Why Traditional Automation Tools Aren’t Enough for Modern Mobile Apps

Mobile apps have changed dramatically in the last few years — but most testing tools haven’t.

If you’ve ever tried automating a mobile app with Selenium or Appium, you’ve probably felt the frustration: tests break constantly, elements can’t be found, and even the simplest interactions like swipes or taps turn into complex code gymnastics.

And the worst part? You spend more time fixing your test scripts than actually testing your product.

Traditional Tools Like Selenium Were Built for the Web — Not Mobile

Selenium alternatives are on the rise for a reason. Tools like Selenium and Appium rely on the DOM or accessibility layers to interact with UI elements. That might work fine for static websites, but modern mobile apps are built differently.

Here’s what you’re dealing with in mobile environments:

• Frameworks like Flutter or React Native that don’t expose standard DOMs
• Animations, gestures, dynamic transitions
• Custom UI components that look great — but aren’t testable with traditional selectors

The result?
Your functional testing becomes unreliable, brittle, and incredibly time-consuming.

Functional Testing Needs to Match Real User Behavior

The point of automated testing isn’t just to check if a button exists — it’s to verify that a user can actually use your product.

That means simulating real human actions:

• Typing
• Swiping
• Tapping on visual elements
• Reacting to what’s visible, not what’s coded

And for that, we need a new approach.

Visual-First Automation: The Selenium Alternative for Mobile Apps

Imagine a tool that doesn’t rely on selectors or underlying code structures.
Instead, it looks at the screen, understands what’s visible, and interacts with your app like a real user would.

That’s what AskUI is built to do.

Meet AskUI: Human-Centric Automation for Real Apps

AskUI uses computer vision to automate applications across mobile, desktop, and web — even if they’re built with complex frameworks or custom UIs.

✅ Works without selectors or DOM access
✅ Handles dynamic, pixel-based UIs with ease
✅ Simulates real user behavior, from clicks to gestures
✅ Adapts to UI changes — no brittle scripts

It’s a game-changer for teams tired of flaky mobile test automation.

Real Success: How Zucchetti Transformed Their QA Process with AskUI

Zucchetti, a leading European software company, was in the same spot.
Manual testing took too long. Their automation suite was fragile. QA slowed down development instead of enabling it.

By switching to AskUI, Zucchetti was able to:

• Eliminate manual regression testing
• Reduce script maintenance significantly
• Automate end-to-end workflows — across platforms

🧠 Curious how that worked in practice?
👉 Read Zucchetti’s Full Success Story →

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