Only the apps you pick
Everything else keeps its normal connection. Tick the apps under test and leave the rest of the phone alone.
Open source · Android 5.0 and newer
A slow network,
on purpose.
App Throttler slows, blocks and inspects the traffic of the Android apps you choose. No root, no server, and nothing else on the phone is touched.
Make any network misbehave.
Five controls, per-app rules and a live view of every connection — in one small app that stays out of the way of everything else.
Five real controls
Download, upload, latency, jitter and packet loss. Set them by slider or load a preset — and change them while the tunnel is running.
Watch the wire
A live rate chart, every open connection with its host and bytes, a packet capture and a log for when something won't connect.
Every connection, in plain sight.
Traffic from the selected apps is terminated locally, so the app can show you what would otherwise be invisible — and let you act on it.
- App, host, port, bytes and whether a connection was blocked.
- Search, filter by app, or show blocked attempts only.
- Turn any connection into a rule: block the app or the host.
- Record to
.pcapfor Wireshark, or export the list as CSV.
Interface walkthrough
Every screen,
purpose-built.
Engineered for quick workflows. Switch conditions, isolate apps, audit open flows, and export packet captures without context switching.
Five numbers,
one connection.
Speeds are logarithmic and the last notch means unlimited. All selected apps share the session values unless one is given its own profile.
Download
10 kbps – 50 Mbps
Caps data delivered to the selected apps.
Upload
10 kbps – 50 Mbps
Caps data sent by the selected apps.
Latency
0 – 2,000 ms
Added to every round trip, half each way.
Jitter
0 – 500 ms
Random variation of latency, per packet.
Packet loss
0 – 30%
Share of packets dropped at random.
Presets, ready to go
Built in. Save your own values and app selection as a profile.
| Network | Download | Upload | Latency | Jitter | Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2G | 40 kbps | 20 kbps | 300 ms | 50 ms | 2.0% |
| EDGE | 240 kbps | 200 kbps | 400 ms | 80 ms | 1.5% |
| 3G | 384 kbps | 128 kbps | 100 ms | 20 ms | 1.0% |
| 4G | 10.2 Mbps | 5.1 Mbps | 20 ms | 5 ms | 0.1% |
| Slow Wi-Fi | 1 Mbps | 512 kbps | 50 ms | 10 ms | 0.5% |
| Congested Wi-Fi | 2 Mbps | 1 Mbps | 150 ms | 100 ms | 5.0% |
| Satellite | 5 Mbps | 1 Mbps | 600 ms | 30 ms | 0.5% |
| Offline | — | — | — | — | 100% |
Automate
Put the throttle in your test script.
Drive the tunnel from adb, a Quick Settings tile or a launcher shortcut. No screen taps in the middle of a run.
- Quick SettingsStart and stop from the shade, using the saved settings.
- ShortcutsLong-press the app icon for Start and Stop throttling.
- ScenariosTrain through a tunnel, Elevator ride, Flaky Wi-Fi — or build your own sequence.
adb · start a session
$ adb shell am start \
-n com.rangandale.appthrottler/.control.ControlActivity \
-a com.rangandale.appthrottler.action.START \
--es profile 3G
VPN permission must be granted once in the app. Names are matched case-insensitively; a scenario such as “Elevator ride” needs quoting.
No root. No server.
Nothing leaves the phone.
The throttle is a local VPN that only touches the apps you select. There is no account, no analytics, and no traffic routed through us. The source is yours to read.
No root
Runs as a local VPN on stock Android 5.0 and newer.
Local only
Traffic is relayed straight to the internet. Nothing is sent to a third party.
GPL-3.0
Read it, audit it, fork it. Issues and pull requests are welcome.
Get the build.
v0.1.0 release APK · Android 5.0 and newer · 6.4 MB. Signed release build; Android asks for VPN permission the first time you start it.
Build & install from source
./gradlew :app:assembleRelease adb install -r release/AppThrottler-v0.1.0.apk