There are over 1 million apps in both the Google Play store and the Apple App store. In other words, you have a ton of competition, and that number is increasing every day.
In order for your app to be successful, in addition to providing utility, it needs to be flawless across platforms, easy to use and intuitive.
If your app doesn’t work like you intend it to, chances are the person who downloads it will seek to replace it. And with so many options, they will find a substitute quickly.
One way you can ensure your app is ready to roll is by testing it extensively. This, however, can obviously be expensive and time-consuming, and in today’s globalized marketplace, you might not be able to see certain aspects of your app that could be tweaked to accommodate more of an international audience.
Crowdtesting: Just Look at These Benefits
Thankfully, a new service has emerged that accelerates the testing process and reduces the costs traditionally associated with it.
Modeled after crowdsourcing, crowdtesting is becoming increasingly popular for many developers who wish to release strong iterations of their work without stomaching heavy costs associated with testing.
Anything that reduces expenses is attractive, but the benefits of crowdtesting expand well beyond reduced costs. Here are its significant benefits:
1) There are so many platforms, connection speeds and geographies that you have to consider when making sure your app works as you intend it to.
With crowdtesting, you’re able to access a geographically disparate group of testerswho have different technical backgrounds, different connection speeds and different platforms. This allows for much quicker testing.
2) Different testers see the world through different eyes, and crowdtesting enables you to pick every tester’s brain. Even if you are the most technology-savvy person in the world, there’s a good chance someone with lesser or different skills might notice something you don’t.
If you’re making a peer-to-peer fundraising app, for example, a tech wizard might notice something wrong with the functionality of the app itself, while someone else might suggest incorporating a feature that allows users to send Bitcoin to one another.
3) Rather than having to hire testers internally, crowdtesting allows you to do so on a sort of freelance basis. This mproves your cash flow while also eliminating the need for you to recruit and train potential employees who might not pan out in the long run anyway.
4) As a developer, it’s likely you know your way around the apps you engineer like the back of your hand. But what’s a no-brainer to you might not make any sense to someone else.
Crowdtesting ensures other people can speak to your app’s usability. In other words, crowdtesters become a sort of virtual low ranking in the App Store that is kept off the public record. You find out, though, and can improve your app to ensure future customers don’t rank it similarly.
5) Even the most popular apps stand to benefit from crowdtesting. In theory, every app can be improved in one way or another.
Testbirds, a crowdtesting startup which has raised millions of dollars in its brief history, decided to crowdtest Google Maps. From long loading times to suggestions about improving the interface, the testers even had ideas about how to improve the world’s most popular app.
The More Eyes, the Merrier
Even the best developers in the world could stand to benefit from an extra pair of eyes—or many extra pair of eyes—taking a look at their work.
As a programmer seeking to launch a successful app, it’s important you do your due diligence and put in as much work as is necessary prior to unveiling your work to the public. As much as 65 percent of startups fail because they move forward with a product release before it’s ready.
Odds are you’ve tested your apps before. But did you test them thoroughly enough? Crowdtesting empowers you to do so affordably and quickly, ensuring your app is ready when you unveil it.
Crowdtesters are almost certain to find something that needs to be fixed in your app or, at the very least, suggest a way you can improve it. As a developer, the promise of a better, more refined product is one you shouldn’t pass up!
