Android compatibility tests

Question

I am working on a research project to document the best possible android compatibility testing procedures for my company's app, we are majorly looking at a solution to reduce the no of physical devices we purchase. Other than emulators/simulators are there any other way to test android apps for compatibility on a wide range of devices without having to buy the devices? Are there any research papers/documentation that I can read through?

Answer 1

Some really good services have popped up that allows testing against multiple devices to be quite simple. Here are just a few:

https://aws.amazon.com/device-farm/

http://www.keynote.com/

https://try.test.io/

https://testobject.com/

I've personally used AWS's device farm and found the feedback and error reporting amazing!

Answer 2

Since it is an Android question, you probably want to use the Firebase Test Lab (previously integrated into Google Play console). It's here: https://firebase.google.com/docs/test-lab/

It has a ton of devices and they can execute various tests for you. You could run your non-Android Unit tests locally or on a CI server, but Test Lab allows you to run Espresso Android UI tests on their devices.