Automated Test Input Generation for Android: Are We There Yet? (E)

TLDR

Mobile apps require thorough testing, prompting research into automated input generation, especially for Android where numerous techniques vary in input strategies, exploration tactics, and heuristics. This study compares the main Android test input generation tools to assess their strengths and weaknesses. We evaluate the tools on ease of use, cross‑platform support, code coverage, and fault detection. The results reveal the current state of Android input generation and suggest research directions that could improve testing effectiveness and efficiency.

Abstract

Like all software, mobile applications ("apps") must be adequately tested to gain confidence that they behave correctly. Therefore, in recent years, researchers and practitioners alike have begun to investigate ways to automate apps testing. In particular, because of Android's open source nature and its large share of the market, a great deal of research has been performed on input generation techniques for apps that run on the Android operating systems. At this point in time, there are in fact a number of such techniques in the literature, which differ in the way they generate inputs, the strategy they use to explore the behavior of the app under test, and the specific heuristics they use. To better understand the strengths and weaknesses of these existing approaches, and get general insight on ways they could be made more effective, in this paper we perform a thorough comparison of the main existing test input generation tools for Android. In our comparison, we evaluate the effectiveness of these tools, and their corresponding techniques, according to four metrics: ease of use, ability to work on multiple platforms, code coverage, and ability to detect faults. Our results provide a clear picture of the state of the art in input generation for Android apps and identify future research directions that, if suitably investigated, could lead to more effective and efficient testing tools for Android.