# Development

The importance of beta testing and user feedback in app development

Red Rocket teamAug 13, 20246 min read

Users come to a mobile application to satisfy their needs, find solutions to a problem, or just to spend a good time. Fulfilling these tasks can be hindered by technical and visual bugs. Some of them may simply be annoying elements, while others may limit the user experience. That's why it's important for companies to thoroughly beta test and gather user feedback before a full app launch.

Want to know how to improve app usability with user testing? In this article, we have collected detailed information on the impact of beta testing on app success and share with you cost-effective ways to gather user feedback for apps. Learn how to conduct these important steps for the final app launch. Maybe this knowledge will help you save a lot of money and time.

The Importance of Beta Testing and User Feedback in App Development

What Is Mobile App Beta Testing?

Pre-launch testing or beta testing is a crucial stage in the mobile application development process, during which an app is tested before it is released. This is true because the primary objective of beta versions is to pinpoint various problems or glitches that would otherwise go unnoticed but would cause significant harm to the application once it is made public. This testing is important to guarantee that the end-users are not going to face discomfort while using any product or service. Today, experts distinguish between two main types of testing:

Closed beta testing involves testing of the application being done by a limited number of individuals who are selected by the developers. These testers could be current or potential employees, partners, investors, or power users. Closed beta testing is essential as it helps the developers to capture feedback from a restricted domain.
Open beta testing allows the testing to be performed by more users, meaning a diverse group of users will be exposed to the product. It also allows anyone to download and use the app. The advantage of open beta testing is that the final users will provide feedback in the conditions close to real ones and some problems can be detected which were not noticed with internal testers. The disadvantage of open beta testing is that some problems can be discovered only when an imperfect app is launched to the public.

As you might have already realized, developers can identify app bugs through beta testing. Therefore, it is an integral process of every company.

5 Ways to Perform Beta Testing

The area of mobile application development is actively growing. New testing methods are appearing that allow organizing versatile testing of programs. We have gathered information about 5 key beta testing methods that are most often used by developers.

1. Functional testing

The name of this testing suggests that the main object of testing here will be software functionality. The testers will have to find out whether it meets the stated requirements. Functional testing of mobile applications implies a number of checks:

Analyzing the installation process.
Testing of the registration and authorization process.
Operational testing.
Testing the possibility of updates.
Testing of device-specific functions.
Testing of services: offline and online performance.

Moreover, you will also need to enable resource testing to evaluate the functionality of the program. For example, check memory costs, automatic resource release, etc.

2. External events or interrupt testing

Of course, today most smartphone apps work only when you have a stable Internet connection. But what happens if your device gets disconnected from the Internet or other factors interfere with it.

This testing implies that the specialist tests the application for correctness of work in case of receiving calls, messages and alerts. It is necessary to understand how the program will behave when there is no and restore the Internet connection, connecting and disconnecting from the power grid.

3. Performance testing

In general, performance is one of the main things you should look at before the final release of an application. However, performance comes in many different flavors, including:

Device. The tester finds out how stable the program works on different gadgets. Thanks to this, developers can fix errors that lead to delays or data loss when using the application.
Server. How fast is the server responding? Is the data being processed promptly? The tester needs to answer these and some other questions.
Network. The specialist first of all needs to test latency and throughput. To do this, you need to connect the device to different networks (3G, 4G and 5G networks).

The best solution is to beta-test all the above aspects to better understand the potential bugs.

4. Mobile application security testing

Unfortunately, cases of hacker attacks and scams are still occurring in 2024. You need to take care of the security of your application for users. This is especially true for banking or finance applications. Your users' interests and data should remain in safe hands. During this testing, software vulnerabilities are identified and the security of the application is assessed. The tester needs to find out if third parties can intercept user data.

5. Usability testing

As statistics show, every second user leaves an application or website if they are not comfortable using it. During usability testing, the program is determined to be convenient for the user. A specialist needs to take into account the most important parameter - user experience. The objects of analysis are buttons, bookmarks, settings, menus, content, navigation, etc.

How to Measure the Results of Beta Testing?

The benefits of user testing before app launch are obvious. It helps to detect and solve small and large errors in time. However, many people don't understand how to understand whether testing has been done successfully or not. Here's how to measure the results of beta testing of an app.

User engagement. If your beta testing is open, pay attention to the user engagement metric. It's important for you to find out how many people downloaded the app and how often they opened it and spent time there.
User behavior. One of the best ways to understand if your app is user-friendly is to see how people who have just downloaded it use it. This way you will understand if the developers have chosen the right navigation.
Conversion rates. Any app has specific goals and necessary targeted actions to be performed by the user. Check what ratio of users have reached the target action.

At the end of the past stage, developers should conduct measuring the success of beta testing for apps. This will help to adequately evaluate the work done.

What Is User Feedback?

When we talked above about measuring the success of beta testing for apps, we didn't say anything about customer feedback. Yeah, we just decided to tell you more about the importance of real user feedback in app development.

This form of feedback involves information given by target users who actually use an app developed by a particular developer. High-quality feedback from users is essential input that communicates to the actual users of the application their grievances, preferences, or improvements and additions they wish to see in the application. Users typically provide feedback to developers by being asked to use early releases of an app by a group of target users and then willingly submitting their feedback through a survey. Users may be presented with questions regarding the app and their proficiency in its usage, or the UI and UX design and anything else in between, or users may be encouraged to offer criticisms or suggestions freely.

5 Reasons Why Collecting Feedback Is Important

It's not hard to guess that you can improve app performance with user feedback. What other important reasons are there for collecting app user feedback?

1. Improving product quality

Crashes, error messages, layout issues, and other bugs affecting the application can be resolved by developers before the final release. Combining feedback data allows for determination of the key concerns in regards to quality and product reliability and can properly prioritize these issues.

2. Optimizing user experience (UX)

It must be noted that the usage is a critical factor of the app adoption and continuance. When it comes to beta testing, this is the period when you are supposed to discover which aspects of your mobile UI/UX livid testers or were considered as non-intuitive. Feedback may highlight issues with the layout of a process, the location of a feature, an interaction that is opposite to what a user expects, tiny texts, and other UX issues.

3. Check functionality and performance

Using a free app with unreliable features or containing problems with crashes, for instance, makes users run away. Real-life feedbacks in the beta version from a wide range of devices show that there are some basic problems with your app which are required to be fixed.

4. Adaptation to user expectations

The feedback that you get helps you establish a sort of insight into what testers expected or desired in an app that you have not yet implemented in yours. This they do in a manner that enables one to better target the needs and wants of the user in the mobile experience.

5. Strengthening user loyalty and involvement

Inviting users to participate in beta testing shows that the company values their opinions and is ready to take their wishes into account. This helps build a community around the app, and increases user loyalty and engagement, which can eventually lead to positive feedback and recommendations after the official release.

Ways to Collect User Feedback

Surprisingly, many business owners still don't know how to effectively gather user feedback on a digital product. We have prepared some cost-effective ways to gather user feedback for apps.

In-app user feedback tools. Incorporation of in-app user feedback tools is probably one of the most effective and straightforward approaches of gaining sentiments of the users of your application. These are feedback buttons and widgets that provide users with options to give feedback. You can easily add the ability for users to leave comments or ratings right in the app.
Email surveys. Usually, when registering for an app, the user leaves their actual email. Why not use this to your advantage? In terms of methods, the most unobtrusive and easy to implement is the email survey for collecting structured feedback from users. Other times, surveys allow you to include questions where you can select that they rate functions or features on a scale, the things they like most/least about something, or where improvements should be made. Make sure that surveys are short, and design questions in a clear and easy-to-answer form.
Social media. You most likely already know that to promote your digital products, you should stick to marketing campaigns including social media. Use Facebook, Instagram, X (ex. Twitter) to share useful information with users. Ask social media followers to share their opinions about their experience with your app.
Direct communication. When you contact users in person, you have a better chance of getting an in-depth response. Try using a phone base of users to get their opinions about the app.

Which of these methods is the most effective? This question cannot be answered in one sentence because the result will depend on the specific case. The best solution is to use different methods of collecting user feedback. This is how you can reach more of your target audience.

Conclusion

As practice shows, there is no such application that does not have at least one small error. Even large corporations creating mobile applications can make different mistakes. Therefore, the final stage of any developer's work is beta testing and collecting feedback from users. If you can find out the weaknesses of the created software in time, you are very likely to save money, time, and effort.

Frequently asked questions

When to conduct beta testing for an app?

Any mobile app should pass beta testing before its final release. Usually, beta testing starts right after the developers hand over the finished product for further testing.

How do beta testing of iOS and Android apps differ?

Each operating system has its own peculiarities of mobile application testing. Android and Apple iOS differ from each other both at the level of concepts and at the level of specific technological solutions. The design of applications may also differ depending on the operating system.

What are the most common mistakes during beta testing of apps?

Actually, the nature of an error depends mostly on the type of application and operating system. However, testers highlight the errors they encounter most often. These include sudden crashes, excessive resource consumption, incorrect data usage, and content translation problems.

All articles

Contact Us

Interested in joining? Contact us to create a high-quality digital product together.