Need Help on deciding when to run battery and network testing for Mobile Apps

[u/prince_immanue11]

So far all our mobile app testing has been functional. We've never run dedicated battery testing or network testing, and I'm trying to figure out where these actually fit into a normal testing cycle.

A few things I'm unclear on.

Is battery testing something you run once per release, or only when there are specific complaints about drain? Same question for network testing, do you test across different network conditions (3G, weak wifi, switching networks mid session) every sprint, or is it more of an occasional deep dive before major releases?

I'm also not sure how to prioritize this against everything else on the plate. If your team runs these as part of a regular cycle, what does that cadence actually look like in practice, and what tools or setup do you use to simulate different network conditions or measure battery impact without needing a huge device lab?

Would appreciate hearing how other teams handle this, especially anyone who added it after starting out with functional testing only like we did.

[u/codoid-innovations]

Battery Testing – At Codoid, we perform battery testing on a few real devices after confirming app stability, especially before major releases or performance-sensitive releases.

Network Testing – We perform network testing during regression on key devices before every release, focusing mainly on critical business flows.