Streaming Platforms on the Rise, or Why Testing Is More Important Than Ever Before
Business apps that enable easy communication have been on the rise since the beginning of March. The downloads of business apps reached 62 million during one week (Mach 14–21). It is the 45% increase compared to the previous week and 90% more than average weekly downloads in 2019. It also turned out that the increased demand often reveals the lack of performance and stress testing and unreadiness to match user expectations.
Unprecedented Demand for Online Schooling, Conferencing & Streaming
Google Classroom has become the most popular app among educators, though online schooling is unlikely to become a long-time trend. While adults understand the responsibility of attending work online, students lack the motivation to proceed with remote education. Recent spamming Google Classroom with 1-star ratings to remove it from App Store proved this.
Still, schools and universities can benefit from online tools under special circumstances, like the closure of the universities due to the protests, health concerns, or temporary ecological issues. Meanwhile, business & communication apps experience even more benefits.
- Zoom reported an 85% increase in revenue in three months. The stock value increased twice, giving the company value of $42 billion.
- Google Meet reported gaining 2 million new users every day — 25 times more than in January. Google has also opened access to premium features that will remain free until September 2020.
- Houseparty has been rapidly growing in Europe and expanding its market where it didn’t have a wide-scale penetration before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Mass Binge-Watching
Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney Plus even announced cutting video quality for 30 days due to the rapid traffic increase. Free US streaming services Roku and Pluto TV are also becoming more popular: the traffic has increased by 50% and 75% accordingly.
A new service, Quibi, was launched during quarantine, and HBO Max is to start working in June. Those who miss going to movies with friends can now use Netflix Party — a browser extension that enables simultaneous streaming and commenting.
Why Is Testing So Important?
Some believe that the performance of video conferencing and streaming platforms completely depends on the internet speed and connectivity. That is not true. From page speed to scalability and the variety of devices supported — numerous factors influence user experience.
Even when the demand is high, people prefer software that works flawlessly. Potential users expect:
- no glitches and breakages no matter how huge the traffic is;
- continuous data stream in low network conditions, even if the image quality gets worse;
- operation across all devices without any responsiveness and compatibility issues;
Thus, it is better to focus on a different question: how to conduct effective load and performance testing?
Back to the platforms on the rise. Along with the popularity of Zoom, the number of issues discussed has been increasing, too. On March 30, the FBI started investigating the cases of the hijacking — so-called “Zoom-booming”. Hackers started to infiltrate video meetings, usually shouting threats or racial slurs.
Three days later, Zoom reported that engineers would stop working on new features and focus on software security. By then, Google, SpaceX, NASA, and many governmental organizations globally banned using Zoom.
We won’t discuss security bugs in detail — they are a task for niche companies to handle. Widely discussed video leakage, however, could have been prevented by documentation testing. It turned out that zoom meetings can be accessed by a short number-based URL. Hackers created an automated tool able to find 100 IDs in an hour and around 2,400 in a day.
Most likely, the logic of accessing video recordings hasn’t been properly thought through. On the initial stages of development, QA engineers can test documentation and check the logic of project requirements. However, companies often skip this part.
Later comes functional testing with a task to verify that project features match the requirements stated in the documentation. When QA profs check the logic and add improvements, they will remember to check these features on the following stages.
Houseparty users admit that some features are available only on the newest OS and browser versions — that’s the lack of compatibility testing. They are also concerned about privacy, though it’s rather a preference for improvement than a bug. Everyone in user contacts can see who a person is talking to at the moment. Unless you start a private conversation, anyone can join a call without an invitation.
Load Testing to Handle the Increased Demand
The lockdown is not as beneficial for Netflix as some think. It would have been if users paid for used gigabytes or the number of movies watched. Instead, the price is fixed and the load rises. The situation with online conferencing software is similar as the majority uses free versions. The apps need to retain users, so load testing services become more crucial than ever. There are at least five essential types of tests to run.
Baseline Tests
Baseline tests determine the performance of the system under an average load. They help to model unusual conditions. By studying analytics (average number of users, user path, pageviews, etc.) we can determine the unusual ones for other types of tests.
Stress Tests
Stress test service is about running a website at 150%-200% of the baseline load allows discovering how the system behaves under pressure. For example, on the first day of Disney+ launch (November 12, 2019), the service was down due to high traffic. The streaming technology was performing well, while the authentication system with its influx of signups caused the troubles.
Spike Tests
The next step is discovering how the system behaves during short bursts at 200%+ of the baseline. As learned from Disney+ experience, it is important to run spike testing on all frequently visited pages and forms. Spike tests are essential before the release of a new season of a popular TV show or long-awaited movie. It is reasonable to consider peak traffic at prime time for both video streaming services and video conferencing software.
Endurance Tests
Sometimes we cannot predict the rapid traffic increase. Who would have thought that half of the world would be streaming Tiger King? Or that everyone plans to arrange a team meeting in Zoom next Monday morning? To deal with unpredictable, it is important to know for how long a system can run under stress without losing the performance so a team can react and prevent downtime.
Failover Tests
This is a type of verification that the system can enable backup resources during network failure, server downtime, or malware attack. Instead of the immediate collapse, it keeps functioning and helps to obtain important data on system behavior for load testing in the future.
Why Testing Should Remain a Key Priority
The restrictions on large gathering will last longer than the quarantine. Many people will remain cautious and prefer to avoid crowds. Social distancing will continue to keep people home, and the need for home entertainment options will remain high.
So if you want to create your own Netflix or launch another Zoom, it’s a good time to implement these ideas into life. If you already have a similar platform, don’t forget about the recurrent QA check.
QA Madness can provide fast and effective load and performance testing for your project. Let us know if you need assistance.
