How to protect Android app's AndroidManifest.xml file?

Question

I am in the process of protecting an Android app and was convince that AndroidManifest.xml could not be protected/encrypted, until I unzipped DropBox.apk and opened AndroidManifest.xml

It seems to be protected. Here is the first line of this file:

r-—`4Vtò∞»‰<H\~äñ§ŒË,@Rf~噑Ë$Lb~åò≤æ÷Ë@DVj‡¸*ä˛tÃÓ(|“p¨ : | – 

and the rest of the file is written in the same flavor.

Any Idea how I can achieve that within my app?

Edit: ok, I now used apktool and see the AndroidManifest.xml clearly... So I guess there is no way to achieve that. Closing this question.

Answer 1

This is automatically done in every apk. you can check it in any app. But this can also be decypted by using apktool.