I searched for similar questions but I didn’t find recent topics.
Many companies seem to use Appium but there are many tools available today like Waldo, Testgrid, even Playwright emulator.
I need to start automating some stuff on an iOS app available on browser and on the Store.
Any good feedback ?
Thank you.
Hi Jean,
take a look at maestro:
Hi @jean-l I believe the most efficient way to do both mobile and web and cross-mobile-and-web tests is testRigor. There you just write test cases as if they are for manual testing like so: https://youtu.be/8-LcECT4jjQ
Disclaimer: I’m associated with testRigor.
there’s one called Moropo, no affiliation but I see the founder posting on LinkedIn - might be worth taking a look to see if it suits your needs
Thanks for the mention @willyjamesfold
I’m Tom, one of the co-founders of Moropo
Let me know if you have any questions 
My team had a look at Maestro, too, dismissed it. However it’s not a bad tool to get you started as long as you tell yourself that it’s just to get you up and running, but is too simplistic and lacks power. If I was in your shoes, I would ask 2 questions:
Be prepared to discard tools, all the while creating a foundation in mobile test environments is my advice. Easier to ask forgiveness from the boss for choosing a wrong tool, than to not have a foundation in your CI/CD setup because you spent time being fully committed to one tool.
My company is using AREX Test, a testing platform by recording the live traffic from online environment and replaying it to the test environment for regression testing.
And we have improved single release regression testing efficiency by 75(from 1h to 15min)
Welcome to the Community @lucal-22 .
AREX is not really a mobile testing tool, it’s an api testing tool, a very different problem. The question was about mobile device orchestration and execution not web mocking, perhaps a different thread?
Once again welcome again at any rate
For mobile test automation, my top recommendation is Appium. It offers cross-platform compatibility for iOS and Android, supports both real devices and emulators, and provides seamless integration. It simplifies the testing process while ensuring comprehensive coverage.
If you’re open to alternatives, consider the Robot Framework. It’s a versatile choice, supporting web, mobile, and desktop testing. With an array of libraries, it’s adaptable to different testing needs and environments. The choice between Appium and Robot Framework ultimately depends on your specific testing requirements and team preferences.
You can consider reading my article for more suitable tools: Best Mobile App Testing Tools (Latest 2023 Updated) - Testrig
Hi Conrad,
Do you have an example of something you’ve not been able to do with the Maestro framework?
At Moropo we run an extended version of Maestro and we’re always looking to find the limitations (and hopefully remove them!)
I got my senior developer to look at the tool, and that’s the big feedback I got. We have 2 apps on Android and iOS, one of them has a service that runs in background. The dev just found it easy to get simple tests working, but the harder stuff like how we have interactions with external browser, 2 processes on Android, and how we also interact with system notifications, as well as the device filesystem as well, along with things like floating toolbars and other integrations directly into the OS means all but the most extensively documented tools really work for us.
We write tests in Python, the same high level test runs on a completely different looking desktop native app, on multiple platforms and has a page-object type layer that follows roughly the same desktop workflows on mobile. There are a lot of gaps but mostly we test end-to-end lifecycle and that involves using API’s to create user account, install app, login and so on, but we only have Python and Java bindings for some of these parts, so begin able to drive our mobile app and our desktop app in one piece of easy to debug code in concert really requires a lot more power than Maestro appears to have when you spend just a week looking at it. The ability to run pieces of our test engine and control them via fast RPC calls and some of our strategy decisions make the tool a bit heavyweight. Which is a real pity, because I’m tiring of maintaining our framework, so if I started a new job tomorrow, it would definitely be my starting point.
Right now we are having fun with Test case management systems, which is yet another integration I am sure to have fun with.
Thanks for your detailed reply Conrad.
If you’d ever like some assistance automating some of the more complex cases, let me know. I love pushing these frameworks to their limits (and beyond 
).
Best
Tom
I’m so sorry, I didn’t notice the “mobile”!
Thank you for your kindness.
What tool would you recommend for mobile testing if you had the choice?
I think, the big trouble is that in mobile testing, the tooling ecosystem is a train-smash. The fruit-based vendor is not known for developer-friendly platform and tools anyway, and that sets a low bar for the non-fruit phones test and automation integration simplicity. The platforms are secure by design, but we are going to see this lock down and make our jobs harder on other platforms soon. I’m just starting to try make some headway into a certain portable device that is provisioned using a browser based OS. Not tools exist yet.
And guess what, even though the “laptops” that many kids use in university are technically tablets with a keyboard, there is once again no automation tooling available to speak of. So I guess @chopsuey , until one of the tools support these ubuquitious new browser-based devices, which can run non-fruit based apps, and the same tool supports fruit-based devices… it’s going to be a “hobsons choice” 
TestArchitect supports native mobile apps and web apps on iOS and Android. It also supports web apps, and desktop apps. It is free as well. https://testarchitect.com