How to test a mobile app with an assistant, what we found when we tested our own, and what we measured along the way.
Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor to the hosted Shipvo simulator and ask it to buy something from your app. What the remote MCP path looks like, the prompts that find real bugs, and what an assistant cannot tell you.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20263 min readWe built @shipvo/test so developers can write Playwright-style tests against the simulator, then pointed it at our own sample shop. Three bugs came out before we had a green run, and all three were in our own tooling. What they were and what we changed.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20263 min readBoth Apple and Google allow some code to change after review, and neither allows all of it. What the rules actually say, what that means for a React Native app, and where Shipvo draws the line.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20263 min readGoogle Play publishes the crash and not-responding rates at which it may reduce your app's visibility. The numbers, the 28-day window that makes a bad release expensive, and what a simulator can and cannot do about it.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20262 min readMartin Fowler's test pyramid says to run few tests through the UI because they are slow, brittle and expensive. That advice still holds. Here is how to use a simulator without breaking it.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20262 min readThe labels that let a screen reader user find your button are the same ones a test, or an AI assistant, uses to find it. Why that is a good thing to build on, and what it cannot replace.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20262 min readA test that sleeps for a second is a test that fails on a slow day. Wait for what you expect to see instead, and make the failure message tell you what the screen actually showed.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20262 min readMobile money moved more than two trillion dollars in 2025, and most of the growth came from Sub-Saharan Africa. If your app takes payments there, the failed payment is not an edge case. How to test it without moving real money.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20262 min readEntry-level Android phones are the default in much of the world, and Google builds a whole edition of Android for them. What an over-the-air update costs on one, in kilobytes and milliseconds, measured on a real phone in Douala.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20262 min readApple and Google both let you release to a fraction of users first, and they do it differently. What each gives you, and how Shipvo's cohorts apply the same idea to over-the-air updates.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20262 min readAn over-the-air update is code arriving from a server. Code signing is what lets a phone refuse it if it was tampered with. How Expo's code signing works, how Shipvo does it, and the trade-offs of each.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20263 min readThe Model Context Protocol lets AI assistants use tools and data in a standard way. What it is, why Shipvo exposes a phone through it, and what a mobile app can offer an agent beyond a screen.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20262 min readOn 27 October, Expo introduced a CLI built for coding agents. What it does, what it deliberately does not, and where an agent that uses an app differs from an agent that builds one.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20263 min readGoogle's own guidance says an app should keep working when a permission is denied, and that a second denial can be permanent. How to test the no path before your users find it.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20263 min readAndroid's guidance on offline-first apps starts from a plain fact: connectivity comes and goes. How to test the moments your app has no network, and what a simulator can and cannot show.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20262 min readMicrosoft App Center shut down on March 31, 2025, and CodePush went with it. The options for over-the-air updates in React Native, what to check before you choose, and where Shipvo fits.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20263 min readDetox, Maestro and Appium all need a simulator, an emulator or a device, and a built app. What that costs your CI, and a typed alternative that runs in plain Node.
Hans AdeOctober 31, 20262 min readAI assistants can now drive a phone through MCP. A look at the local simulator servers, what they require, and the case for a hosted one.
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