First of all I recommend reading this blog post from Simone evilsocket Margaritelli that is – imho – one of the best comprehensive guides to Android applications reversing, of which network analysis is just a part.
In my post I will present 3 different methods I used to understand the network behavior (the focus is on network analysis, nothing more) of an Android application I analyzed:
- using an HTTPS interception proxy;
- MITMing the network traffic;
- profiling the application with Android Studio.
Everyone can use the method they want (some simply may not work in your scenario), the results of the analysis are the same; the method you’ll choose depends on the scenario you are testing, the software you are used to working with and so on.
Consider that the first two methods can be used to inspect the traffic from any application/program/device, not only an Android application.
Scubarda 