Map Remote on iPhone: Send an App's API Calls to Staging or Localhost

Your app talks to https://api.example.com, but you want to test it against the staging server, a teammate’s laptop, or a local server on http://192.168.1.20:8080. Rebuilding the app with another base URL is slow, and it is impossible for an App Store build. Map Remote in HTTPS Capture forwards matching requests on the iPhone to another server and returns that server’s response to the app.

What Map Remote changes

Unlike a Hosts rule, which only changes the IP address, Map Remote can change every part of the destination:

• host: api.example.com → staging.example.com
• port: → :8080
• scheme: https → http, or the other way round
• path: /v1/ → /v2/

The app still believes it is talking to the original URL. In the request list, the original URL appears with a teal Mapped badge. The request’s Overview shows the address it was actually forwarded to.

Create a Map Remote rule

1. On the Capture tab, tap Rules → Map Remote.
2. Turn on Enable Map Remote and tap +.
3. In Match, enter the pattern and choose Contains or Regex.
4. In Destination, enter the replacement.
5. Save. The rule applies to new requests immediately.

Contains: simple substring swap

The first place the pattern appears in the URL is replaced with your destination. The rest of the URL, including the path and query, is kept.

Pattern	Destination	Result
https://api.example.com	https://staging.example.com	same path on staging
https://api.example.com	http://192.168.1.20:8080	local server over HTTP
api.example.com/v1/	api.example.com/v2/	v1 calls go to v2

Regex: patterns with groups

Use capture groups and $1, $2 in the destination. For example, pattern https://([a-z]+)\.example\.com/ with destination https://$1.staging.example.com/ sends every subdomain to its staging twin.

Safe if a rule is wrong

If the result is not a valid http/https URL, or it is identical to the original, the rule is treated as a non-match and the request goes to the original server. A typo will not break your connection.

Things to know

• Map Remote applies to HTTP and HTTPS requests. WebSocket connections are not remapped.
• With HTTPS → HTTP mapping, the app still uses HTTPS to HTTPS Capture, and only the onward connection uses plain HTTP. This is handy for local development servers without TLS.
• Rules are checked in order after Request Map, URL Rewrite block/redirect actions and Server Replay. If one of those already answered the request, Map Remote does not run.
• Put production, staging and local mappings in separate Profiles to switch environments with one tap.