Apktool

What Apktool is

Apktool is a free command-line utility for reverse engineering Android APK files. It can disassemble resources into a form close to their original structure and rebuild apps after edits such as translation or permission changes. Its analysis mode attempts to extract resources and the manifest for inspection without rebuilding. The official installation guide provides wrapper-script steps for Windows, Linux, and Mac, and requires Java 8 or later. Decode settings include resource-resolution choices, options to skip resources or source disassembly, and a framework-directory setting. Build options include selecting an aapt2 binary, adding a generic Network Security Configuration file, and disabling APK repacking. The project can be redistributed, modified, and integrated into other projects under its Apache license. There are compatibility limits: Android devices are not officially supported due to aapt incompatibilities and java.nio issues on older Android builds, and some OEM-modified APKs may not decode or build. Apktool produces unsigned APKs; its copy-original option preserves signatures only for the original APK signature v1 scheme. Community support is available through GitHub Discussions, Stack Overflow, and IRC.