What is Cross Browser Testing and Why Do You Need It?

A Salesforce research found that 73% of customers want businesses to understand their requirements and expectations. Why wouldn’t they? 

With the dramatic growth of the IT business in the last two decades, everything is now online. You name it, and you get it online through websites and applications.

It has led to many companies in the same industry trying to sell similar products and services to customers online. With people now having several alternatives, what will make them choose you?

The answer to this question is a seamless user experience on the website and web applications on all devices and browsers. If you can achieve it for your customers, you can easily outperform rivals and make your customers stick to your services.

As a result, it is time to understand the significance of cross browser testing for your business. By performing cross browser testing to check that your application works fine on all combinations of browsers and devices, you can retain customers and even add new ones!

Want to know more about it? Then, delve deeper into the dynamics of cross browser testing with us and see how it is crucial for all business entities.

What is Cross Browser Testing?

A website or web app incorporates various components such as text and multimedia. These features must perform as planned to deliver a top-notch customer experience. It is where cross browser testing helps companies.

Cross Browser testing is a form of non-functional testing that allows you to see if your website functions properly on:

• Browser-OS combinations like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Safari on any operating system, such as Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
• Smart devices like smartphones, computers, tablets, and laptops.
• Assistive tools like screen readers for people with disabilities.

Therefore, cross browser testing allows companies to provide uniform user experience across an ever-growing spectrum of browsers/devices.

The Significance Of Cross Browser Testing:

Now that you know about cross browser testing, let us see how it can affect your business from a customer standpoint. So, don the hat of a customer and understand through the following example:

Suppose there is a buzz about an online shopping platform. You are excited to try it and buy some new clothes for yourself. Open your Dell laptop with Windows OS, go to Google Chrome, and type the web address in the search bar.

Everything is going fine right now. But as soon as the website opens, your excitement turns into a frown. Why? Because images and texts are all over the page. As a rational person, you check your WiFi connection and reload the page. 

But the results are still the same. What would you do next now? There are two options: 

• You will go to another browser like Firefox or Edge and try your luck, or
• You will move to a competitor’s site and buy yourself some other shirt.

The latter will harm the online shopping platform in the long run! Now, understand why this happened with the business in the first place. 

Simply put, they did not perform cross browser testing! Cross browser testing aids in identifying browser-specific compatibility issues so they can be resolved quicker. Since they did not do it, they never discovered that Google Chrome showed errors in the Windows operating system.

But why might the same link work on Mozilla Firefox but not Google Chrome? Well, we have answered that for you as well.

Although browser vendors follow the Open Web Standards, they interpret them differently. Remember that every browser renders HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in its own way, thus it is inevitable that the web developers verify the compatibility of the website or web app across multiple browsers or versions of the same browser. 

With this, you can ensure that you do not abandon a significant chunk of your existing and potential customers just because your website does not function on a particular operating system and browser combination.

How To Perform Cross Browser Testing?

If you’ve made it this far, you already know how crucial cross-browser testing is in web development. Now, you should know how it should be carried out for your business needs. 

There are two important things to take into consideration when performing cross browser testing:

• The Features You Are Testing

When performing this testing, you must verify whether all integral visible elements, such as text alignment, photographs, and videos, function as intended. Moreover, it is vital to check for any malfunction across some browsers.

Next, check whether your web page is loading on time. If there are delays, discover the cause and address them before launching your final product into the market.

Finally, ensuring that all the application activities continue operating on the user’s actions is critical. A user query should return the required results because even the tiniest of inconveniences to customers can cost you bucks.

• The Browsers You Are Selecting

With so many browsers, devices, and operating systems combinations available today, choosing which ones to test can be demanding. Furthermore, the permutation and combinations of browsers and OS systems will deepen your problems. 

Hence, you must create a simplified method for picking top browsers for cross browser testing.

For instance, Apple users use Safari and can spend considerably more than others. As a result, luxury brands must focus on Safari compatibility if they wish to keep their customers intact.

Moving further, let us talk about Microsoft Edge. If you target corporates who often use Microsoft Office tools for business purposes, checking Microsoft Edge compatibility should be on your checklist.

Finally, if your target is Android users, then Samsung Internet and Google Chrome compatibility is necessary.

Remember, these are some of the top 20% of browsers that account for over 80% of global internet traffic. 

Therefore, this is one of the most important criteria to consider when launching your product. So choose browsers, devices, and operating systems depending on popularity in the market.

While these are some of the ideal steps for conducting cross browser testing, manually selecting and testing across different browser-OS combinations is not ideal in most cases. 

Suppose you want to test your app on 1000+ browsers, OS, and device combinations. Now, going through each of the 1000+ combinations and seeing if your app works fine on all is tough and practically impossible to check it thoroughly without leaving behind anything untested. 

To make it more challenging, imagine discovering a bug in one of the combinations. It will become highly time-consuming and energy-consuming for you.

Want to save yourself from trouble? It is where automated cross browser testing comes into the picture! 

With the help of automated cross browser testing tools, you can create automated test scripts, execute tests, and run them with minimal effort instead of manually testing your web page on each browser. 

As a result, you can conduct multiple test executions across different browsers and save time and effort! To make it simpler for you: we have also found the right tool for automated cross browser testing as well. 

TestGrid is one of the leading platforms for cross browser testing. Users can use it to test websites and apps across various operating systems, browsers, and mobile devices with varying OS versions, assuring compatibility across all browser-OS-device combinations.

So, consider everything we have told you and develop a cross browser testing plan that aligns with your business’s objectives.

Conclusion:

As business owners, you cannot afford to launch your website or web app without performing cross browser testing. Because if your customers have a poor user experience, you will lose them and fail to add new ones too.

As a result, create a specific methodology and choose the right product for cross browser testing before launching your application in the market. 

When it comes to the right platform, TestGrid should be your go-to platform for all testing-related needs. 

TestGrid is one of the most trusted  platforms for scriptless cross browser test automation that makes it simple for users to test their mobile applications and websites. Users can also carry out API testing, performance testing, and other types of testing. 

The platform has features including a user-friendly design, robust reporting tools, and custom integrations to suit every user. Moreover, it allows you to quickly build and perform automated tests and utilize current workflows and procedures to obtain faster feedback on the quality of your application. 

All-in-all, it guarantees that your software solutions are released to the market as soon as possible in a cost-effective and reliable manner. So, start your software journey with TestGrid today!

Also Read:

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