People are in the holiday rush, hopping from store to store, purchasing gifts for their loved ones, and using exclusive holiday deals. But once the shopping frenzy cools off, guess what happens next?
They turn to streaming apps to watch their favorite show or movie with their families and relax. This isn’t an isolated event; considering the comfort that steaming apps offer, everyone will be using its services during the holiday season leading to a huge traffic spike.
Traffic spike is good, right?
They’re good; unless your streaming app crashes during the holiday. Popular streaming apps like Netflix, Hotstar+, HBO Max, etc., have crashed during season finales of popular shows like Wandavision and Mare of Easttown. Overwhelming traffic isn’t the only reason for the crash/outage. Streaming apps & live streaming apps are often poorly tested for various scenarios. But we’re here to help you out; learn how to make your streaming apps crash-proof for the holiday season in this article.
Streaming apps: Why are they so popular?
Let’s take a quick look at why streaming apps are where they’re today; two things paved the way for it – high-priced cinema tickets and unreliable cable channels. Audiences were looking for an alternative – something that’ll not empty their pockets and is easily accessible, that’s when streaming apps came in.
Streaming apps aren’t costly; they are reliable and have the best TV shows and movies ready for the customers to watch with just a click.
And a whole generation of audiences migrated to streaming apps and have never looked back. This popularity is why testing these applications is more important than ever.
Why streaming apps should be tested?
A common misconception is that many people think streaming apps are all about network speed and connectivity – they’re wrong.
Yes, having a good internet connection will make your apps run faster, but that’s not why you must test it – testing is necessary because it can help your streaming app stand out from the competitors.
Here are some of the popular mobile streaming apps,
Netflix
Prime Video
Disney+
Hulu
HBO Max
Apple Tv+
To stand out from the competition, your streaming app should be,
Breakage free.
Capable of handling huge traffic volume.
Stream videos without lag even during a slow internet connection.
Able to work on various applications.
All these can be evaluated only by testing the applications, and we’ll show the top 5 streaming apps testing methods in the next section.
Streaming App Testing - Making apps crash-proof for the holiday season
Functional testing
Functional Testing helps to check whether the application works as per the pre-defined requirements. When a user plays a video, the subtitle must be in sync with the audio and video; any latency here will affect the user viewing experience.
It was reported that HBO Max accidentally streamed the unreleased Zack Snyder’s Justice League movie when users clicked on the Tom and Jerry movie. This is why it is essential to perform functional testing before the holiday season to avoid frustrating your customers during the holiday.
Performance Testing
Start by testing how your streaming apps perform under various circumstances. A good application must run without any lags or crashes, irrespective of the load. Here are the metrics that one must consider while load testing your apps,
Buffer time – Check how long a viewer has to wait before the video starts playing after clicking it. Record the time the buffer bucket takes to fill on low data connectivity.
Bit rate – It measures the number of bits transferred per second to the end user – bit rate usually defines the resolution and quality of the video.
Lag ratio – This metric defines the time taken for buffering the whole video. The lag will be higher when the download speed doesn’t match the bit rate.
Data consumption – Calculating the amount of data consumed by the viewer to stream a video will show you the demand for the data.
You must check these common metrics while load-testing your streaming app. Simulate various traffic loads and test how your application performs under different loads. These metrics will show your app’s capability under various conditions; which helps streamline your application.
Security Testing
Accessing the streaming apps requires a viewer’s sensitive details like their account and financial information. A data breach could quickly put these sensitive details into jeopardy.
Disney+ got attacked by hackers, who stole customers’ login credentials and hacked into their accounts using brute force. The holiday season will increase the demand for streaming apps, and that’s the right time for cyber attackers to cause disturbances in the system. Once the servers come under attack, it’ll lead to application downtime until sorting out the issue. You don’t want to put your customers in that position during a holiday. So, secure your apps with end-to-end encryption to safeguard your customer’s accounts and boost customer trust.
Compatibility Testing
Reports say that around 40% of customers access mobile streaming apps. Mobile OS testing is essential to ensure its compatibility. Test Streaming app videos, the billing process, and profile UI on multiple devices, browsers, and OS before the start of the holiday season.
Usability Testing
The popularity of Netflix is not just because of the latest shows or movies in its database; it is also due to the unique experience it offers to the users. If you want to retain users, it is necessary to make your application user-friendly.
Test the user interface and navigation and ensure that users can search and find their shows in just one click. Also, they should be able to make changes to their profiles and account information easily. Making it more challenging for users will make them migrate to your competitors. Prevent it from happening during the holiday season, test the Usability and deliver the best streaming experience to your users.
Make your streaming apps crash-proof with QAonCloud
Streaming apps have made it easier for the audience to watch their favorite TV shows or movies in the comfort of their house. And during the holiday season, streaming apps will attract a huge volume of users as they’ll be looking to enjoy a movie with their families.
And you don’t want your app to crash on that occasion; this is why we wrote this article to show how important it is to test your application to avoid crashes/downtime during the holiday season. We listed the different testing types to make your streaming apps crash-proof, but to carry out these testing methods, you need a team of experts to test your application against multiple scenarios; this is where QAonCloud comes in.
QAonCloud has a dynamic team of QA experts that can test the application under various conditions while you focus on other business activities. Get more subscriptions and a stronger position in the streaming platform market through our end-to-end streaming app testing solutions. Here is your 15-minute free consultation.
