How to Keep Your App Bug Free in 2024

You know the feeling when you open an app and it rudely dumps you to the home screen or worse, freezes and paralyzes your device, turning it into no more than a dumb brick in your hand.

Mobile bugs are a problem now more than ever: As per a report, the average American spends more than five hours a day on their mobile device and 89% of the time they’re inside apps. As you know, if consumers meet with poor user experience or app instability, they are unlikely to make a purchase or, heaven forbid, may abandon the app completely, never to return again.

An analysis of mobile app usage by eMarketer showed that as Americans’ in-app time goes up, the number of apps they’re using is slowly declining.

“In 2016, US smartphone users used an average of 21 apps per month on their smartphones,” according to the survey. “By the end of the forecasting period, that number is expected to drop to 20.1 apps.”

These statistics clearly put a lot of pressure on mobile developers to keep their apps bug-free.

The rigorous testing and debugging are required to keep an app bug free. Without the proper tools, staring at a computer screen will only keep you wondering where to even begin testing. Fortunately, there are a number of solutions that can save a sleigh-load of developers’ time when it comes to search and squash bugs.

As you evaluate which solution to use, consider the below mentioned five keys to effectively gather data on crashes and bugs. With the right bug reporting, the developer will be able to ensure a smooth in-app experience for consumers.  

5 Keys to Gather Data and Diagnose Mobile App Crashes and Bugs

1. Video Screen Capture of User Activity

Seeing things from the user’s point of view will allow the developer to view the exact steps that triggered the crash or the freeze. Actual footage is a heck of a lot easier to tell a story than a spreadsheet when explaining the app cause.

2. Console Logs

Dive into the code to see exactly what went wrong. Console logs help the developer to parse functions and variables on a line by line basis to make sure everything works properly. 

3. Network Traffic Visualization

Monitor performance statistics from the incoming and outgoing HTTP and HTTPS requests. Chart visualization will help an app developer to quickly identify crippling load spikes.

4. Crash Call Stack

Retrieve the call stack to analyze the program execution sequence (the business logic of the application), the state and values of the objects and variables alive at the time of the crash.

5. Integrations

Plug the assimilated crash data into the favorite software (Slack, Asana, Bitbucket, Trello, et. al.) and shorten the bug fix lifecycle.

Practices to Avoid for a Bug-Free App

As you evaluate which tool to use, make sure you avoid these common pitfalls of bug reporting software:

1. Keep the Coding Simple

You don’t want something that creates more problems than it solves. Find something that is just one line of code and doesn’t increase the app size by over 300KB. Also, if the tool supports video recording, make sure it’s not streaming the video, which would overwhelm the app’s data load. Video should be kept on local storage and take up no more than 4MB.

2. Pick your App Analytics Tool Wisely

It’s critical to not violate the user’s privacy. This can be especially tricky with live screen-capturing. The right bug reporting tool will obstruct any fields with sensitive information in the video recording. One way to check on this is to ensure the bug reporting tool passes all app store certifications and uses only public APIs.

3. Don't Take a Toll on  Battery Life

Try to find something that has a negligible impact on battery life. Your users will thank you.

Conclusion

As we enter 2021, users are even more sensitive to unstable and underperforming apps caused by bugs and dump crashes and it takes even more rigorous testing to launch a bug-free app.

A bug reporting tool will help consumers have a smoother in-app experience and give mobile app developers more expedient resolutions and better QA processes that will help them get a solid eight hours of blissful shut-eye.

By Manish

Sr. Content Strategist

Meet Manish Chandra Srivastava, the Strategic Content Architect & Marketing Guru who turns brands into legends. Armed with a Masters in Mass Communication (2015-17), Manish has dazzled giants like Collegedunia, Embibe, and Archies. His work is spotlighted on Hackernoon, Gamasutra, and Elearning Industry.

Beyond the writer’s block, Manish is often found distracted by movies, video games, AI, and other such nerdy stuff. But the point remains, If you need your brand to shine, Manish is who you need.