Quickstart

The standard Protect path doesn't require touching your app's source — you configure a policy in the portal and upload an already-built, signed release APK or AAB.

1. Register your app

In the Protect portal, register your app by package name. Each registered app gets its own detection policy and pin configuration, scoped to your account.

2. Set your detection policy

Four detection categories can each be set independently to OFF, monitor, or detect:

• Anti-debugging
• Anti-tampering
• Memory protection
• VM / emulator detection

Root, hooking, SSL pinning, screenshot prevention, and risk scoring run as part of the core protection and don't need separate enablement. Start new apps in monitor mode to see what the policy would catch before switching categories to full detect enforcement.

3. Generate your SSL pin set

If your app talks to your own backend over TLS, generate a pin set for your API's certificate from the portal. See SSL Pinning Configuration for details.

4. Upload your signed build

Upload your release APK or AAB — already built and signed with your own keystore. Protect extracts your signing certificate's fingerprint, applies your configured policy, and returns a shielded build in the same format you uploaded. Your private keystore is never uploaded — only the final signed artifact.

5. Distribute the shielded build

Publish the shielded build exactly as you would your original — an APK stays an APK, an AAB stays an AAB. Detection events start appearing on your live dashboard as real devices run the app.

Want direct SDK integration instead?

Some teams prefer to integrate the native SDK directly rather than using the upload-and-shield flow — see Direct SDK Integration, or talk to us about which path fits your app.