How to test AR/VR apps the right way

Would you like your AR or VR app to generate a monthly revenue of $62.6M just like Pokémon Go did in July 2025? If so, testing shouldn’t be an afterthought. In top-ranked immersive apps, AR overlays don't float awkwardly in mid-air, and VR users don’t feel motion-sick.

Quality here affects user comfort, retention, and business outcomes. This makes testing essential but far from easy. It might be overwhelming, especially for beginners, to design and implement an efficient test strategy when two worlds – real and virtual – come together.

Knowing the unique challenges of AR/VR testing and following a structured testing strategy, you’ll roll out immersive, high-quality experiences that leave a lasting impression.

What is AR/VR technology, and how is it tested?

AR/VR technology is gaining traction, with rapid adoption across various domains like entertainment, gaming, healthcare, education, logistics, retail, and even aviation. In fact, the global AR/VR market is expected to reach USD 589 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 25.70% from 2024 to 2034.

So, what are AR and VR, and how do they differ? While AR adds a layer of real-time, contextual information (sounds, text, images, videos, animations, and 3D objects) onto the real world, VR creates fully immersive digital environments isolated from the physical world.

Here is a comparison of AR and VR similarities and differences that should be considered during testing.

AR VR testing suggests a comprehensive evaluation of AR/VR applications to ensure their flawless functionality, cross-device compatibility, user-friendliness, security, stability, and maintainability. Taking into account the immersive nature of AR/VR apps, testing them represents unique challenges and requires special methodologies.

AR testing primarily focuses on the accurate placement of digital elements in real environments with different conditions. It also includes verifying camera access, object recognition, GPS precision, and smooth interactions between the digital and physical layers. For example, a poorly aligned AR overlay in a navigation app can lead to confusion, mistrust, or even safety risks.

VR testing, in turn, puts emphasis on ensuring seamless immersion and user comfort. Virtual environments must render smoothly, respond naturally to body movements, and avoid visual or auditory inconsistencies that could affect immersion.

In short, testing AR/VR applications goes far beyond verifying a codebase. It’s about safeguarding the user’s entire sensory experience. When conducted professionally, AR/VR testing ensures that applications don’t just work seamlessly but also feel natural, immersive, and safe to use in both everyday and high-stakes contexts.

Understanding that AR/VR testing can seem confusing at first, especially if you’re new to the niche, our outsourced QA team always starts new AR/VR projects by helping clients understand the basics, explaining how immersive features impact the testing process, simplifying complex concepts, and directing QA efforts to where they needed most. It’s all about building clarity and confidence from day one.

Common challenges of AR/VR app testing

Sun Tzu, the Chinese military general and philosopher, said: ‘Know your enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.’ The same can be applied to AR/VR testing. When you know major challenges and possible pitfalls, it’s easier to succeed with virtual and augmented reality testing.

1. Hardware fragmentation

AR/VR apps run on various devices, from smartphones and tablets to AR glasses and VR headsets. Each of these devices has its own specifications, capabilities, and limitations. Screen resolution, processing power, camera quality, field of view, sensor capabilities, motion tracking accuracy, and input controls can vary significantly across devices. Ensuring compatibility and a consistent experience across all supported hardware is a large undertaking for QA engineers.

Our approach: At DeviQA, we address this by designing a device compatibility matrix, prioritizing testing on the most widely used or performance-sensitive platforms, and using device farms or emulators where possible for broader device coverage.

2. Variability of environments

AR apps interact with the physical world, which is often unpredictable. Therefore, testing must consider various lighting levels, textures, surface types, and spatial constraints. These factors have a great impact on object recognition and tracking. Thus, an AR app may work seamlessly in a well-lit office but fail in a dark passage or a mirrored room.

Our approach: Recognizing that inconsistent app operation across real-world settings can affect user trust, the DeviQA team performs testing in actual conditions that reflect busy office spaces, noisy factory floors, dimly lit warehouses, and sun-exposed retail stores – covering varied lighting, indoor and outdoor environments, and different surface types.

3. Performance issues

AR/VR apps are usually resource-hungry and require high-end graphics and real-time processing for a seamless user experience. Yet, real-time rendering of complex scenes, fast tracking, and responsiveness shouldn’t result in excessive battery drain or device overheating. AR/VR testing needs to cover stress tests, battery usage analysis, resource consumption profiling, and thermal stability.

Our approach: We conduct performance testing and analysis to mitigate the risk of app crashes or slowdowns when resource-intensive tasks are performed.

4. Immersion and user comfort

Unlike usual apps, VR experiences can cause nausea, dizziness, disorientation, eye strain, or fatigue if not well-designed. According to stats, VR sickness affects 25–40% of users. Factors like frame rate below 90 FPS, latency above 20ms with poor spatial audio can lead to a negative experience.

Disrupted immersion and user discomfort can lead to app abandonment and even health concerns. People can suffer from headaches, motion sickness, or even eye strain.

Our approach: We always evaluate the app’s experience and comfort by engaging individuals with varying sensitivity levels and different levels of familiarity with AR/VR applications

5. Security and data privacy

AR/VR apps often collect and handle sensitive user data through cameras, microphones, GPS, or biometric sensors. Therefore, security must be a top priority for solutions used in manufacturing, healthcare, aviation, and other high-stakes domains. AR/VR testing must ensure secure data storage and transmission, proper permission handling, and the impossibility of recording or sharing personal information inadvertently.

Our approach: We include security audits to uncover vulnerabilities and ensure compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, and other relevant regulations.

6. Limited test automation

While automation is widely adopted in traditional software testing, it’s quite difficult to automate AR/VR testing effectively.

Modern test automation tools for immersive apps often lack support for 3D environments, sensor input, or spatial UI elements.

Many tests still require a manual approach and human involvement. Naturally, without automation, the QA process is often slow, labor-intensive, and expensive, especially for feature-rich immersive applications.

Our approach: We rely on manual exploratory testing for 3D interactions and user behavior, but along with this, our team uses automation selectively to test APIs, backend, and scene transitions.

The roadmap to efficient AR/VR testing

Step 1: Review project requirements and set testing goals

Thoroughly study available project documentation to understand the app’s purpose, core functionality, and the ways users can interact with it. This data will help you align testing goals with the project’s overall vision and pave the way for the entire testing process.

Step 2: Design a comprehensive test plan

AR/VR testing is a complex process. To ensure nothing is overlooked, create a detailed test plan that covers all critical aspects of testing. Consider including the following:

A test plan has a strategic role. Have doubts about yours? Augment your team with QA experts who can help design a plan that addresses device fragmentation, logistical challenges of test environment setup, diverse user scenarios, the complex performance demands unique to AR/VR applications, and many more.

Step 3: Collaborate across teams

Effective communication is key to success. Encourage dedicated QA teams to closely collaborate with developers, designers, support managers, and business stakeholders to better understand your app. This way, they also more efficiently share domain knowledge and faster uncover business goals, detect user pain points, and resolve issues.

As an outsourced team, we never work in isolation but serve as a natural extension of an in-house team. We participate in various ongoing discussions and meetings. By asking clarifying questions, raising concerns, and suggesting recommendations for improvement, we help clients nip problems in the bud, optimize workflows, meet high QA standards, and reach business goals.

Step 4: Incorporate user feedback

Gathering user feedback is a good practice that helps deliver a well-rounded AR/VR experience. User feedback helps spot usability issues, pain points, and unexpected app behavior unrevealed during internal testing. Thanks to early feedback incorporation, teams usually avoid costly rework and ensure that an app resonates with its target users.

At DeviQA, we often implement closed or open beta testing programs and review feedback across different user groups. This way, we uncover edge cases, accessibility concerns, and real-world performance issues. Based on this input, we update test cases and reconsider priorities to make sure the app is intuitive and comfortable to use.

Tests conducted in the course of AR/VR testing

Just like a high-performance orchestra requires numerous, perfectly calibrated instruments – from strings to percussion – to create a flawless symphony, various types of tests must work together to cover all factors that may impact an AR/VR app’s operation and user experience. Missing even one component can disrupt the entire performance.

Here are the key types of AR/VR tests to conduct and the most important nuances to consider:

1. Functional testing

2. Usability testing

3. Performance testing

4. Compatibility testing

5. Environmental testing

6. Security testing

7. Regression testing

Tools and technologies for AR/VR testing

Tools impact AR/VR testing significantly as they streamline testing cycles while ensuring more accurate testing outcomes.

Here is a table featuring key tools and solutions that we use within our AR/VR projects.

Best practices and emerging trends in AR/VR testing

We’ve been working on AR/VR projects long enough to develop our own set of battle-tested practices. At the same time, we keep a close eye on emerging trends. Proven QA approaches and knowledge of new tendencies empower us to design efficient and forward-looking testing strategies.

Best AR/VR QA testing practices to apply

As you already know, AR/VR testing is intricate, with a lot of nuances and possible challenges. However, the use of industry best practices can help avoid bottlenecks and set up a highly efficient QA process.

Early and incremental testing

One of the most effective practices is early and incremental testing. Introducing QA efforts at the project outset helps detect bugs and bottlenecks before they escalate.

This is especially critical in AR/VR development, where even a tiny flaw in interaction logic, tracking calibration, or spatial mapping can snowball into a major usability issue later on.

Real-world testing environments

Using real-world testing environments is also a must for testing AR experiences. AR apps heavily rely on real-time interaction with physical surroundings, so factors like lighting, surface, and space layout must be taken into account.

For example, AR apps usually perform better indoors than outdoors, where grass, water, trees, and sky offer minimal tracking features. Reflective or transparent surfaces like mirrors, glass tables, and shiny floors can also confuse AR systems.

Hybrid testing approach

Also, we advocate for a hybrid testing approach. While manual exploratory testing is vital for evaluating immersion, interaction logic, and user comfort, automation should be implemented for repetitive backend and API checks.

This approach lets us save time and effort while ensuring the appropriate test coverage.

User feedback integration

Another best practice is integrating user feedback and telemetry data into QA cycles. Insights from real-world users help teams continuously refine the experience.

Bill Gates’ well-known saying – your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning – is spot-on for AR/VR testing. Collect user feedback, analyze it carefully, and make corresponding improvements to your product to make users happy and engaged.

Emerging trends to watch

Good AR/VR testers do not always stick to the trodden path. Along with applying best practices, they look for new, more efficient techniques and methodologies. For this, they stay on top of industry trends that might make a real difference. In 2025, we can define three noticeable trends.

AI-powered testing

AI-powered testing is reshaping the QA industry as a whole. Smart AI/ML algorithms now enable automated test case generation, test prioritization, test maintenance, and robust analysis of complex sensor data. As a result, AI-driven automation may reduce testing time by up to 50%.

Device farms for AR/VR

Another trend is the use of device farms for AR/VR that allow remote testing on multiple hardware configurations, speeding up compatibility checks. AWS and BrowserStack are now the leading providers of cloud-based device farms supporting AR/VR hardware. While such farms cannot replace testing on real devices, they are invaluable for running automated tests on backend integrations, verifying app operation across different OS versions, and performing preliminary compatibility assessments.

Adaptation to 5G

The widespread adoption of 5G also introduces new testing scenarios. This technology enables richer AR/VR experiences with low latency and real-time data exchange, but it also requires comprehensive performance testing under live network conditions. According to McKinsey, 5G is expected to cover 60% of the global population by 2026, pushing QA to adapt.

At DeviQA, we believe that deep technical expertise, along with a forward-thinking mindset, helps create test strategies that ensure AR/VR solutions are high-quality and future-ready.

Conclusion

AR/VR technology is developing by leaps and bounds. Advances in lightweight headsets, improved motion tracking, higher-resolution displays, and 5G connectivity are making AR/VR experiences more immersive and accessible. Meanwhile, major tech giants are investing heavily in AR/VR R&D, bringing new solutions to market. Apple's Vision Pro and Android XR are among the key breakthroughs of 2024.

However, there are also a lot of more modest AR/VR startups where QA teams struggle to ensure proper quality. Taking into account the uniqueness and complexity of AR and VR, this is indeed not an easy task. It requires designing a comprehensive test strategy, selecting the right tech stack, conducting a range of tests, and covering the most varied real-world conditions – all while addressing challenges related to device fragmentation, environment variability, high performance and security requirements, limited automation, and more.

Contact DeviQA for expert consultation on your AR/VR testing with a QA partner who can ensure truly immersive experiences.