In Android apps, nothing on the client is truly secret. APKs can be decompiled, strings extracted, memory inspected, and runtime behavior hooked. Treating the app as a trusted environment is the fastest way to ship insecure software.

Real security comes from architecture, not hiding.

Key ideas covered:

• Why long-lived secrets must never live on the device
• Using short-lived, scoped tokens instead of embedded keys
• Proper use of Android Keystore + AES/GCM for local encryption
• What’s deprecated (Jetpack Security Crypto) and what to use instead
• Secure transport, integrity signals, and runtime hardening
• Designing systems that survive compromise, not deny it

If you’re building Android apps that handle sensitive data, payments, or authentication, this is essential reading.

👉 Read the full article on Medium:

https://medium.com/@vaibhav.shakya786/securing-secrets-in-android-from-api-keys-to-production-grade-defense-a2c8dc46948f