Emulated devices are a program or hardware that allows one computer system (the host) to replicate the functions of another system (the guest). The host system can run software and applications designed for the guest system through emulation, thus creating an emulated device.
To make it simpler, an emulated device is a virtual version of a real smartphone or tablet. Instead of holding a physical device in your hand, you’re using a program on your computer that pretends to work as that phone or tablet would. This allows developers to test their apps across different devices and operating systems without requiring physical devices.
Emulated devices are very important in app development and mobile marketing, but they are not limited to legitimate usage. This is how an emulated device operates:
- Host System: The computer running the emulator.
- Guest System: The device or operating system being emulated.
- Emulation: Mimicking the guest system’s functionality on the host.
An app developer working on an Android application can use an emulator to test how their app behaves on different Android versions, screen sizes, or hardware configurations, all without needing to own those devices physically.
How Developers Use Emulated Devices
Emulated devices play a vital role in thorough testing, maintaining app quality, and delivering a seamless user experience across diverse platforms and devices. These provide several advantages to app marketers and developers.
- Cross-Platform Testing: These help developers test their applications across multiple operating systems, such as iOS and Android, as well as on various device models like iPhones and Samsung phones. This ensures compatibility and optimal performance across different platforms.
- Cost-Efficiency: Emulated devices eliminate the need to own real devices, thus saving the cost and resources for the purchase and maintenance of multiple physical devices.
- Streamlined Development: Using emulated devices, developers can quickly identify and resolve bugs, improve user journeys, and ensure that their app functions effectively on all platforms.
- Accessibility: Emulated devices are often included with development tools such as Android Studio and Xcode, making them easily accessible for developers.
Real-World Challenges with Emulated Devices
While emulated device testing helps lay the foundation for testing, it is impossible to accurately simulate the full range of testing conditions that may occur in real life. Therefore, potential issues like battery life, overheating, and device interaction with a hardware component like a camera are often ignored after emulated device testing.
In order to obtain a true view of how an app will perform in the real world, app developers should conduct additional real-world testing to validate the results from emulated device testing. While emulated devices assist with efficiency and testing of mobile applications, their advantages should be offset by the limitations of actually testing on “live” physical devices.
Technological Evolution of Emulated Devices
The advancements made in emulation technology have greatly changed how emulated devices function. In the early days of emulating software, slow systems with limited functionality were often used. The current systems provide much faster / almost equal performance because of improvements in virtualization technology and Cloud/Internet Computing.
In particular, a Cloud-based solution enables developers to use multiple emulators at the same time, which dramatically improves testing efficiency. The cloud-based system also saves developers money and resources by not requiring high-powered personal computers (PCs).
How Fraudsters Exploit Emulated Devices
While emulated devices are beneficial for developers, they can also be exploited by fraudsters for malicious purposes, posing a major threat to advertisers and marketers.
- Fake Installs and Engagement: Fraudsters configure emulated devices to mimic genuine user behavior, such as app installs and in-app activities. This fake engagement misleads advertisers into believing their campaigns are effective, resulting in wasted marketing budgets.
- Server-Side Fraud: These fraudulent activities often occur in data centres, where server-side software operates multiple emulated devices simultaneously, generating huge volumes of fake traffic, installs, and clicks.
- Geolocation Falsification: Fraudsters manipulate geolocations and try to deceive advertisers about the source of fraudulent activities with the help of emulated devices and the use of VPNs or Tor networks.
- Impact on Marketing Budgets: The end goal of these fraudsters is to siphon off ad spend from marketers, resulting in financial losses and compromised data integrity.
Role of Emulated Devices in Security Testing
Mobile app developers rely on emulated devices to test the security of their applications before they go live by simulating attacks on those apps and identifying app vulnerabilities that must be addressed ahead of time. The emulated devices are able to replicate multiple versions of the mobile operating system and different hardware configurations so that researchers can evaluate how applications protect sensitive personal information, implement appropriate user authentication methods, and maintain device and application security.
Emulated device testing allows for consistency and stability in the testing environment, which is indispensable to protecting user data and providing the information necessary to secure systems and applications against future attacks. The absence of emulated device testing would severely hinder developers from finding issues before putting users at risk of being exposed to potential attacks.
New Trends Influencing the Use of Emulated Devices
As mobile technologies change and improve, technology designed for these types of products also evolves. Currently, for example, a developer can emulate a device with a foldable screen or 5G technology.
New developments in AI & Machine Learning can also use emulated devices to test features such as facial recognition and augmented reality, which typically require a hardware component to function, but also require the use of emulators to ensure compatibility before being released into the marketplace.
Detection and Prevention of Emulator Fraud
Mobile marketers and developers can safeguard their campaigns and apps by identifying emulator-driven fraud.
- IP Address Monitoring: Large numbers of installs or clicks originating from the same IP address or data centre can be an indicator of emulator-based fraud.
- Analyze Behavior Patterns: Real users have distinctive ways of behaving. Identify signals of abnormal data patterns, like click-to-install time, repetitive actions, or identical user behavior.
- Advanced Fraud Detection: Use mobile measurement partners that provide fraud detection tools to identify and block fraudulent activity, including emulated device fraud. Features like deep linking, fraud detection, and IP analysis ensure that the ad budget is spent on genuine user engagement.
- Implement Device Validation: Filter out emulated or simulated devices by using tools and methods that validate the authenticity of devices and reject any actions by the emulated ones.
Importance of Emulated Devices in App Distribution Networks
Mobile app distribution networks rely heavily on Emulated Devices. Allowing marketers to validate the performance of their ads & apps on multiple virtual devices, in different drive locations.
With this virtual testing method, marketers can determine whether or not their app(s) will perform successfully for users, based on both device type and location, providing them with information necessary to optimise their campaigns. Emulated Devices assist marketers in defining an appropriate target market through data-driven methods that will improve app visibility and ultimately user engagement.
Bottom Line
At the end of the day, emulators are too valuable for the developers and marketers to give up, and too tempting for the fraudsters not misuse. They offer great value for developers by helping them with comprehensive testing and streamlining the development process of their apps; however, they also present challenges due to their potential for exploitation by fraudsters.
By understanding both the benefits and risks associated with emulated devices and using the right anti-fraud tools, the stakeholders in the mobile ecosystem can make informed decisions and take appropriate steps to protect their apps and campaigns against fraudsters.
FAQs
1. What is an emulated device?
Emulated devices, also known as emulators, are software applications that allow developers to simulate a device’s operation as if the device were actually there.
For example, if you were to use an emulator to run a mobile application that you built on your computer, you could test it without having to physically own a smartphone or tablet.
2. How do emulated devices benefit app development?
Developers benefit from using emulated devices because they provide an opportunity to test applications across multiple platforms, save money by eliminating the need for multiple physical devices, and identify bugs much sooner than they would if they were using real devices.
3. Can emulated devices be used for fraud?
Unfortunately, emulated devices have been exploited by many criminals who use them to create bogus installations and engagement in order to deceive marketers and waste money on advertising by generating fake traffic.
4. How can emulator fraud be detected?
There are several ways to detect emulator fraud:
1) By monitoring the IP address of the emulated device to see if there is any unusual activity.
2) By analyzing the behavior of an emulated device and identifying processes that do not appear to be associated with normal usage patterns for that device.
3) By using sophisticated anti-fraud solutions that will automatically block any suspicious activity associated with an emulated device.
5. Are real devices still necessary for testing?
Even though there are many advantages to using emulated devices when developing mobile applications.
You will need to use real devices when testing how actual users interact with your application and when testing hardware components and environmental conditions that emulators cannot accurately simulate.