I used a mix of apktool (reading raw Smali code) and jd-gui for a while, but recently transitioned mostly to using JADX: https://github.com/skylot/jadx https://

I used a mix of apktool (reading raw Smali code) and jd-gui for a while, but recently transitioned mostly to using JADX: https://github.com/skylot/jadx https://github.com/skylot/jadx JADX is really nice - there’s a decent GUI, and it also supports exporting the whole thing as an Android Studio project so you can directly take advantage of the refactor tools there for more deobfuscation. It also has a smarter decompiler than JD as it’s specialized to go straight from dex to Java (JD makes a trip through the classic JVM class format, which loses some nuance of dex). Of course, many of the apps I’m taking apart have native components, for which I use GHIDRA and IDA.