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Overview
Software Development
Python Development
Web Scraping
Mobile Data Requests

Mobile Data Requests

When the data you want to scrape is served by a mobile app rather than a regular website, the standard browser-based approach no longer applies. Instead, you set up a proxy on your PC, route the phone’s traffic through it, and capture the raw HTTP/HTTPS requests the app sends — then replay those requests in your scraper.

Packet-Capture Tools

Common third-party tools for intercepting mobile traffic:

Fiddler     — Windows (free)
Charles     — macOS (paid, trial available)
Burp Suite  — cross-platform, commonly used for security testing

Step-by-Step: Fiddler + Mobile HTTPS Interception

Configure Fiddler

  1. Open Fiddler, go to Tools → Options → Connections.
  2. Set a port number (e.g. 8888) and check Allow remote computers to connect.
  3. Test the setting: open a browser on the same PC and visit localhost:8888. You should see a Fiddler landing page with a link to download the certificate.

Install the Certificate on Your Phone

  1. On the PC, create a Wi-Fi hotspot so the phone and PC share the same network segment.
  2. On the phone’s browser, visit <PC IP>:8888 (e.g. 192.168.137.1:8888).
  3. Download the Fiddler certificate from the page that loads.
  4. Install and trust the certificate on the phone (location varies by OS: iOS uses the Settings app; Android varies by manufacturer).

Configure the Proxy on the Phone

  1. Go to the phone’s Wi-Fi settings for the connected network.
  2. Set the proxy host to the PC’s IP address and the proxy port to the Fiddler port (e.g. 8888).
  3. Save and reconnect.

Once all three steps are done, Fiddler will intercept HTTPS requests from the mobile app. You can inspect the full request URL, headers, and body, then replicate them in a Python requests script.

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