Companies use cutting-edge technology to create mobile applications to satisfy customers’ rising expectations.

1. What Are Virtual Devices And How To
Use Them For Testing?
Companies use cutting-edge technology to create mobile
applications to satisfy customers’ rising expectations. But ensuring
these applications work accurately while being compatible with
various hardware and operating systems is daunting.
Physical device testing may simulate a more accurate real-world
scenario, but businesses often struggle with testing on multiple
devices. This amplifies the need for virtual devices, emulators, or
simulators.
Simulators are computer programs that simulate real device
behavior, allowing testers to test their mobile applications in a virtual
setting. As a result, they have now become a crucial part of the
testing platforms.
These mobile testing platforms allow testers to test their applications
without needing real devices, multiple operating systems, and
network configurations. This can help businesses dramatically save
testing time and expenses while guaranteeing that their mobile apps
are high-quality and functioning by utilizing a mobile test platform that
supports virtual devices.
But before we dive deeper into virtual devices to see how to use them
for testing. Let’s first learn about them.
What are Virtual Devices?
Virtual devices, called emulators or simulators, are computer
programs that mimic the behavior of smartphones or tablets. This
facilitates the testing of mobile applications without the need for
physical devices. Developers and testers can test their mobile
applications in various simulated scenarios by customizing virtual
devices on multiple mobile app testing tools online to emulate multiple
operating systems, screen sizes, resolutions, and network
circumstances.

2. Virtual devices offer a convenient approach to testing mobile
applications, especially in the early stages of development. Even
though they might not have the same accuracy as a real device, they
offer a cost-effective solution to businesses by letting them test their
software on various hardware and operating systems without
purchasing.
Different Types of Virtual Devices
Emulators and simulators are the two types of virtual devices
frequently used for testing mobile applications. Both have
advantages and disadvantages; Emulators are slow but accurate,
while simulators are faster but may not accurately represent real-
world usage.
Emulators
Emulators are essential components of any mobile test platform. This
virtual device can replicate the hardware and software environment,
such as processor, memory, and storage of physical devices like
smartphones and tablets. Providing testers with an accurate
representation of the device’s behavior.
Emulators are especially helpful for testing mobile applications that
need low-level access to hardware components like the camera,
GPS, or accelerometer. Emulators enable testers to assess the
functioning of the application under various usage scenarios.
Simulating several hardware components ensures the application
operates as intended in real-world circumstances.
Simulators
Unlike emulators, simulators do not replicate the hardware
component but repeat the operating system. They are beneficial for
testing fundamental features like user interface, navigation, and user
experience. Simulators are also a crucial component of mobile app
testing tools online because they don’t need low-level access to the
device hardware and are often faster than emulators.

3. Since simulators may not accurately reflect real-world scenarios,
thus it’s advised to combine them with additional testing techniques,
such as physical device testing or emulation testing, to provide
rigorous testing of mobile applications.
How to use a virtual device for Testing
Mobile application
Follow these steps to test your mobile application using a virtual
device.
Step I: Installing an Emulator
Android Studio’s built-in emulator, Genymotion, and Xamarin are
popular solutions for testing mobile applications. These emulators
allow developers to test their applications across various platforms
without needing a physical device because they can simulate
multiple configurations. The most common emulator for the
iOS mobile test platform is Xcode. It is the official Integrated
Development Environment (IDE) from Apple. It gives flexibility to the
developers to test their applications on various iOS devices, including
different screen sizes, operating system versions, and device
orientations.
Step II: Creating a virtual device
The next step in testing a mobile application is creating a virtual
device. This is accomplished by specifying the operating system,
device model, screen size, and other essential settings.
Several mobile app testing tools online also provide cloud-based
testing services. These tools make it simpler to test the application
across a range of configurations without the requirement for real
devices.
Step III: Launching the Emulator
After creating your virtual device to test your application, it’s time to
test the application by launching the emulator. Select the Android
Studio or Apple Xcode virtual device and click the “Start” or ” Run”

4. button. Your emulator will be launched. Once the emulator is
initiated, programmers can run their apps to find and solve bugs and
check for platform compatibility.
Step IV: Installing the application
You can either use the emulator’s built-in app store or drag and drop
the program’s APK file onto the emulator window to install the
application in the emulator. After the application is installed, testers
can replicate user scenarios to check for bugs.
One can also use cloud-based emulators to test mobile applications
by logging into various mobile test platforms. They can save time and
resources by enabling teams to test apps on multiple devices and
operating systems.
Step V: Test and Debug the application
After installation, you can test the application on the emulator like on
an actual device. Use the emulator’s controllers to imitate touches,
swipes, and other interactions. The debugging tools provided by the
emulator can be used to locate and fix any problems or faults.
Conclusion
Selecting the appropriate emulators and simulators is crucial to
guarantee the smooth operation of your mobile applications or
websites. Cloud-based testing solutions, on the other hand, can help
you save time and money while delivering better test results.
The premier cloud-testing platform, like pCloudy, can help to alleviate
the limitations imposed by conventional emulators and simulators.