins of free plan to test out, so go ahead and try this out.

You can run it through the emulator that is provided with the Android development kit through Eclipse. But this will only help test the code on different versions of Android not necessarily on the different hardware so if it is really a hardware problem this will not help but if it is related to the different versions of android this should help you find the problem.
Here is information on the emulator and how to use it: http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/building/building-eclipse.html#RunningOnEmulatorEclipse

How does a solo/small group of developers test on multiple devices?

First off, sorry if this is too subjective, I just didnt know how else/where to ask.
Anyway, in the light of all my recent questions, I'm getting ready to release an Android app soon, and most of the testing has been done on my phone, the Droid. I really dont have the money to test on "multiple" devices, nor do I know anyone with an older phone that I could ask for help that would possibly get any kind of bug. Not to mention, when I do get a bug report, how would I go about fixing it for that particular phone without having to buy it to make sure it actually gets fixed, or that the person didnt just came across a one-time freakish accident of a glitch?
How do you guys solve these kinds of issues?

You can test the vast majority of issues via the emulator:
Check out this data on platform versions and screen sizes to get an idea of what configurations you should test for.
Based on that data, I'd test at least one configuration with API versions 1.5, 1.6 and 2.1, and versions with medium and high density resolutions.
If you wanted to test physical devices, I would guess that the G1 and the Droid would be the top two... G1 would give you the lower API versions, and Droid would give you the 2.1.
Depending on your application that may be sufficient. Applications that make heavy use of OpenGL extensions might need to test further, since that is the area where there is the most difference from device to device. I don't think that the emulator is sufficient for that. See this thread on the differences.
Other than that, I would just send out a demo version of the app to a few friends or an appropriate forum. If you find problems once you launch, collecting log data from users having problems can be very helpful. I wouldn't worry too much about device specific problems though, I don't think they are that common.

Disclaimer: I'm a Motorola employee in our developer services team. I don't speak for other OEMs.
Cover the range of devices that are enumerated in the "supports-screen" manifest element. Also, take into consideration when compatibility is mode on and off. Screen sizes and market filters seem to me to be the biggest things that trip developers up. Some of this you can test with the emulator and others you need real hardware.
OEMs provide SDK "addons" that allow you to run emulator images with the skin and screen size/density of their devices. Download addons from the OEM's developer sites. Motorola's addons are available at developer.motorola.com. HTC and Samsung do the same.
A commercial alternative is Mob4Hire. They have real people on real networks who can test your app for you.
Good luck

I have few friends wich have different android devices. Before app publishing I give it to them for tests. Sometimes any users submit bugreports to market, sometimes sends it to you by email. There is impossible to have all android devices and test own app on it. This is ok.

It might be worth having a look somewhere specialist such as http://www.xda-developers.com/
They've got a sizeable community there of reasonably knowledgeable people and its not uncommon to see people posting betas of apps there for consumption and feedback. There are also dedicated subforums for each phone which may assist when attempting to resolve problems on certain handsets.