Flipper - A Mobile App Debugging Platform for iOS, Android and JS Applications
Tags: opensource, programming, stackfoss, app
Published: 2023-06-21 21:26:28

---
title: Flipper - A Mobile App Debugging Platform for iOS, Android and JS Applications
published: true
date: 2023-03-25 16:59:41 UTC
tags: opensource, programming, stackfoss, app
canonical_url: 
---

Flipper, previously known as Sonar, is a debugging platform for mobile applications that helps developers find and fix errors quickly. It is an open-source tool built by Facebook to debug iOS, Android, and JavaScript applications, making it an all-in-one solution for mobile app development. The tool includes various useful features, such as a log viewer, an interactive layout inspector, and a network inspector, that aid in detecting and troubleshooting issues.

**What is Flipper?**  
Flipper is an efficient debugging tool that allows developers to visualize, inspect, and control applications from a straightforward desktop interface. It can be used to debug mobile apps on iOS and Android as well as JS apps in the browser or Node.js. Flipper has become popular among developers due to its versatile plugin API, which enables them to create their plugins to visualize and debug data from mobile apps.

**Key Features**  
Flipper has several features that make it the preferred debugging tool for mobile app developers. Some of these features include:

- **Log Viewer** : A useful tool for viewing and searching through log output, making it easier to track down errors and issues.

- **Layout Inspector** : An interactive tool that allows you to inspect the layout hierarchy of your application's user interface. It can also display the properties of each element in the layout and show the layout boundaries.

- **Network Inspector** : A powerful tool for analyzing network traffic. It shows the network requests made by the application and their responses, enabling developers to diagnose network-related issues quickly.

- **Plugin API** : Flipper has a plugin API that allows developers to extend its functionality, create custom plugins, and visualize and debug their data.

**Getting Started with Flipper**  
Flipper can be installed and set up easily on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. To get started, you need to install Node.js, Yarn, and the Android SDK. Once you have the prerequisites, you can clone the Flipper repository and build the application from source.

You can find detailed instructions on getting started with Flipper on its [official website](https://fbflipper.com/docs/getting-started/).

**Building from Source**  
If you prefer to build Flipper from source, you can do so easily using Yarn. Clone the repository to your machine and run the following commands:

```
git clone https://github.com/facebook/flipper.git
cd flipper/desktop
yarn
yarn start

```

If you are on Windows, you will need to use Yarn 1.5.1 until this issue is resolved. To build a release zip file for your platform(s), provide either --mac, --win, --linux or any combination of them to yarn build.

**Mobile Development with Flipper**  
Flipper aims to be the ultimate debugging companion for mobile app development on iOS and Android. It provides a suite of tools that can help you identify and fix issues quickly.

To use Flipper, you need to download the Flipper app on your computer and integrate the SDK into your mobile app. Flipper's SDKs for iOS and Android are available in the repository. Once you have integrated the SDK into your app, you can view and interact with the data using the Flipper desktop app.

**Contributing**  
Flipper is an open-source project and welcomes contributions from the community. If you are interested in contributing to Flipper, please take a look at the [contributing guidelines](https://github.com/facebook/flipper/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) for more information on how to get started.

**License**  
Flipper is released under the [MIT License](https://github.com/facebook/flipper/blob/main/LICENSE).