When working with Android apps, debugging HTTP Requests can be a challenge. Requestly provides an easy-to-use solution for everyone who needs to monitor, modify, or debug HTTP requests and responses during development or QA testing. This section outlines step-by-step instructions, guiding you on how to set up Requestly for your Android emulator.

By the end of this guide, you will have a fully functional interception setup tailored for your Android development needs.

Step-by-Step Guide

Video Guide

For a visual walkthrough, check out our YouTube video guide:

Automatic Setup

Requestly offers a one-click setup for Android emulators using Desktop App version 1.7.0+. Here's how:

Manual Setup

If the automatic setup does not work for you, you can manually configure the proxy by following these steps:

If you have ADB installed, you can skip the proxy setup through the emulator's UI by running the following command in your android studio terminal:

Copyadb shell settings put global http_proxy "<ip>:<port>"

Make sure to change the : in the above command to the one mentioned in the header of Requestly desktop app

Otherwise, follow these steps to configure the proxy manually:

CA Certificate Installation

To intercept HTTPS traffic, you need to install Requestly's root CA certificate on the emulator. You can do this in two ways:

Option 1: From the Desktop:

Copy#!/bin/bash
subjectHash=`openssl x509 -inform PEM -subject_hash_old -in **<certificate-path>** | head -n 1`
openssl x509 -in **<certificate-path>** -inform PEM -outform DER -out $subjectHash.0
adb root
adb push ./$subjectHash.0 /data/misc/user/0/cacerts-added/$subjectHash.0
adb shell "su 0 chmod 644 /data/misc/user/0/cacerts-added/$subjectHash.0"
adb reboot

Option 2: Directly on the Emulator:

SSL Pinning [if-required]

From Android API level 23 (Android 6.0+), many apps enforce SSL pinning for security. To intercept HTTPS traffic, setting up SSL pinning is required.

Add these configs to your app codebase for it to work

Step 1: Add res/xml/network_security_config.xml

Copy<network-security-config>
  <debug-overrides>
    <trust-anchors>
      <certificates src="user" />
      <certificates src="system" />
    </trust-anchors>
  </debug-overrides>

  <base-config cleartextTrafficPermitted="true">
    <trust-anchors>
      <certificates src="system" />
      <certificates src="user" />
    </trust-anchors>
  </base-config>
</network-security-config>

Step 2: Add to AndroidManifest.xml

Copy<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest ... >
    <application android:networkSecurityConfig="@xml/network_security_config" ... >
    ...
    </application>
</manifest>

Deactivate Proxy (After done debugging)

Please make sure to revert the proxy after you are done testing using Requestly

Copyadb shell settings put global http_proxy :0

Troubleshooting

Emulator not detected?

• Check if your emulator is running?

• Check if adb is installed. If not, install it from here

• Try Restarting your emulator.

How does it work?

Here's the code that makes this happen in a single click

https://github.com/requestly/requestly-desktop-app/blob/fb1f321a3d2431cfcd9d95d1396bcd39820a4ec9/src/renderer/actions/apps/mobile/android.js#L63-L74

1. Searches for online ADB devices

2. On Connect

   1. Root the device (To install Requestly CA)

   2. Inject Requestly CA (if not already)

   3. Setup Proxy on Emulator

   4. Restart the Emulator (Only first time)

3. On Disconnect - Removes the Proxy