December’s App of the Month: Charles Proxy

This month’s App of the Month is a little different from the last and one we believe will be most-loved by developers and coders alike. This app allows you to capture and inspect network requests, view metadata, headers, and bodies in-app, and finally debug your app’s networking issues without the need for a computer. December’s App of the Month, recommended by our Head of Technology, Dan Lawson, is Charles Proxy. 

What is Charles Proxy?

In simple terms, this app can help you to reverse engineer requests made to and from an app. And not only that, it’s really handy for debugging and having a little nosy into the backend services that some of the most popular and top-ranking apps are using.

Charles Proxy was previously only available on desktop but is now available on iOS. This means you no longer have to mess around with WiFi network proxy settings. Instead, you can capture and measure network traffic that goes over the mobile/cellular data network. Although, if you do also have Charles on your desktop, you can record your sessions and transfer them over to your desktop to explore them on the big screen too! 

Any notable features?

Charles Proxy is an innovative app that currently supports the following features:

• Capture HTTP and HTTPS network traffic on your device
• SSL Proxying so you can view your SSL / TLS requests in plain text
• View requests and responses in the app, or share each request or a whole session to Charles on your desktop
• Measure network performance over WiFi or Mobile / Cellular networks
• Block requests to nominated hosts
• DNS spoofing

Final thoughts

Dan gave Charles Proxy a five-star rating, for the time it saves and the accessibility that it provides. The app isn’t free, but it’s definitely worth the money. You can learn more and download the app here.

And if you like this installment of our App of the Month blog series, make sure to check out our last month’s (and the months before that!) here.