diff --git a/app/build.gradle b/app/build.gradle
index 37539c74e..662ea7073 100644
--- a/app/build.gradle
+++ b/app/build.gradle
@@ -273,6 +273,9 @@ android {
 
     // Release Type
     release {
+      minifyEnabled true
+      shrinkResources true
+      proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
       signingConfig signingConfigs.release
       buildConfigField "String", "KIWIX_DOWNLOAD_URL", "\"http://mirror.download.kiwix.org/\""
       buildConfigField "boolean", "KIWIX_ERROR_ACTIVITY", "true"
@@ -407,15 +410,6 @@ android {
     javaMaxHeapSize "4g"
   }
 
-  /*
-  Add back once proguard is configured
-  buildTypes {
-    release {
-      minifyEnabled true
-      proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile("proguard-android.txt")
-    }
-  }
-  */
   androidExtensions {
     experimental = true
   }
diff --git a/app/proguard-rules.pro b/app/proguard-rules.pro
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fbedbf4f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/proguard-rules.pro
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+# Add project specific ProGuard rules here.
+# You can control the set of applied configuration files using the
+# proguardFiles setting in build.gradle.
+#
+# For more details, see
+#   http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/proguard.html
+
+# If your project uses WebView with JS, uncomment the following
+# and specify the fully qualified class name to the JavaScript interface
+# class:
+#-keepclassmembers class fqcn.of.javascript.interface.for.webview {
+#   public *;
+#}
+
+# Uncomment this to preserve the line number information for
+# debugging stack traces.
+#-keepattributes SourceFile,LineNumberTable
+
+# If you keep the line number information, uncomment this to
+# hide the original source file name.
+#-renamesourcefileattribute SourceFile
+
+########################
+# Kiwix specific rules #
+########################
+
+#keep everything in kiwixlib
+-keep class org.kiwix.kiwixlib.** { *; }
+
+## SimpleXml
+-dontwarn com.bea.xml.stream.**
+-dontwarn org.simpleframework.xml.stream.**
+-keep class org.simpleframework.xml.**{ *; }
+-keepclassmembers,allowobfuscation class * {
+    @org.simpleframework.xml.* <fields>;
+    @org.simpleframework.xml.* <init>(...);
+}
diff --git a/proguard.cfg b/proguard.cfg
deleted file mode 100644
index 454d60efd..000000000
--- a/proguard.cfg
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,44 +0,0 @@
--optimizationpasses 5
--dontusemixedcaseclassnames
--dontskipnonpubliclibraryclasses
--dontpreverify
--verbose
--optimizations !code/simplification/arithmetic,!field/*,!class/merging/*
-
--keep public class * extends android.app.Activity
--keep public class * extends android.app.Application
--keep public class * extends android.app.Service
--keep public class * extends android.content.BroadcastReceiver
--keep public class * extends android.content.ContentProvider
--keep public class * extends android.app.backup.BackupAgentHelper
--keep public class * extends android.preference.Preference
--keep public class com.android.vending.licensing.ILicensingService
-
-# Allow obfuscation of android.support.v7.internal.view.menu.**
-# to avoid problem on Samsung 4.2.2 devices with appcompat v21
-# see https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=78377
--keep class !android.support.v7.internal.view.menu.**,android.support.** {*;}
-
--keepclasseswithmembers class * {
-    native <methods>;
-}
-
--keepclasseswithmembers class * {
-    public <init>(android.content.Context, android.util.AttributeSet);
-}
-
--keepclasseswithmembers class * {
-    public <init>(android.content.Context, android.util.AttributeSet, int);
-}
-
--keepclassmembers enum * {
-    public static **[] values();
-    public static ** valueOf(java.lang.String);
-}
-
--keep class * implements android.os.Parcelable {
-  public static final android.os.Parcelable$Creator *;
-}
-
--keep class sun.misc.Unsafe { *; }
--dontnote sun.misc.Unsafe