Just like Google’s Cloud Test Lab for android developers which lets developers to comprehensively test their apps on top android devices for free, Amazon today announced the launch of its own device farm which will allow developers to test the apps on physical smartphones and tablets over the cloud.
Developers need to upload the apk of their app to AWS Device Farm platform to run various automated tests across devices. This new device farm works similar to that of its competitors, the test will iterate through all screens and buttons. Once the app is executed in various devices, a detailed automated and actionable report so that all errors can be fixed. Without writing any user written tests, robot app crawlers are aware of where to look for and will find for crashes.
While Google is still to launch its Cloud testing tool, Xamarin is already offering the Test Cloud service which supports close to 1600 devices and is available since 2013. Device Farm also allows you to script your own tests with the help of popular test frameworks like Appium (which Xamarin also supports), Calabash and Espresso. AWS Device farm capabilities can be extracted even more when used along with the Amazon Cognito, Amazon API gateway, Amazon SNS, Amazon Lambda as it further makes it easier to build, deploy, test, and iterate great mobile apps.
Pricing and Availability:
AWS Device Farm will be offering a free tier under which initial 250 minutes are free and after that the price is $0.17 per device per minute or one can also opt to pay a flat feee of $250 per month. Xamarin’s pricing plans in comparison starts at $1000 for 200 monthly device hours with no capping on number of devices you can test. Xamarin offers 60 minutes to access its services for free.
