9.2.6. Obfuscating Your Code

You should “obfuscate” any apps you upload to Google Play to discourage reverse engineering of your code and further protect your apps. The free ProGuard tool—which runs when you build your app in release mode—shrinks the size of your .apk file (the Android app package file that contains your app for installation) and optimizes and obfuscates the code “by removing unused code and renaming classes, fields, and methods with semantically obscure names.”¹ To learn how to set up and use the ProGuard tool, go to

1. http://developer.android.com/tools/help/proguard.html#enabling.

For additional information about protecting your apps from piracy using code obfuscation, visit