App Testing in China on Real iOS and Android Devices

QPSoftware is a digital agency in Shanghai that tests iOS and Android apps for companies launching in China or abroad. We test on real devices, including Chinese Android brands, and on local networks. Our team worked on the testing of the Mageba monitoring apps and ran a one-week audit of The Economist’s Chinese app.

Our app testing in China covers functions, interfaces, performance and regressions, and ends with a detailed bug report. It is part of the work of our Chinese app developers, and we also audit existing apps, as we did for The Economist.

What our app testing covers

• Functional testing. Every feature, following real user scenarios.
• Interface testing. Screens on different devices, screen sizes and system versions.
• Performance testing. Loading speed and behavior on mobile data and Wi-Fi.
• Regression testing. After each change, we check that the older code still works with the new code, so that nothing breaks in the app already in use.
• Manual and automated tests. Both, on the most used iOS and Android devices.

Each issue found goes into a detailed bug report, with the device and the system version where it appears.

Testing on Chinese devices

In China, people go online by phone: at the end of 2025, 99.6% of the country’s 1.125 billion internet users used a mobile phone to access the internet, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). Chinese brands also dominate phone sales: from January to November 2025, they accounted for 85.4% of the phones shipped in China, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).

Our device library includes Android phones and tablets, iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches, as well as Chinese brands such as Huawei, OPPO and Xiaomi. Testing on real devices finds major and minor issues, whatever the device, the screen size or the system version.

Testing on Chinese networks and services

An app built abroad can depend on services that are slow or blocked in mainland China, such as some Google services. For The Economist, we tested the app under local conditions (4G, Wi-Fi and online payment), checked its adaptation to the local network and its loading speed, and recommended features to integrate the Chinese ecosystem, such as WeChat. The Economist then extended the project with a monthly audit.

Performance also depends on the type of app: hybrid apps run in a WebView and are usually slower than native apps, as our comparison of native vs. hybrid apps explains.

How a test cycle works

1. Scenarios. We define the user scenarios and the local conditions to test, such as network and payment, using the reviews of the app on the stores when it is already published.
2. Tests. We run the scenarios on each device.
3. Bug report. We collect the logs of each error, with its system message, and write the report.
4. Fixes and regression tests. Once the issues are fixed, we test the new version again, including the features that already worked.
5. Release checks. Under a 2023 notice of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), an app that provides internet information services in mainland China must be filed before it operates and must show its filing number in a visible place, and app stores may not distribute it without a filing. These points are checked before submission.