Homebrew Mobile Tools

This repository contains the AppLovin Mobile team's homebrew installable tools.

Installation

Note: If your macOS version is below Catalina (10.15), you may be prompted to install xcode command line tools.

Install Homebrew if not already installed:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

Tap into the repository with:

brew tap AppLovin/homebrew-Mobile-Tools

Then install any tools with:

brew install <formula>

Updating

Update a specific tool with:

brew upgrade <formula>

How To Add Tools

Create a script and remove any file extension from the name (ie. debugapk.sh -> debugapk).

Add the script to the homebrew-Mobile-Tools directory (cannot be nested in another directory).

Create a new homebrew formula following the template below and add it to the Formula directory.

class Toolname < Formula
  # Description
  desc "Give a description of the tool here"

  # Homepage
  homepage "https://github.com/AppLovin/homebrew-Mobile-Tools"

  # Create a release for the tool, then copy the tar link and paste it here
  url "https://github.com/AppLovin/homebrew-Mobile-Tools/archive/v1.0.tar.gz"

  # Update the tool version here
  version "1.0"

  # Commands
  # This installs the tool in your user bin: /usr/local/bin/toolname
  def install
      bin.install "toolname"
  end
end

Tap into the repository and install the tool.

Add a new section to this README.md to help users install and use the new tool.

How To Update Tools

After making changes to a tool, create a new release for the tool.

Update the url in the tool's associated formula with the new release tar link and the version as well.

Tap into the repository and install or upgrade the tool.

Tools

aldroid

This tool is used to interact with Android apps, making them debuggable and useable with Charles. It supports split APKs as well as handling OBBs (see Use cases below for detailed information).

Steps:

1. Install apktool (2.6.0+ recommended) if not already installed (brew is recommended) - https://ibotpeaches.github.io/Apktool/install

   brew install apktool

2. Install both the Android SDK Tools and Android Build Tools and make sure they are available in your path

   2a. Check that you can access adb from command line by running adb in Terminal

   If you see Unknown command: adb, run this command:

   sudo ln -s ~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb /usr/local/bin

   2b. Check that you can access apksigner from command line by running apksigner in Terminal

   If you get Unknown command: apksigner, make sure you have Android SDK Build-Tools in Android Studio under Tools > SDK Manager

   Once that's installed, run this command (replace 31.0.0 with the latest version in your ~/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/ directory):

   sudo ln -s ~/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/31.0.0/apksigner /usr/local/bin/

   If you are still encountering issues when running apksigner, make sure you have JDK installed. It can be downloaded from: https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/#jdk18-mac
   For M1 Macs, you will need to download the Arm 64 DMG Installer

3. Tap into this repository and install this tool:

   brew tap AppLovin/homebrew-Mobile-Tools

   brew install aldroid

4. See use cases below for more information on usage

Use cases

Charlesing an app on the device

usage: aldroid-running-app

Assuming you already have the device on your phone but don't know the package name, we can automatically make the running app charlesable with this command.

It will detect the currently open app and transform it to make it charlesable as well as reopen it after reinstalling.

Also supports --use-aapt2 option to use aapt2 to rebuild.

Charlesing an APK sent by a developer

usage: aldroid d --apk <package_name> [options] [splits]

It will create a charlesable APK at the same location by appending _debuggable to its file name.

Setting the -i/--install flag will automatically install the debuggable apk on the connected device.

Otherwise you will have to install the app either via adb install <path_to_apk_debuggaple> or by transfering the APK to the device and opening it there.

Also supports --use-aapt2 option to use aapt2 to rebuild.

Pulling APKs and/or OBBs from the device

usage: aldroid pull [--apk][--obb] [options] <package_name>

Pulls the APK(s) and/or OBB(s) associated with that package name from the device. Set -o <output_directory> to set the output directory in which to store the files. Defaults to /tmp/<package_name>

Charlesing an app on the play store

usage: aldroid d [options] <package_name>

If an app is on the play store and you want to open the mediation debugger or inspect network traffic, all you have to do is install it on your device and call this one command:

It will pull the apk(s) and obb(s) from the device, make them charlesable, uninstall the app from the device, reinstall the apk(s) and push the obb(s) back to the device.

Assuming you have a link to the google play store like this: http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.example.app

You can see the package name at the end of the link; in this case com.example.app. So the command would be: aldroid d com.example.app

Also supports --use-aapt2 option to use aapt2 to rebuild.