5.2Appium Architecture (2026)

+------------------+     +-------------------+     +---------------+
|  Test Script     |---->|  Appium Server    |---->|  Device/      |
|  (any language)  |     |  (W3C WebDriver)  |     |  Emulator     |
|                  |<----|                   |<----|               |
+------------------+     +-------------------+     +---------------+
                               |
                          UiAutomator2 (Android)
                          XCUITest (iOS)
                          Espresso (Android)
                          Mac2 (macOS)
                          Windows (WinApp)

Each platform uses a native automation driver:

• UiAutomator2: Google's UI testing framework for Android. Most commonly used.
• XCUITest: Apple's native testing framework for iOS. Required for iOS automation.
• Espresso: Google's in-process Android testing framework. Faster but requires app source.