Powering the Next Generation of Test Automation: What’s New at TestGrid

At TestGrid, we’re constantly listening to feedback from software developers, test engineers, and automation leads. They’re always on the lookout for new tools, techniques, and strategies to make testing faster, easier, and more efficient.

Naturally, our latest feature updates reflect that. From introducing smarter scheduling options to enabling advanced Playwright test execution, our team at TestGrid is focused on solving the gaps that slow down automation teams.

Without further ado, let’s explore all the new releases and understand what they mean for your testing velocity.

1. Codeless scheduler and nightly builds

Do you want to automate the execution of your codeless test cases or test suites at specific times—similar to how CI/CD tools like Jenkins schedule jobs? You can do that with the ‘scheduler’ feature in TestGrid.

Simply select the test cases you want to execute and assign them to a specific time slot or recurring schedule.

Once configured, TestGrid will automatically run those at the designated time. You’ll also receive reports daily (or on your preferred schedule) without additional setup, which is helpful for pre-deployment checks.

Similarly, remember when you were typically required to set up the nightly build on your side when writing test cases? With TestGrid, that’s not needed anymore. You can seamlessly integrate the test cases into the platform workflow if running nightly builds.

That means your automation runs are consistent, reliable, and hands-off.

2. Improved device availability and screen lock handling

Limited device availability during real device testing is often caused by devices locking or going idle due to inactivity or enforced MDM policies. As part of enhancing the codeless testing experience for Android and iOS, we’ve added a feature that:

• Keeps devices active and unlocked during test execution
• Prevents them from being locked due to inactivity
• Supports integration with your MDM setup so that devices remain test-ready

3. Playwright runs

Executing Playwright tests on TestGrid’s secure, scalable infrastructure just got easier. 

Whether testing login flows, UI components, or user journeys, Playwright Runs lets you execute your scripts across real devices and headless/virtualized environments without setting up your grid or managing test environments.

Here’s how the Playwright Runs feature works in action:

i. Start by writing your Playwright test as usual.

Let’s say you want to perform a login test on the TestGrid portal. Its script might include:

“‘js

await page.goto(‘https://testgrid.io’);

await page.fill(‘input[name=”email”]’, “your_email’);

await page.fill(‘input[name=”password”]’, ‘your_password’);

await page.click(‘button:has-text(“Sign In”)’);

’’’

Realistic interactions, like ‘page.goto(),’ ‘fill(),’ and ‘click(),’ mimic how users interact with your app.

ii. Next, in your ‘playwright.config.js,’ set up basic configurations like:

• Timeout settings
• Parallelism control (‘fullyParallel: false’)
• HTML reporter configuration

This is all standard Playwright setup and works seamlessly with TestGrid.

iii. From TestGrid’s Real Device Cloud, select a browser version (in this case, Chrome 101) and click ‘Connect’ to link your test runner to a real environment.

iv. Head to [public.testgrid.io](https://public.testgrid.io) and sign in with your credentials.

v. Once authenticated, initiate the test run. For this example, we’ve chosen a demo site called “demoqa.com.”

vi. As the test runs in the selected browser on a real device, you’ll see actions in real-time:

• Browser opens
• Navigation begins
• Input fields are filled
• Buttons are clicked

vii. Once the test is completed, open the report with ‘npx playwright show-report.’

The index shows the results of your test cases (testgrid’, ‘demoqa’, etc.).

viii. Click on a test (e.g., testgrid) to view step-by-step results with video logs, actions, and duration.

Also Read: Playwright For Test Automation

4. Cypress runs and build results dashboard

TestGrid now supports Cypress, the widely-used JavaScript-based framework for end-to-end web and API testing. With this integration, you can run your Cypress tests directly on the platform across real devices and headless/virtualized environments.

Once your tests are triggered, results are automatically surfaced in the Build Results Dashboard, where you get complete visibility into each test run.

What’s more, results are grouped by browser and build, with detailed logs, screenshots of failures, and even video playback. You can monitor progress in real time via the CLI and get a full summary once the run completes.

source

Currently, TestGrid supports Chrome and Firefox.

Also Read: A Step-by-Step Guide on Cypress For Test Automation

5. Test case management with tags

As the name suggests, this valuable feature lets you assign custom labels or “tags” to individual test cases. With this feature, you can:

• Organize large test suites easily
• Run tests with a specific tag (e.g., run only @smoke tests before each deployment)
• Generate tag-based analytics and reports

Plus, your team can focus only on relevant tagged test cases.

Next Steps

Do you know what the best part about these features is? Everything plugs into your existing workflows—CI/CD pipelines, nightly builds, team dashboards, and codeless tests. So, if you’ve already been using TestGrid, these updates are live for you now.

If not, there’s never a better time to see what this AI-powered end-to-end testing platform can do for you. Start your free trial with TestGrid today.