Beacon RelayBeacon Relay documentation.
Everything needed to install Beacon Relay, trust its certificate, point a phone at it, and understand what it can and can't see across native, hybrid, and web apps.
What is Beacon Relay
Beacon Relay is a local HTTPS debugging proxy for mobile analytics. It runs as a desktop app on your Mac or Windows machine, sits between a phone (or any device) and the internet, and decodes the analytics, tag-management, and marketing network calls that pass through it — Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, GA4, Firebase, and 30+ other tools — into a readable, searchable live timeline. There is no SDK to install in the app you're testing; Beacon Relay works entirely at the network layer.
How it works
On launch, Beacon Relay starts a local proxy and a live-view web server on your machine, and prints three values you'll use throughout setup:
| Value | What it's for |
|---|---|
Proxy — <your-ip>:8080 | What you enter as the phone's Wi-Fi proxy server and port |
Live view — http://<your-ip>:8088/ | The dashboard where decoded beacons appear as they happen |
Certificate — http://<your-ip>:8088/cert | Where the phone downloads Beacon Relay's trust certificate |
Once a device's traffic is routed through the proxy and trusts the certificate, every request that device makes flows through Beacon Relay, gets decoded in real time, and shows up in the live view — organized by tool, with a chronological timeline, side-by-side diffing, and a session digest.
Installing Beacon Relay
Download the installer for your OS from the Downloads page. Installing is free.
Open the app. On first launch it asks for the email and license key from your purchase confirmation email — this activates paid features and counts one device seat against your plan.
Keep the app running while you test. The proxy, live view, and certificate server are only available while Beacon Relay is open.
The certificate — what it is and why you need it
Modern app and website traffic is encrypted (HTTPS), which is exactly what makes it private and exactly what makes it invisible to a plain network proxy. To decode that traffic for debugging — the same approach tools like Charles Proxy or Proxyman use — Beacon Relay generates its own local root certificate and needs the device being tested to explicitly trust it as a certificate authority.
This certificate is generated on your machine, is unique to your Beacon Relay install, and only decrypts traffic from devices you've deliberately pointed at it. It never leaves your network and Beacon Relay never sends captured data anywhere outside the live view running on your own machine.
You'll install it from http://<your-ip>:8088/cert as part of the iOS or Android setup below.
iPhone (iOS) setup
Put the Mac and iPhone on the same Wi-Fi network. Don't use the iPhone's own Personal Hotspot for this.
On the iPhone: Settings → Wi-Fi → tap the i next to your Wi-Fi network.
Scroll to Configure Proxy → Manual.
Enter Server as the Mac's IP address shown by Beacon Relay, and Port as 8080.
On the iPhone, open http://<your-mac-ip>:8088/cert and download the certificate profile (or tap “Install certificate” from the live view if you're viewing it on the phone).
Install the downloaded profile when prompted.
Go to Settings → General → About → Certificate Trust Settings and enable full trust for the Beacon Relay certificate. This step is easy to miss — without it, HTTPS traffic still won't decode.
Open Safari first and load any website to confirm traffic is flowing, then open the app or site you actually want to debug.
When you're done, set Configure Proxy back to Off.
Android setup
Put the Mac/PC and Android device on the same Wi-Fi network.
Open Wi-Fi network settings → Proxy → Manual.
Enter the machine's IP address shown by Beacon Relay, and port 8080.
Open http://<your-ip>:8088/cert on the Android device and install it as a CA certificate wherever Android allows on that OS version.
Open Chrome first and load a website to confirm traffic is flowing, then open the target app.
When you're done, set the proxy back to None.
Android apps may not trust user-installed CAs unless the debug/QA build's network security config explicitly allows it. For production app builds, SSL pinning or CA restrictions can block HTTPS inspection entirely — see the compatibility checklist below.
Native apps, hybrid apps, and web apps
Native apps
Full visibility into every analytics/marketing SDK call, as long as the app honors the OS-level proxy setting and doesn't pin its certificates against Beacon Relay's.
Hybrid apps (WebView)
Same network-layer visibility as native, since WebView traffic also goes through the OS network stack. Beacon Relay can't see in-page JavaScript state directly — only what that JavaScript actually sends over the network.
Mobile web (Safari / Chrome)
Full visibility, same as any browser-based debugging — no app install or SDK required on the site being tested.
App compatibility checklist
For a QA/debug build, ask mobile engineering for a Charles/Proxyman/Beacon Relay-compatible build that:
- Honors operating system HTTP/HTTPS proxy settings.
- Disables SSL certificate pinning in QA/debug builds.
- Allows user-installed root CAs in QA/debug builds.
- Routes analytics SDK traffic through the standard networking stack.
- Avoids VPN or custom network tunnels that bypass the OS proxy.
What Beacon Relay can't see
Beacon Relay is a network-layer tool: it decodes what's actually sent over HTTP/HTTPS. It can't directly inspect browser or WebView runtime state — things like window.dataLayer, Adobe Launch rule execution, or GTM trigger evaluation — unless that data is included in a network request. If a value only ever lives in memory and is never sent anywhere, Beacon Relay won't show it.
Troubleshooting
No traffic is showing up
Confirm the phone and computer are on the same Wi-Fi network, the proxy IP/port match exactly what Beacon Relay printed, and the app is still running.
HTTPS sites won't load / show a warning
The certificate is installed but not fully trusted. On iOS, double-check Settings → General → About → Certificate Trust Settings specifically — installing the profile alone isn't enough.
A specific app shows nothing, but Safari/Chrome works
That app likely pins its certificates or ignores the system proxy. Ask mobile engineering for a QA build per the compatibility checklist above.
Still stuck?
Every plan includes a dedicated support contact — we're happy to help you get set up.
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