Android emulators are a trending term in cloud computing. It is a virtual tool that helps to test the software made for Android devices. In 2021, the total number of mobile phones sold to end users was almost 15 billion, which is expected to reach 18.22 billion by the end of 2025. All the notable mobile device companies, like Motorola, LG, Pixels, etc., have Android phones. Due to the high market demand for mobile handsets, the supply needs to be increased. Due to the quick supply of these mobile devices to the end-users, the developers fail to conduct rapid testing of all the functions of the mobile phone-based applications.
To test the software application, checking all its functionality on real devices may not be feasible. Furthermore, there might be some budget constraints and the non-availability of real devices. As its alternative, an Android emulator in the cloud is the solution. This blog attempts to discuss the benefits of Android emulators in the cloud.
What are Android Emulators?
Before you understand the benefits of using Android emulators in the cloud, let us understand what Android emulators are. The Android emulators are virtual tools that mimic the interphase of the real devices’ operating system and help in remotely testing the mobile phone-based application. This helps to save time and money.
However, Android emulators cannot replicate some of the features of the real-time devices like the push-up notifications, battery life of the devices, and checking the facilities of incoming calls while using the app. Nevertheless, virtual testing devices like the Android emulators over the cloud-based system offer undeniable advantages and thus making them suitable for early testing in the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Android Emulators and Their Benefits in the Cloud
There are several benefits of Android Emulators in the cloud. Some of the benefits of Android Emulators are discussed below.
Quick Emulator
Android emulators, including the Android Developer Studio, are powered by Quick Emulator (QEMU). It is a kind of Android emulator that operates in the cloud. QEMU is open source and is a versatile tool. It runs over various workstation CPUs/Oss and can emulate various guest CPUs/Oss. This versatility of the Quick Emulator makes it an important virtual tool for testing diverse apps across diverse user interfaces.
Accurate Mimicking
Android Emulators mimic the device hardware and thus helps test the functions of mobile phone devices in the cloud or remotely. Post mimicking, it translates the guest devices’ application binary interface (ABI) to match the host devices. This concept helps to understand the underlying mechanism of cloud computing with the help of Android emulators and allows the developers to run it like an OS in their systems.
Hardware Acceleration
Under the cloud-based system, the Android emulator (x86 Android ABIs) (application Binary Interface or the system images), now available for supporting hardware acceleration over most computers, helps accelerate the testing speed. If the CPU of the computer supports the Android emulator, it can be easily installed to increase the speed of the overall operation of the system.
Fast testing of Apps
Under the hardware acceleration, the Android emulator helps in running the virtual devices under the cloud-based computing system to speed up the overall workstation and thereby help in the faster testing of the apps and other mobile-based features remotely. This helps in faster deployment of the mobile handsets to the end users.
Cost-effectiveness
Testing software applications on Android emulators in the cloud is cost-effective or budget-friendly as there is no need to buy real devices. The fast user interface of the emulators, easy online access, and feasibility of testing devices with different operating systems via accessing the Android emulators help to save significant amounts of time. Teams can perform mobile testing at a much lower cost with the help of Android emulators compared to buying real-time devices.
Debugging Suitability
Software testers face certain difficulties while capturing errors over real devices. With virtual testing of the Android application over the cloud with the help of an emulator, hassle-free debugging occurs. Android emulator also helps in easy and fast identification of the bug followed by fixing the bug in no time without altering the other basic features of the mobile-based application. Alternatively, the debugging process is leveraged by using the Android emulator, a debugging tool.
Cross-platform Testing
Virtual testing with the help of the Android emulators in the cloud helps cross-platform testing. Cross-platform testing assists in understanding how the app will function under different browsers. It also helps to understand how the layout of a website or an app will look under different browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Mozilla, etc. This is, however, not possible in real-time Android devices as they are mainly infused with one search engine (especially Google Chrome), thus, limiting the capability to check the efficacy of the software over other search engines.
In the dynamic world of mobile app development, ensuring seamless functionality across multiple platforms is essential. LambdaTest offers a cutting-edge cloud-based platform that enables you to effortlessly test your Android applications on a diverse range of virtual devices.
With LambdaTest’s cloud-based online Android emulators, you gain access to a comprehensive collection of real Android devices, versions, and configurations, all accessible through the convenience of a real device cloud. Say goodbye to the complexities of managing physical devices or virtual machines, and embrace a scalable and efficient testing environment.
Reliability
One might think that the virtual testing over the cloud-based system might lead to the generation of false positive results. However, virtual devices like the Android Emulators over cloud-based testing can accurately imitate a wide range of features of different Android devices along with their diversified operating systems. Overall, these features enable the software developers to easily perform the tests over the different platforms of the required devices.
Fast Speed
It helps faster transfer over the virtual devices compared to the physical devices connected with the help of USB. All you need to do is drag and drop the files under .apk format from the computer to your virtual mobile device, and this helps in quick copy and, at the same time, helps in faster testing of the mobile application remotely.
Easy to use
The Android emulator is considered very useful when planning to work with physical sensors, like in the case of the accelerometer. Suppose the developers are testing the specific app feature dependent upon the sensors. In that case, it will be much easier to configure the settings with the help of the visual and extended controls of the emulator.
Parallel Testing
They help in parallel testing and test automation virtually. By parallel testing, it means that the emulators can test the effectiveness of the app over different search engines, operating systems, and compatibility with different apps simultaneously. This aspect of the parallel test can’t be achieved with devices in a local setting.
Easy to Execute
Android Emulators help conduct parallel test automation via several external frameworks like Appium, Espresso, and XCUITest. Tests on the Android-based emulators over the cloud are mainly driven by software. Such that multiple tests can be run on tens of emulators with the help of the single click of a button without having to manually prepare each emulator for the process of conducting the tests.
UI Experience
Android Emulator eliminates the need to check the display layout of the apps over different mobile devices. Android emulators enable playing games over a bigger screen using their computer under a much more powerful display. By playing games over the Android emulators, one can check the resolution, color contrast, zooming quality, ratio aspects, and other displays from the perspective of the user’s interface (UI) of the mobile phone device. Here, a gaming addict can also check out the best travel monitor and ultralight portable 4K touchscreen monitor from “Desklab”, which is one of the leading portable touchscreen monitor manufacturing companies in the world, along with the big names. These flat screen monitors are lightweight, trendy, safe for eyes, super responsive, gaming ready, and come with brilliant 4K colors.
No complex technical problem
The impending technical problems with the apps of the Play Store are extremely common problems over personal computers. For example, the apps can easily get downloaded from the Play Store. However, when a user attempts to install the app, the operating system shows a problem, and the mobile device display and other operations come to a standstill. Android emulators can resolve all these concerns. The installation and execution of the app for the first time on the device can be checked and tested easily with an Android emulator. There is no need to download and install the applications over different devices in real-time.
Electrical conductivity and battery life
A desktop computer helps you to play as long as you want as it is always connected to an electrical connection and is not battery driven, unlike mobile phones. Under mobile phone-based applications, playing video games can be done as long as the batteries are charged. Downloading the Android emulators over the desktop helps remotely control the mobile phone over the laptop or desktop computer. Thus, you can play games as long as you want, irrespective of the mobile phone’s battery life. However, the portability of mobile phones needs to be exchanged or shared with the concerned desktop-based application.
Testing compatibility with more than one app
Through the installation and usage of Android emulators, more than one app can be tested simultaneously for the presence of bugs and other operational features. This helps to save a lot of time and money. Moreover, testing more than one app at a time helps launch a mobile device faster.
Special features
The use of the emulators also helps test the browser layout and mobile web testing. These two tests are also possible with real device testing, but Android emulators are selected for overall cost-effectiveness and time constraints.
Bonus Benefit
Although one would first test on the emulators and then test on selected real Android devices, just before the final deployment, in certain cases, it makes complete sense to perform- real-device testing simultaneously with the Android emulator testing in the cloud. If one is trying to achieve a fast release velocity, running a test over the real devices before CI/CD pipeline can help the software tester save some significant amount of time by eliminating the requirement for a separate slot of real-time device testing.
Conclusion
The use of Android emulators in the cloud is extremely helpful for the rapid testing of the applications and other functions of Android mobile phones. In this blog, we have discussed the Android emulator’s beneficial features. A summary of those beneficial features includes easy manufacturing and dispatch of the high-in-demand mobile phones in the market from some famous mobile phone manufacturers, cost-effectiveness, user-friendly approach, less time consumption, and parallel testing.
Proper installation and buying of the actual application are important. However, if one has time, real-time devices are recommended for Android mobile phones as they are 100% accurate. But under the absence of time and high market demands, using Android emulators in the cloud is very popular and extremely effective.
