Protecting your Android App against Reverse Engineering and Tampering

Edit: updated in July 2022 with more options and information

I built a premium (paid) android app that has been cracked and modded. Therefore, I started researching ways to secure my code and make it more difficult to modify my app.

Before I continue, You cannot mitigate these issues or completely prevent people from breaking your app. All you can do is make it slightly more difficult to get in and understand your code.

I wrote this article because I felt that the only sources of information just said that it was nearly impossible to protect your app, just don’t leave secrets on the client device. That is partly true, but I wanted to compile sources that can actually assist independent developers like me. Lastly, when you search “android reverse engineer”, all the results are for cracking other peoples apps. There are almost no sources on how to protect your own apps.

So here are some useful blogs and libraries which has helped me make my code more tamper-resistant. Several sources that are less popular have been mentioned in the list below to help you!

This article is geared towards new android developers or ones who haven’t really dealt with reverse engineering and mods before.