“Personal Trainer” for Your Mobile Apps

January 28, 2020

by

MICHAEL

I remember the early days of using an app to track my runs. I diligently tried out 4-5 apps and then finally settled on one that was the most convenient to measure my run, and clearly displayed the metrics I cared about. Battery consumption is a crucial part of this experience, given that no one wants to lug around a portable battery pack while they are on their run.

However, it’s a no-brainer that there will be some sort of a tax on the smartphone, especially if your user is combining multiple apps and hardware experiences. Most folks who use these live-tracking apps use them in conjunction with their favorite media streaming apps — usually listening to music or a podcast over their headphones (wire or wireless). What’s important for any app developer is to identify and measure how their apps actually take battery and other aspects into account when building a seamless user experience. For example, how can app developers test these on-the-move experiences before they launch new features? How can they continue to track performance post-launch? And how can they do these things without an SDK, please?!?

At HeadSpin, we are constantly thinking of tools and performance insights that developers need to test their apps and games, on real devices anywhere in the world. Innovating upon our on-premise solution, we built the first-of-its-kind portable solution that provides results that accurately depict real-world conditions, be it testing on real devices while driving to events or commuting to the office.

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With vehicle drive testing, we deploy apps and devices in vehicles for greater visibility into app performance during driving or even exercising scenarios. The HeadSpin technology leverages network traffic, client-side metrics, and videos of test executions to pinpoint areas of poor user experience and performance bottlenecks. We also correlate performance with precise GPS coordinates.

What does this mean for live-tracking fitness apps?

There are more performance indicators to consider when your users are using your app while moving around, and since the typical user runs multiple apps at the same time when they are working out, that is something else you have to factor in.

With vehicle drive testing, developers can better understand how their apps perform while on-the-go and optimize to ensure better digital (and workout) experiences for their users both pre and post-launch.

User attrition is a real threat to digital business. In today’s crowded app ecosystem, users can easily move to other, competing apps, and if they are dissatisfied with an app’s mobile performance, they won’t continue to use it over the long run.

This is precisely why developers need a more sophisticated platform to test and monitor the quality of digital experiences. HeadSpin’s Global Device Infrastructure lets developers test connected devices the way that users experience them — on the go, in real time.