Flipper

Flipper by Meta Platforms, Inc is a comprehensive platform for debugging mobile iOS, Android, and React Native apps, helping programmers to optimize their projects, spot irregularities, and make every app ready for deployment in its best shape.

Flipper is moving away from its Electron distribution to an in-Browser experience.

The last Electron release is v0.239.0. As such, future releases will not include Electron artifacts.

Developed in an open-source environment and enriched with a wide array of core and open-source plugins, Flipper today represents one of the premier mobile app debuggers on the market.

Visualize, inspect, and control your apps from a simple desktop interface

At its core, Flipper only represents an architectural platform that can be dramatically enriched with a wide array of plugins.

The core offering present in the base version of the app is its Logs, Layout Inspector, and Network Inspector modules, which can provide comprehensive reporting on the current state of the app and provide valuable insights for in-depth optimizations.

Other core features include Layout manager, LeakCanary, Navigation tools, Shared Preferences Viewer, and Sandbox plugin that empowers developers to test changes in their apps in the safe sandbox environment.

But this functionality is only the beginning, because these three modules are just core plugins, and many more can be added using the easy-to-use marketplace. As of the time of this review, this marketplace is home to over 80 plugins that cover every use case imaginable.

Use Flipper as is or extend it using the plugin API

Flipper Windows desktop app comes bundled with the mobile native SDK that can establish a connection with a mobile device and monitor all data that is sent to and from.

This enables developers to get direct insights into the functionality of apps, how they interact with the clients and cloud services and even get a visualization of the state of local events, caches, trigger actions, and many other factors that impact the working of modern apps.

Users who are not satisfied with the offering of the core or community plugins can build their own. Plugins can be made using Java, Objective-C, or C++, with their desktop UI being written in React.

Flipper by Meta is 100% FREE and can be used on all modern versions of the Windows OS.

PROS

• Comprehensive Mobile Debugging Tool
• In-Browser Experience
• Supports iOS and Android Platforms
• Extensible via Plugin API
• User-Friendly Desktop Interface
• Open-Source and Actively Maintained

CONS

• The Last Electron Release is v0.239.0
• Limited React Native Windows Support
• Dependency on Electron Framework
• Potential Performance Overhead
• Occasional Plugin Compatibility Issues