AWS Device Farm Update – Remote Access to Devices for Interactive Testing

Last year I wrote about AWS Device Farm and told you how you can use it to Test Mobile Apps on Real Devices. As I described at the time, AWS Device Farm allows you to create a project, identify an application, configure a test, and then run the test against a variety of iOS and Android devices.

Remote Access to Devices
Today we are launching a new feature that provides you with remote access to devices (phones and tablets) for interactive testing. You simply open a new session on the desired device, wait (generally a minute or two) until the device is available, and then interact with the device via the AWS Management Console.

You can gesture, swipe, and interact with devices in real time directly through your web browser as if the device was on your desk or in your hand. This includes installing and running applications!

Here’s a quick demo. I click on Start a new session to begin:

Then I search for a device of the desired type, including the desired OS version, select it, and name my session. I click on Confirm and start session to proceed:

Then I wait for the device to become available (about 30 seconds in this case):

Once the device is available I can see the screen and access it through the Console:

I can interact with the Kindle Fire using my mouse. Perhaps my app is not behaving as expected when the language is set to Latin American Spanish. I can change the Kindle Fire’s settings with a couple of clicks:

I can install my app on the Kindle Fire by clicking on Upload and choosing my APK.

My session can run for up to 60 minutes. After that time it will stop automatically.

Available Now
This new feature is available in beta form now, with a wide selection of Android phones and tablets. We will be adding iOS devices later this year, along with additional control over the device configuration and (virtual) location.

AWS Device Farm comes with a one-time free trial of 250 device minutes. After that you are charged $0.17 per device minute. Or you can pay $250 per slot per month for unmetered access (slots are the units of concurrent execution).

— Jeff;