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Introduction

Welcome to the Approov documentation. This guide helps you understand what Approov does, get a trial account running, and follow a simple path from first integration through to production protection.

Approov protects APIs by proving that requests are coming from your genuine app, running in a trusted environment, rather than from copied apps, automated scripts, tampered clients, or reverse-engineered tooling.

What is Approov?​

Approov adds app authentication to your API security model. Your app asks the Approov cloud service for a short-lived token, the Approov SDK performs runtime and authenticity checks, and your backend verifies that token before trusting the request.

This gives you a practical way to separate legitimate app traffic from spoofed or compromised traffic without putting long-lived secrets inside the app.

Who this documentation is for​

These docs are intended for teams who are evaluating, integrating, or operating Approov. The most common readers are:

  • Mobile engineers integrating the Approov SDK into Android, iOS, or cross-platform apps.
  • Backend engineers validating Approov tokens at API endpoints.
  • Security engineers tuning policies, reviewing metrics, and preparing for production blocking.
  • Account administrators managing CLI access, users, app signing certificates, and operational settings.

Before You Start the Trial​

Before starting the 30-day trial, it helps to identify the app and API you want to protect first. If you can, choose a representative app flow that already calls a backend API and can safely be tested in monitoring mode.

You may also want to review the Service Layer Integrations, Mobile App Quickstarts and Backend API Quickstarts. If your stack is covered, the first integration is usually much faster.

iOS Swift URLSession

iOS Alamofire

Android OkHttp

Android Retrofit

Android HttpsURLConnection

Flutter HttpClient

React Native

For internal approval or security review, the Approov Security and Compliance Guide covers how Approov operates in your environment.

Sign Up for an Approov Trial​

You can sign up for a free trial from the Approov signup page. After signup, you will receive an Approov Onboarding email containing the information needed to initialize CLI access.

The trial gives you access to the full Approov service, so you can evaluate the same core setup you would use in production.

Support and Subscription​

For technical support, contact support@approov.io. If you have a paid plan, the Approov CLI command approov support provides emergency contact information for critical production issues.

Paid subscriptions are managed through the Approov subscription portal, where you can change your plan, update payment details, or terminate a subscription. For sales-related enquiries, contact sales@approov.io.

Choose Your Integration Path​

Most new users should start with a quickstart integration if one exists for their app framework and backend stack. Quickstarts handle the common SDK setup and networking integration patterns for you. If you are unclear on how to integrate your app, please contact Approov support who will be happy to help.

If there is no quickstart for your app stack, use the Direct SDK Integration docs. If you control the backend API, plan to use Approov tokens and backend token verification. If you cannot modify the backend, consider secure strings for runtime secrets protection.