🕵 Mobile Visual & Behavioral Testing

Priority: P1 (HIGH)

[!IMPORTANT] Tier 2 (Methodology): Strategy for cross-platform mobile UI, lifecycle, and device audit. Tier 3 (Domain): Native iOS, Native Android, Flutter, and React Native platforms.

🧪 Testing Mindset & Layer Fidelity

Analyze diff and select the correct test layer:

Unit / Widget / Component: In-memory UI/logic tests (RNTL, Compose UI, Flutter Widget). Fast, but NEVER counts as native device verification.
Native Device E2E: Real binary execution on simulator/device via Appium/XCUITest/UiAutomator/Patrol.
Answer: 1. What changed? 2. What breaks? 3. Visual & behavioral audit across 10 mobile scope areas.

📋 Ten Mobile Testing Areas

Functional/UI: Gestures, navigation flows, and synchronization.
Lifecycle/State: Warm resume, retained recreation (config change) vs real process replacement/relaunch; saved-state reconstruction.
Device/OS Matrix: Justified matrix (smallest/largest screen, tablet, min supported OS).
Permissions/Platform: Dual-path (allow/deny/revoke), priming dialogs, deep link routing.
Offline/Sync: Network loss, optimistic UI, idempotent sync, spec-defined conflict policy.
Install/Upgrade: Clean install (fullReset) vs upgrade migration (noReset + DB migration).
Accessibility/Presentation: VoiceOver/TalkBack, Dynamic Type, Safe Area, soft keyboard.
Performance/QoS: Cold/warm startup, scroll jank/FPS, ANR/crashes, memory leaks; battery only with an approved objective on a physical device.
Security/Privacy: Hardware-backed secure storage (Secure Enclave / Keystore / encrypted preferences), logout cleanup, no log PII.
Release Smoke: SHA-256 build artifact digest, signing context, device ledger, honest BLOCKED reporting.

🛠️ Core Tool Mapping

Scenario	Appium Tool / Verification
System Alert / Permission	`appium_alert` (verify dialog; never auto-dismiss tested prompt)
Performance / QoS	`appium_mobile_performance_data` (CPU/Mem/FPS during flow)
Visual Check	`appium_screenshot` (base/diff; mask dynamic tokens)
Layout & A11y Audit	`appium_get_page_source` (validate hierarchy, labels, safe area)
App Lifecycle	`appium_app_lifecycle` (background, terminate, activate, deep_link)

🚫 Anti-Patterns

Browser/Mock Substitution: Never treat browser viewport emulation or mocks as native device verification.
Silent Reset Flipping: Never switch from fullReset to noReset to mask clean-install/migration failures.
Alert Suppression: Never auto-dismiss or bypass permission dialogs being tested.
Ignoring QoS: Apps crash/lag under load. MUST check QoS from performance data.
Blind Tap / Happy-Path Bias: Never ignore empty, loading, error states, or tap without verifying state.
Single-Device Tunnel Vision: Generalizing one simulator pass to all platforms is forbidden.

📁 Evidence (C6 Alignment)

Record: app artifact SHA-256 digest, build variant, target device/OS, driver rung, and reset mode. .appium-mcp/<session>/ holds <AC|step>-<before|after>.png, <label>.source.xml, perf.json, and video.url. Unavailable hardware/drivers must be reported as BLOCKED (driver: appium).

🔗 References

Coverage Matrix: mobile-testing-matrix — 10 areas × 4 stacks, expected-outcome sourcing (§0), failure-safe teardown (§12).
Scenario Details: scenarios — 20 end-to-end mobile procedures.
Appium MCP: appium-mcp
Driver Ladder: driver-ladder

common-mobile-visual-testing