Cross-Platform Strategy: Android and iOS

One of the most common questions in mobile test automation is: should Android and iOS tests live in the same project or in separate projects? The answer depends on how similar the apps are.

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Same Project: When and Why

Combine both platforms in a single project when:

• The Android and iOS apps share the same user flows and screens.
• The business logic and test scenarios are identical across platforms.
• You want to maximize code reuse for test logic, utilities, and data.

How It Works

Keep your test logic in shared classes and isolate platform differences in the page object locators:

LoginPage.java

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.Platform;
import com.shaft.driver.SHAFT;

public class LoginPage {
    private final SHAFT.GUI.WebDriver driver;

    public LoginPage(SHAFT.GUI.WebDriver driver) {
        this.driver = driver;
    }

    // Platform-specific locators
    private By getUsernameInput() {
        return isAndroid()
            ? By.id("com.example:id/username")
            : By.name("username_field");
    }

    private By getPasswordInput() {
        return isAndroid()
            ? By.id("com.example:id/password")
            : By.name("password_field");
    }

    private By getLoginButton() {
        return isAndroid()
            ? By.id("com.example:id/login_btn")
            : By.xpath("//XCUIElementTypeButton[@name='Login']");
    }

    // Shared test logic
    public void login(String username, String password) {
        driver.element()
            .type(getUsernameInput(), username)
            .and().type(getPasswordInput(), password)
            .and().click(getLoginButton());
    }

    private boolean isAndroid() {
        return SHAFT.Properties.platform.targetPlatform()
            .equals(Platform.ANDROID.name());
    }
}

Your test class stays completely platform-agnostic:

LoginTest.java

@Test(description = "Verify successful login")
public void testLogin() {
    new LoginPage(driver).login("user@example.com", "password123");
    // Validations work the same way on both platforms
}

tip

Switch platforms by changing a single property — no code changes needed:

src/main/resources/properties/custom.properties

targetPlatform=ANDROID

Or override it from the command line:

mvn test -DtargetPlatform=IOS

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Separate Projects: When and Why

Use separate projects when:

• The Android and iOS apps have significantly different UIs, flows, or features.
• Each platform has unique screens or interactions that the other does not have.
• The teams maintaining Android and iOS tests are different and work independently.
• You need different dependency versions or build configurations for each platform.

Shared Utilities as a Library

Even with separate projects, you can share common utilities (API clients, data generators, helper methods) by extracting them into a shared Maven/Gradle module:

my-company-tests/
├── shared-utils/          ← Common utilities module
│   └── src/main/java/
├── android-tests/         ← Android test project
│   └── pom.xml           (depends on shared-utils)
└── ios-tests/             ← iOS test project
    └── pom.xml           (depends on shared-utils)

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Decision Guide

Factor	Same Project	Separate Projects
Identical user flows	✅ Best fit	Overhead
Different UIs per platform	Complexity	✅ Best fit
Shared test logic	✅ Maximum reuse	Partial (via shared library)
Independent team ownership	Coordination needed	✅ Best fit
CI/CD simplicity	✅ One pipeline, parameterized	Two pipelines

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Recommended Approach

For most teams, starting with a single project is the best default. You get maximum code reuse and a single source of truth for your test scenarios. If the apps diverge significantly over time, you can always split later.

info

SHAFT Engine's property-based platform switching makes it easy to run the same tests against both platforms from a single project. Just parameterize targetPlatform in your CI/CD pipeline.