What is the recommended way of testing an app on a device? The emulator is slow, mostly unresponsive and a cpu beast on my machine, so I use my phone to test my app. When I make a change to code, Eclipse builds it automatically, and then I debug it on the device. Is this the most efficient way to test small changes in code?
Android has some information on testing here. Personally I've found that testing code is much faster on a device. Other options without a device is to use something like Android x86 and run it in virtual environment like VirtualBox - this can be faster than the emulator. In my opinion, to really make sure your application is working as expected (especially with graphics and memory usage) is to test with the device(s) you intend to deploy the application on.
That's how I test my code, the emulators and on an actual device are the only ways I know of. I usually use an actual device, but I think you can keep an emulator running to speed up time a bit, but not too much.
It's in my opinion a good way to check the general functionality of your application. If everything works fine, I would use the emulator to check with different versions of android/screen sizes/resolutions etc. Maybe you can ask a friend who has a more powerful PC. The best possible thing is of course that friends/family/relatives etc. own Android devices so you can test your application / let it be tested on real devices.
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I'm starting the studies about android development with Android Studio and I was wondering if it's possible to build applications only running code on a physical device or do I need to emulate others devices in order to avoid errors, etc.?
The Android Studio emulator barely runs in my machine, so I need to know if it is essential for the apps development or if there are other alternatives.
If you need to run on different versions of Android, just what #CrazySports101 mentioned, but also test different screen sizes & resolutions to check UI responsiveness, it would be better to use emulators.
Obviously, you can start development using either a single emulator or physical device, but during your final testing stages, it would make sense to use emulators to test all your device specific usecases.
And yes, there are few limitations with using an emulator, like it cannot emulate network connectivity, other real-time data, such as GPS, sensors, battery issues, etc. Or usecases such as calling, receiving SMS is not possible as well.
If you have a physical device, you can just use that. No need to run the emulator at all. An emulator is mostly used because it is convenient and easy to test different versions of android. For example, some libraries/UI component may behave differently on different phones.
It is better to use a physical device if your app is using radios like Bluetooth etc.
If you just started to learn android studio and your device can barely run emulator, I would recommend you to go for physical device. Emulator makes you possible to try your product on different version of android and screen ratios, but you can not emulate network connectivity, real-time data, GPS, sensors, battery issues, calling, receiving SMS is not possible. But if you are trying to launch a product in a market you should go for emulator as you would need to try your product on different versions as well.
This is related to question Android Emulator vs Real Device
What is the current state of art of Android emulators and what are the differences that developers should be aware of. I'm working on an app that uses bluetooth and thinking of adding a feature related to phone calling. Since I can't afford to test on all real devices so what should be the guidelines for developer to test such apps on emulators ?
Genymotion rocks. According to the blog post of Cyril Mottier it is even much better then the hardware devices.
http://www.cyrilmottier.com/2013/06/27/a-productive-android-development-environment/
I test basically everything on several real devices. The only thing I use an emulator for is making sure layouts look good on the configurations I don't have available(I don't have a 7" tablet, for instance). This is only after just about everything else is done.
Functionality is going to be nearly the same on any real device, and the emulator is no guarantee, since it doesn't seem to act like any real device in some cases(openGL, for instance).
Testing usability on a desktop with a mouse just doesn't make sense, unless you're writing something that going to be using that input method. There's a big difference between swiping with a finger and click-dragging with a mouse.
Even if you have the fastest emulator/virtualizer in the world, how can it be any faster than just picking up the phone next to you?
I'm developing an android application, since there are many assets, the generated apk is near 10M. Now deploying it to a simulator is very slow, often takes me 3 or 4 minutes, which is unacceptable.
I've used Robolectric to test most of the logic, which is very fast. But sometimes I still need to use emulator(e.g. adjust the UI), which waste me a lot of time.
Is there any way to make it fast?
This is my experience, too. Debugging with the software emulator is very slow.
It is much faster to use a real device in debug mode. However, you may run in other limitations
Well since somebody suggested Android x86 as an alterante testing Emulator, I'll also present my favorite. This might not be an alternative for everyone but for me it's perfect! Use the Bluestacks Player. It runs Android 2.3.4 and is very fluent and fast. Sometimes even faster than a normal device. The only downsize is, that you can just test Apps on the API Level 10 and just on one screen size, but it's perfect just for testing if it's working or not. Just connect the Player with the adb by running
adb connect 127.0.0.1
After compiling it installs instantly. Very impressive, considering I have a rather average computer hardware(dual core with 4 GB of RAM)
I've found android-x86 image on VirtualBox many times faster for deployment than an emulator running on same machine, sometimes even faster than a USB device.
EDIT
Please use the android image provided by vmlite, not the one provided by android-x86, and refer to this important question: How to change the screen size of vmlite android?
Actually, I absolutly never use the Emulator, which is way too slow in every situations.
I test and debug my apps directly on real devices (and use the ADB screenshot features when I have to pixel-check some screens..)
Hope this helps...
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
I started developing android applications. And am testing with the android emulator. Do I really need android phone before releasing it for public usage?
Short answer No. You can test and build a android application package with the SDK and an emulator. But I would say there are usually many things which it would be wise to test on a device.
Personally I have noticed that the emulator does not give a good indication of response times for UI controls. It is usually necessary to move functionality which has long processing times into background threads to maintain user interactivity without the 'force close' pop-up. Testing the effectiveness of your UI responsiveness must be done on a phone to be meaningful.
Network connectivity is another aspect which can be vastly different on a phone, 3G or wifi.
Device sizes and Android platform versions can be tested effectively on the emulator.
Some phone allow hot-swapping of the SD card (replacing the SDcard without turning off the phone). I am not sure how to replicate this on the emulator.
There may be many more things which may only become apparent when using your application on a real device. I would strongly suggest to always test under real conditions when feasible for any commercial project.
From a technical perspective there's no reason why you can't develop purely on the emulator. You're not going to be able to test on every available device, so there's always going to be possibility of device specific bugs that you've missed.
However, I'd strongly recommend getting an actual phone to test your application on.
For me the biggest difference between an actual device and the emulator is the difference between using the interface with your fingers and using a mouse. Interactions which make sense in the emulator sometimes don't work as well when you start using touch on the screen. So if you develop purely on an emulator you'll won't lots of little improvements to your UI that would obvious when you used your app on a phone.
You can't feel a real app in your hands until you have a real phone. (I'm telling you as an Android developer)
So, developing w/o real phone is possible, but real phone gives you a lot more experience, fun & usefulness.
It depends on what type of application you're developing, for serious ones you need at least one device to test it on. For complex applications you would need a range of devices, for example with or without hardware keyboard, different navigational button etc. For basic, simple applications you'll probably do fine with just the emulator.
I would imagine with games you would definitely need to test on real devices.
Thanks to you all. I am going to get HTC Legend and test it, so that I can hope that my apps can be used by others :)
You guys suggest me HTC Desire or HTC Legend?