Today we live with thousands of apps on our mobile phones, and yet few people really know how to use them. what exactly does each Android app do inside?What permissions does it use, or how does it affect device performance and security? For developers, security auditors, and marketing teams, understanding and analyzing Android apps is no longer optional: it's a key component for creating reliable, fast, and effective products. respect privacy.
In this article you will find a complete overview of Android app analysis from multiple anglesTools for inspecting APKs and installed apps, development utilities like the Android Studio APK Analyzer, auditing frameworks like Inspeckage, security methodologies like OWASP MAS, and a comprehensive overview of the main mobile analytics platforms (Firebase, Contentsquare, Mixpanel, Countly, Localytics, RevenueCat, AppDynamics, and AppsFlyer). All explained in Spanish (Spain), with a friendly tone, but without sacrificing technical rigor.
What is Android app analysis and what is it used for?
When we talk about analyzing Android applications, we can refer to both technically dissect the APK (permissions, code, manifest, services, etc.) as well as studying usage metrics, user behavior, performance, errors, or even advertising fraud. They are two distinct but complementary worlds: the technical side ensures that the app is secure and robust; the product analytics side allows you to understand if that app meets its business objectives.
From a technical standpoint, the analysis can be divided into static analysis and dynamic analysisStatic monitoring studies the APK or code without executing it (decompilation, permission analysis, review of AndroidManifest.xml, etc.). Dynamic monitoring observes the app's behavior while it is running, logging network traffic, calls to sensitive APIs, use of cryptography, or file creation.
In the area of user experience and business analytics, the focus is on Understanding how people use the app, where they get stuck, and why they convert or abandon itThis is where event tracking systems, heat maps, session recording, revenue dashboards, conversion funnels, and mobile marketing tools come into play.
Tools to analyze APKs and installed apps
To begin understanding what an Android app does internally, there are specialized utilities that allow you to inspect installed APKs or stored .apk files on the device. These tools display everything from basic data (name, version, size) to very fine details such as permissions, background services, or digital signature.
One of the most popular apps in this area is an open-source APK analyzer that boasts of being the most downloaded APK analysis app on Google PlayThis tool allows you to generate a very complete report of both already installed applications and .apk files that have not yet been installed, which is great for checking an app before giving it access to the device.
The typical report includes information such as app name, version, minimum and target versions of AndroidInstallation and update dates, certificate and signing data, permissions used (with description), activities, services, broadcast receivers, and content providers. It also details hardware requirements (mandatory and optional) and offers the full version of the AndroidManifest.xml file with the option to save it in a human-readable format.
Another key feature is the ability to extract the APK of an installed app and save it to the device's storage, as well as export the icon. This is useful for auditing, creating backups, testing in isolated environments, or simply reviewing a specific version before updating.
This type of analyzer also usually includes specific sections for permissions and aggregated statisticsOn one hand, it allows you to list all the permissions requested by the device's applications, see which apps are requesting each permission, view the description and protection level, and easily locate the most privilege-hungry apps. On the other hand, it offers statistics on the installed app collection: distribution of target Android versions, signature types, average number of activities or permissions per application, etc.
Android Studio APK Analyzer and apkanalyzer tool
For those who develop in Android Studio, Google's own platform incorporates a Powerful APK analyzer integrated into the development environmentThis tool can be opened by dragging an APK or App Bundle to the editor window, double-clicking the APK in the build folder, or from the Build menu under the "Analyze APK" option. It also has a command-line version called apkanalyzer.
The APK Analyzer allows you to explore the contents of the file hierarchically, which internally is similar to a ZIP file with organized folders and filesEach entity (folder or file) displays its raw file size and an estimate of the compressed download size as delivered by Google Play, along with the percentage it represents of the total size. This helps quickly identify which resources, libraries, or DEX files are consuming the most space.
One very interesting point is the way in which the APK Analyzer Rebuild the final AndroidManifest.xmlIn projects with multiple product variants or libraries with their own manifests, all those files are combined into a single file during compilation. The APK remains in binary format, but the parser converts it back into readable XML, showing exactly the manifest that the system will see on the device and making it easier to detect changes introduced by the build process.
This manifesto viewer also incorporates lint capabilitiesThis alerts you to errors and warnings, such as unrecognized XML schemas. Some alerts (for example, those for unregistered schemas) are safe to ignore and can be suppressed by adding the schema to the ignore list in Android Studio preferences.
Another fundamental component of the APK Analyzer is the DEX file viewer, which offers counters for classes, packages, defined and referenced methodsThis is useful, among other things, for checking if you are approaching the 64K methods per DEX limit, deciding whether to enable multidex, or whether dependencies need to be removed.
The class tree displays methods defined in the DEX and referenced methods (including those from third-party libraries and standard Android and Java APIs). The tool distinguishes between the two, helping to understand what portion of the method budget is due to custom code and what portion to dependencies.
The DEX view also features filters to show or hide fields, methods, and referenced methodsWhen expanding a class, you can choose whether to view only local definitions or all external references. Elements shown in italics indicate references without a definition in that DEX; that is, methods or fields that reside in other DEX files or in the framework.
For projects that use obfuscation and code reduction with ProGuard or R8, the analyzer allows loading mapping files (mapping.txt), seeds.txt, and usage.txt coming from the same build. Once imported, additional functions are enabled: deobfuscating names to recover the original classes and methods, highlighting nodes that cannot be deleted (seeds), and showing nodes that were deleted during the reduction process.
The file upload dialog usually points automatically to the usual path (app/build/outputs/mappings/release/and searches for exact names or names containing “mapping”, “usage”, or “seeds” ending in .txt. With this information, the analyzer can display protected elements in bold and strikethrough those that are no longer present in the final DEX.
The DEX viewer also includes a context menu with very powerful functions: View the bytecode (smali), search for usages, and generate ProGuard preservation rules.By selecting a class, method, or field, you can open a dialog with the code in smali representation, launch a search for where that symbol is used throughout the DEX, or automatically generate a keep rule to prevent it from being reduced in future builds.
Beyond the code, the APK Analyzer also allows you to check the final version of many resources, such as images, layouts, or the resources.arsc file itselfFor example, you can view localized strings in different languages and configurations, check which resource has overwritten which in a given variant, or see the contents of binary files that are not normally opened manually.
Finally, the tool includes a very useful feature for reviewing builds: compare two APK or App BundlesLoading the current version and comparing it to a previously published artifact provides a view of the size differences per entity, ideal for understanding where an increase in weight between versions has come from (new image resources, additional libraries, code changes, etc.).
Leveraging mobile analytics to understand the user experience
Beyond purely technical analysis, it is essential to have tools that allow us to measure what users do within the appHow users navigate the screens, where errors occur, which campaigns bring in quality traffic and which don't. The landscape of mobile analytics platforms is vast, so it's essential to clearly define your business needs before choosing one.
A first filter involves asking yourself if, in addition to obtaining usage and performance metrics, you need the tool promote collaboration between teams (product, marketing, UX, development, support) or that allows you to analyze app and mobile web data simultaneously. Another important criterion is integration with other solutions you already use, such as CRMs, marketing automation tools, or experimentation platforms.
Among the most widely used solutions in the Android ecosystem, Firebase stands out as flexible development platform, hosting and integrated analyticsFirebase allows you to create applications for Android, iOS, and web by leveraging its database and authentication infrastructure, while also offering a robust system for analytics and failure reporting.
In its role as an analytics tool, Firebase allows collect quantitative data on usage, traffic, and interaction, generate automatic and customized events (up to several hundred), monitor where and how often the app fails, and support marketing or product decisions with objective data instead of assumptions.
Another platform highly focused on product and digital experience is Contentsquare, which goes a step beyond classic metrics and offers detailed customer journey mapping, heat maps, session replays, and error analysisIts goal is to help understand not only what happens in the app, but also why certain behaviors occur: where users get stuck, which areas of the interface they ignore, or which elements generate frustration.
Modules like Journeys provide a global view of the complete journeys from when the user enters until they leave The app or mobile site is analyzed, identifying key routes worth optimizing. Heatmaps visualize the most clicked or ignored areas, Session Replay reviews individual sessions to detect patterns (for example, repeated anger clicks on the same CTA), and Product Analytics analyzes metrics such as feature adoption, conversion rate, acquisition, and perceived effort.
Contentsquare also includes an Error Analysis module that group technical and functional errors by impacthelping to prioritize which ones to fix first, and Impact Quantification functions to translate those problems into losses in conversion, revenue or retention, something very useful when justifying changes to stakeholders.
An interesting case study is that of a team that, using this type of product analytics, confirmed their suspicion that The signature screen on mobile devices was confusing for users.When comparing web and mobile data, they saw that mobile conversions were clearly lower, investigated the mobile experience in detail, redesigned the signature page with a mobile-first approach, and managed to significantly improve adaptation to different devices.
Advanced user segmentation and behavioral analysis
To delve deeper into user behavior, some platforms are highly specialized in segmentation and cohort creationMixpanel is one of the best-known examples, designed for both product and marketing, and focused on visualizing paths to conversion and analyzing how different user groups behave.
In Mixpanel, users can be grouped into cohorts according to actions performed or attributes sharedFor example, people who have started a payment plan in the last 30 days, users who have tried a specific feature, or customers who have made at least two purchases. The system's strength lies in its custom properties and segmentation logic, which allows for the creation of complex segments.
Custom properties can be combined attributes of events, users or groups in new, more general properties. For example, grouping different social media UTM sources (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) under a "Social" property to analyze their combined behavior. Segmentation logic allows you to create segments that have performed specific combinations of actions, such as buying both product A and product B.
Another standout tool, this time with a strong focus on privacy, is Countly, a mobile, web, and desktop analytics solution that can be deployed on the company's own infrastructure, granting absolute control over the dataThis is especially interesting for regulated sectors or companies with strict compliance requirements.
Countly offers enhanced security, real-time access to granular data (rich profiles, individual-level engagement metrics), and modules geared towards analyze customer loyalty and detect churnIts “Compliance Hub” allows you to manage data collection according to consents, as well as requests for export or deletion, aligning with data protection regulations.
Marketing and subscription platforms with integrated analytics
When the main objective is mobile marketing, there are specific solutions that combine measurement, segmentation and campaign execution on a single platform. Localytics is a good example: it integrates application analytics with messaging and personalization tools, making it very attractive to marketing teams that need a unified system.
Localytics offers detailed campaign reports to view Which actions have the greatest impact on conversion, retention, ROI, churn, and uninstalls?Its predictive analytics capabilities help identify users with a high probability of converting or abandoning, enabling the sending of personalized messages at the right moment.
The platform also includes smart customization modules for create segments based on profile, behavior and history and from there, launch campaigns and experiences adapted to the user's context, which significantly improves the relevance of the messages.
In the subscription app arena, RevenueCat has become a key tool for many teams. With a relatively easy-to-integrate SDK, it allows manage mobile subscriptions, collect targeted analytics, and even test paywalls without having to reinvent the wheel in every project.
RevenueCat provides a dashboard focused on subscription metrics: active trials, trial conversions, active users, revenue, and MRR. It also offers customizable charts with filters and segmentation to see, for example, how recurring revenue is distributed by country or by plan type.
One of its strengths is A/B testing of prices and paywalls, which allows Test different combinations of prices, packages, and promotions and measure the impact of each variant on the entire subscription funnel, from the first visit to the paywall to long-term retention.
For the observability of complex applications, AppDynamics offers a full-stack monitoring approach, encompassing everything from microservices and serverless functions to public and private APIs, and even the mobile apps themselves. Its goal is quickly detect performance problems and pinpoint the root causewhether it's in the code, in a dependency, or in an external service.
AppDynamics allows you to correlate data from mobile devices, browsers, and custom users to Compare the experience between different versions of the app and see where the UX suffers. It features ready-to-use widgets for building detailed dashboards and a synthetic monitoring module that simulates user flows and API calls, detecting errors before they affect real people.
Finally, AppsFlyer focuses specifically on marketing teams that need to measure, attribute, and protect their mobile campaigns. It offers solutions ranging from basic analytics to advanced features, with a particular focus on... advertising fraud detection (for example, bots that generate fake clicks).
In addition to fraud protection, AppsFlyer allows you to define custom in-app events to link KPIs such as ROI or lifetime value to specific user actions. It also includes incrementality tests to estimate how many conversions would have been achieved without paid campaigns and thus measure the real impact of advertising investment.
As a complement to all this quantitative analysis, it is worth considering tools such as AppFollow, which focus on Monitor ratings and reviews on the App Store and Google PlayThanks to sentiment analysis, it is possible to see the evolution of the tone of the reviews and compare periods, obtaining clear clues about how users perceive the quality and experience of the application.
Security audit and advanced analysis with Inspeckage
When the goal is not so much marketing or product, but audit security, analyze malware, or review the internal behavior of an appMore specific frameworks come into play. One of the most interesting in the Android ecosystem is Inspeckage (Android Package Inspector), which functions as an Xposed module.
Inspeckage sets up a server on the Android device itself, accessible via adb from the computer, and allows you to see real-time events that occur on the device while the app is runningUnlike other analysis environments such as MobSF or AppMon, its great advantage is that it allows you to observe events without stopping the dynamic analysis and easily configure hooks on specific methods.
The tool's code is available on GitHub and can also be obtained as an APK from the Play Store or the Xposed repository. Once the module is installed, it is enabled in Xposed and can be seen in the main interface. the server status, network interface, port, and adb command required to connect from the local machine.
The app displays a list of apps on the device, with the option to choose only user apps or to include system apps as well. This is available in the side menu. Configure interface and port, enable authentication with username and password and adjust other server parameters.
After selecting and launching an app, the dynamic analysis begins. A webpage hosted by the device is accessed from the computer's browser, where a menu with buttons for [unclear - possibly "opportunities" or "functions"] is displayed. Download the APK or data from internal storage, take screenshots, apply different configurations (such as disabling FLAG_SECURE, restarting the application, choosing a proxy, or selecting which types of events to record) and refresh results in real time.
Inspeckage also offers shortcuts to open a tab with the LogCat, check if the app or module is running, and hide or show detail panels. The app information panel displays package name, UID, GUID, backup status and a TreeView-type access to internal storage, from which files can be downloaded with one click.
The main body of the report is organized into different tabs: one with activities, permissions, services, content providers, broadcast receivers, and shared libraries, with options to launch activities or consult providers; another dedicated to SharedPreferences, which can be viewed both in log format (to appreciate changes in variables over time) and in the current state of the file.
One very powerful feature is the recording of all the cryptographic activity of the applicationThis section displays the algorithms, keys, and encrypted information used. The "Hash" tab contains all the values to which hash functions are applied and the type of function used in each case.
The "File System" section lists all the files the app has interacted with, which is useful for detecting if it's creating suspicious files or downloading applications from unofficial sources. The "IPC" tab displays inter-process communication attempts using intents.
The “Hooks” tab brings together the activity of all methods on which custom hooks have been configured. Creating them is relatively simple thanks to a graphical interface where you can Indicate the method to intercept and the type of hookHooks can be defined that modify the method's input parameters or return value, opening the door to numerous test scenarios.
Additional functions can be found in the side menu. manipulate device fingerprinting values or GPS coordinatesThis helps circumvent emulator detection mechanisms or location spoofing. In addition to the above, Inspeckage can log database queries, network traffic, WebViews, and other resources accessed by Content Providers.
Thanks to this extensive set of capabilities, Inspeckage is considered a A very comprehensive tool for reducing sample analysis times, especially useful for those starting out in mobile malware analysis or Android app security audits.
Security methodologies, threats, and testing laboratory
The current context, with billions of active Android devices and applications handling sensitive data (banking, health, education, etc.), makes it imperative to take the security throughout the entire app lifecycleIt's not just about avoiding obvious mistakes, but about complying with regulations such as GDPR or industry standards like PCI DSS when processing payments.
Android applications are exposed to numerous threats, many of which are addressed in projects such as OWASP Mobile Top 10Among the most critical issues, we can highlight the incorrect use of the platform (failure to take advantage of native security mechanisms, poorly managed permissions, abuse of exposed APIs), insecure data storage (unencrypted databases, logs with sensitive information, poorly protected cookies), or the insecure communications (use of outdated protocols or unencrypted traffic).
Problems with poor authentication and session management (weak passwords, sessions that do not expire, poorly protected tokens), insufficient encryption that allows access to data by physical attackers or malware, and authorization failures that open the door to privilege escalations through automated attacks.
On the development side, client-side code quality is key: bad practices, lack of error control, or poorly implemented security functions These can lead to buffer overflows and other vulnerabilities. Added to this is the risk of code modification (malicious binary patches, altered resources, etc.). fake apps that impersonate the legitimate one), reverse engineering of the APK and presence of “hidden” or debugging functionalities that are not disabled in production.
To address these threats, the OWASP Mobile Application Security (MAS) project proposes a methodology and checklist of security requirements covering several domains: secure architecture and design, privacy and data storage, proper cryptography, authentication and session management, secure network communications, platform interaction, code quality and build configuration, and client-side resilience mechanisms.
The evaluation of these requirements typically combines static and dynamic analysis. In the static part, artifacts such as source code, decompiled code, binaries and associated files Without running the app, potential vulnerabilities can be inferred from metadata, function calls, and program flow. Tools like Mara (an analysis framework that allows disassembly and decompiling APKs, defuzzification, string analysis, permission extraction, etc.), APK Analyzer itself, and solutions like JAADAS for static IPC analysis are particularly useful at this stage.
In dynamic analysis, on the other hand, the app runs in a controlled environment and its behavior is observed under different conditions. This is where tools like Drozer, which interacts with the Dalvik virtual machine, the IPC endpoints, and the operating system to find vulnerabilities; Burp Suite, which works as a web proxy to capture and manipulate traffic between app and server; and Inspeckage, designed to instrument and observe the app in real time using hooks on the Android API.
There are also hybrid frameworks such as the Mobile Security Framework (MobSF), which combine static and dynamic analysis and help to orchestrate more comprehensive audits from a single tool. For those who want to practice, a very effective way to learn is to work with deliberately vulnerable applications.
Among these practice apps are projects like InsecureShop (a vulnerable online store with almost twenty exploitable flaws, most without the need for root), AndroGoat (the first vulnerable app developed in Kotlin, with several dozen different vulnerabilities), InsecureBank V2 (a banking app with a Python backend, designed with multiple weaknesses) and the Crackmes from the MAS project itself, structured in several CTF-type difficulty levels.
In short, Android app analysis involves much more than just looking at permissions or counting downloads. It involves combining APK inspection tools, dynamic analysis environments, security methodologies, and product and marketing analytics platformsWhen all these pieces are integrated into the app lifecycle, the result is more secure, efficient applications that are aligned with the real needs of users and the business.
