On-Device Bug Reporting for Android Applications

TL;DR

This paper introduces ODBR, a tool for on-device bug reporting in Android apps, enabling precise recording and replay of user interactions and sensor events to improve bug reproduction and fixing.

Contribution

The paper presents ODBR, a novel tool that leverages uiautomator and low-level event capture for effective on-device bug reporting in Android applications.

Findings

Supports recording and replaying input gestures and sensor events

Facilitates more accurate bug reproduction on devices

Aims to improve bug fixing efficiency

Abstract

Bugs that surface in mobile applications can be difficult to reproduce and fix due to several confounding factors including the highly GUI-driven nature of mobile apps, varying contextual states, differing platform versions and device fragmentation. It is clear that developers need support in the form of automated tools that allow for more precise reporting of application defects in order to facilitate more efficient and effective bug fixes. In this paper, we present a tool aimed at supporting application testers and developers in the process of On-Device Bug Reporting. Our tool, called ODBR, leverages the uiautomator framework and low-level event stream capture to offer support for recording and replaying a series of input gesture and sensor events that describe a bug in an Android application.