Android App Testing

android-app-testing

Live, end-to-end testing of a built Android APK on an emulator (or device): install, launch, drive every screen/feature, watch for crashes & ANRs, review UI/UX, and emit a structured works/doesn't-work report. Companion to web-app-testing and desktop-app-testing — all three share one report format (references/report-format.md).

Two paths (use the primary)

• PRIMARY — direct local adb (scripts/androidtest.sh). Fully validated, no gateway needed. Everything below uses this.
• OPTIONAL — claude-in-mobile via the Lab gateway (richer semantic locators, autopilot crawler). Use it only after confirming the gateway sees a device/emulator; if it does not, follow references/claude-in-mobile-path.md. The adb path covers the full loop without the gateway.

Prerequisites

• Android SDK with adb + emulator (default ~/Android/Sdk/...; override ADB/EMULATOR).
• An AVD (AVD or the first emulator returned by emulator -list-avds). The emulator does NOT auto-boot — step 1 boots it.
• The APK to test (a path on this host).

The driver

scripts/androidtest.sh wraps the verified adb drive loop. Commands:

androidtest.sh boot   [<avd>]            # launch headless, wait for sys.boot_completed
androidtest.sh ready                     # serial + boot/model/android; exit 0 if ready
androidtest.sh install <apk>             # adb install -r -g
androidtest.sh launch <pkg>[/<activity>] # am start (or monkey LAUNCHER if no activity)
androidtest.sh stop   <pkg>              # am force-stop
androidtest.sh shot   <run_dir> <name>   # screencap -> evidence/<name>.png (pulled to host)
androidtest.sh tree   <run_dir> <name>   # uiautomator dump -> evidence/<name>.xml (host)
androidtest.sh taptext <run_dir> <text>  # find text in a fresh UI dump, tap its center
androidtest.sh tapxy  <x> <y>            # input tap
androidtest.sh swipe  <x1> <y1> <x2> <y2> [ms] # input swipe
androidtest.sh text   "<string>"         # input text into focused field
androidtest.sh key    <BACK|HOME|ENTER|…># input keyevent
androidtest.sh current                   # current focused activity/package
androidtest.sh logclear                  # logcat -c  (call before a feature)
androidtest.sh crashes                   # grep buffer for FATAL/ANR/SIG/died

All primitives were live-validated (2026-05-29) against an Android 15 AVD.

Workflow

1. Boot & confirm. androidtest.sh boot (waits for sys.boot_completed), then ready. Create the run dir ~/.agents/docs/sessions/<app>-android-test/run_<id>/.
2. Install. androidtest.sh install <apk>. Note the package name (aapt dump badging <apk> | grep package, or adb shell pm list packages -3 after install).
3. Launch & map. launch <pkg>; shot/tree the first screen. Parse the uiautomator XML to enumerate clickable elements, text fields, tabs, nav targets. Build the feature checklist (merge with any user-supplied spec) — one row per feature in the report. Write plan.md in the run dir.
4. Exercise each feature. For each: logclear → act (taptext for semantic taps, tapxy for coords, text/key for input, swipe for gestures) → shot + tree for evidence → check current (did navigation happen?) and crashes (FATAL/ANR?). Classify PASS / PARTIAL / FAIL / BLOCKED.
   • Prefer taptext over raw coordinates — it survives layout changes (coords don't).
5. Detect failures after each action:
   • Crash — crashes shows FATAL EXCEPTION / signal …(SIG…) / has died. → FAIL.
   • ANR/hang — crashes shows ANR in, or current stops changing / UI frozen. → FAIL.
   • Wrong result / no feedback — screen didn't change when it should, or wrong screen. → PARTIAL/FAIL.
   • Can't reach — needs login/data/permissions the run lacks. → BLOCKED.
6. Reset between independent features — stop <pkg> then launch to avoid state leaking.
7. UX/a11y pass — score the rubric in the report format from the UI dumps + screenshots. Nodes in the uiautomator XML with empty text AND empty content-desc on interactive elements = accessibility findings.
8. Write the report → report.md + result.json in the run dir, per references/report-format.md.

Evidence

Run-dir layout per references/report-format.md: evidence/*.png (screencaps), evidence/*.xml (uiautomator dumps), logcat captures, result.json. The driver pulls screenshots/dumps from the device to the host run dir automatically.

Gotchas (live-validated)

• The emulator drops its adb registration if adb kill-server is run — avoid it; if a device disappears, the qemu process is usually still alive and re-registers, or just boot a fresh one.
• am start -n pkg/.Activity needs the real activity; if unknown, use launch <pkg> (monkey LAUNCHER) which resolves the launcher activity.
• input text can't type spaces directly — the driver encodes them (%s); for complex strings prefer per-field taps.
• Headless GPU: -gpu swiftshader_indirect is reliable for CI-style headless; custom-rendered (game/Canvas/Flutter-impeller) UIs may expose little in uiautomator → fall back to screenshot + coordinate taps and flag reduced confidence.

References

• references/report-format.md — shared cross-platform report spec, run-dir layout, verdicts.
• references/claude-in-mobile-path.md — optional gateway path, checks, and ADB recovery.