Shizuku Apps: 15 Android Tools I Actually Use
The best Shizuku apps are the ones that make Android feel less locked down without making you root your phone. These 15 apps cover the stuff I actually find useful: button shortcuts, better APK installs, privacy automation, ADB commands, foldable tweaks, memory cleanup, and a much nicer F-Droid experience.
Why Shizuku is always one of the first apps I install
Shizuku is a free, open-source utility that lets third-party apps safely access system-level permissions without needing root. Instead of manually granting individual apps ADB permissions one by one, you grant Shizuku ADB permissions once, and the apps that support it can use that access from there.
It is so good and it's one of the very first apps that I install on any phone I use.
— Sam BeckmanThere is one catch right now. The mainline version of Shizuku on the Play Store and GitHub has not been updated in over a year, and it does not work on newer devices running Android 16 or newer. That is why I use a forked version full-time.
The 15 Shizuku apps I’d start with
| App | What it helps with |
|---|---|
| Button Mapper | Screen-off button shortcuts like flashlight, media controls, camera, and do not disturb. |
| Shizuku forked version | System-level permissions without root, with a Watchdog feature in the fork I use. |
| Installer X Revived | A better Android installer interface with extra APK installation options. |
| Ambient Music Mod | Pixel-style Now Playing detection on non-Pixel phones. |
| Auto Cursor | One-handed control with a pointer and Shizuku-backed accessibility reliability. |
| Fold Switcher | Manual foldable display states, including keeping the cover display active. |
| QuickTile Settings | Quick settings toggles for private DNS and USB debugging. |
| Network Switch | A quick settings tile for switching preset network modes. |
| ShizuTools | A collection of Shizuku tools, including debloat and per-app audio controls. |
| Buge App Manager | Fast app management, permission control, and batch permission changes. |
| Privacy Flip | Privacy toggles that change automatically when the phone locks or unlocks. |
| Memhogs | Memory usage visibility and a quick way to kill background processes. |
| aShellYou | ADB commands and presets without connecting the phone to a computer. |
| Curbox | Doom-scrolling control with focus mode, prompts, grayscale, and UI hiding. |
| Droid-ify | A nicer F-Droid client with Shizuku-based background installs and updates. |
Button Mapper makes physical buttons genuinely useful
Button Mapper is the app that kicked this whole list off for me. On my Oppo Find X9 Pro running ColorOS, I can turn the display off, flip the phone around, then long press the volume up key to activate the flashlight even while the screen is off.
That specific screen-off functionality is much simpler to set up because of Shizuku. Once it is working, you are not limited to the torch either. You can play or pause music, skip forward or back, launch the camera app, or toggle do not disturb.
Installer X Revived is the APK installer Android should have
If Shizuku is the first app I install, Installer X Revived is probably the second. It replaces the system installer interface on Android with something that looks better and gives you far more control.
The big wins are practical. Installer X Revived can auto-delete APK files after installation, bypass the warning you would normally get when installing older outdated APKs, allow restricted permissions, grant all requested permissions, and expose a heap of other options that the default installer does not.
Ambient Music Mod brings Pixel-style Now Playing to other phones
Ambient Music Mod is older, but it is still a tried and true Shizuku app that everyone without a Pixel phone should try. It emulates one of the best Pixel software exclusives: Now Playing.
When music is playing nearby, Ambient Music Mod can detect it and show the song name and artist on your lock screen. On a Samsung phone, if you set it up as a widget using the LockStar module, it can even show on the always-on display.
It is not perfect. It does not have access to a library as vast as Google’s, and it has been a little while since it was last updated, so it can sometimes be buggy. But when it works, it is one of my favorite system tweaks of all time.
Auto Cursor is better when Shizuku keeps it alive
Auto Cursor mostly works without Shizuku, but Shizuku unlocks the feature that makes me trust it more. The app lets you swipe in from the left or right edge of the display to bring up an ultra-smooth pointer near the top of the screen, controlled by a target circle lower down.
You can tap, long press, or drag with that circle, and the actions are customizable. The whole idea is to make one-handed phone use way, way easier.
The Shizuku part matters because Auto Cursor relies on accessibility permissions, and Android phones are getting stricter with those. If you grant permissions through Shizuku, Auto Cursor can turn accessibility permissions back on automatically if they ever get disabled.
Fold Switcher fixes an annoying foldable phone problem
Fold Switcher has become an absolute must-have for me on foldables because it lets you choose what state your foldable device is set to, overriding the system settings.
The best example is a WhatsApp video call. If I want to prop the phone up halfway in a tent-style position, the inner display would normally activate and I would lose the person on the cover screen. With Fold Switcher, I can tap the tent mode quick settings toggle, half open the phone, and keep the cover display on.
QuickTile Settings adds genuinely useful system toggles
QuickTile Settings gives you two Shizuku-based quick settings toggles that I can genuinely see myself using for a long, long time. The first is a private DNS toggle that can turn private DNS on or off and cycle between providers including AdGuard, Cloudflare, and Quad9 Security.
You can also customize those DNS options, add your own host names, and set private DNS to disable automatically whenever you connect to a VPN. The second toggle is for USB debugging, and it can also be tied to developer options and wireless debugging.
Network Switch is another quick settings tile, but this one is beautifully simple: tap it and your phone switches network mode. By default, it switches between 4G and 5G, but you can change the preset modes to options like 2G, 3G, 4G/5G, or 4G only.
ShizuTools puts a bunch of system tweaks in one place
ShizuTools is exactly what the name suggests: one app with a bunch of Shizuku-enabled tools in a single interface. There is a system debloat tool that can uninstall apps, including system apps, plus a mixed audio tool for playing audio from multiple apps at the same time.
There is also Sound Master, which controls audio output volume on an app-by-app basis. If you use an OPPO, OnePlus, or Realme device, the theme patcher tool is also worth checking out because it is pretty damn cool.
The caveat is that, at the time of making the video, ShizuTools had not been updated since October 2024. Some tools may not work quite as reliably anymore.
Buge App Manager makes app permissions fast to control
Buge App Manager makes it outrageously easy to manage the apps installed on your phone. From a single app page, you can force stop an app, clear its data, view its permissions, and grant or revoke those permissions with just a couple of clicks.
The permissions manager page is the part I really like. It shows which apps are using which permissions at a glance, and you can long press an app to activate batch selection mode so you can grant or revoke permissions for multiple apps in one go.
Privacy Flip automates privacy toggles when your phone locks
Privacy Flip is a fantastic privacy-focused app that turns certain privacy features on or off automatically depending on whether your phone is locked. By default, it can disable Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile data, location, and NFC when the phone locks, then turn them back on when you unlock it.
You can choose which toggles it controls, so if you do not want it touching Wi-Fi, you can simply turn that option off. You can also set it up to disable camera and microphone access if you like.
Memhogs is a slick way to see what is eating memory
Memhogs is super simple, outrageously cool, and useful at the same time. It shows which apps are using your phone’s memory, with the biggest users at the top, all inside an interface that somehow feels sleek despite looking a bit like a terminal emulator.
You can tap an app, choose reclaim memory, and Memhogs will kill its current background processes. In theory, that should help your phone run a little more efficiently, at least until you open that app again.
aShellYou brings old-school ADB commands onto the phone
Most of the apps in this list use Shizuku to keep ADB permission handling simple. But plenty of Android apps still need you to grant ADB permissions the old-school way, through a computer. aShellYou solves that by letting you run ADB commands on the phone itself.
It also includes a huge collection of ADB command presets, and you can save commands as bookmarks for quick access. Whether you want to uninstall bloatware or reboot into recovery mode, if it is done through ADB, this app can get the job done.
Curbox is a surprisingly serious doom-scrolling blocker
Curbox helps curb doom scrolling, and it does it with a seriously clean design. Its main feature is focus mode: set a duration, tap curb me, and the apps or websites in your focus group are blocked for that period.
The app goes much deeper than simple blocking. You can set challenge screens, block short-form videos inside apps, enable on-screen prompts that remind you to be mindful, set a grayscale filter for certain apps, and even hide specific UI elements inside distracting apps.
Droid-ify is the F-Droid client I’d actually want to use
Droid-ify might be the best one to finish on. It is an F-Droid client filled with thousands of free and open-source apps, but unlike the standard F-Droid experience, Droid-ify actually looks good.
You can use Droid-ify almost fully without Shizuku. The difference shows up when installing or updating apps. Without Shizuku, you have to use the system installer, which means newer Android versions scan installs and updates and throw warnings at you.
Switch Droid-ify’s installer setting to the Shizuku installer, and app installations and updates complete in the background. That makes the whole experience feel almost identical to using the Google Play Store, while still being a neat open-source app discovery tool.
My overall Shizuku app picks
If I had to start with just a few, I would install Shizuku, Installer X Revived, Button Mapper, Auto Cursor, and Droid-ify first. Those are the apps that either remove friction immediately or unlock functionality that feels like it should have been part of Android already.
The rest depends on your setup. Fold Switcher is only essential if you use a foldable, Ambient Music Mod makes the most sense if you miss Pixel-style Now Playing, and Curbox is for anyone who wants more control over doom scrolling without using an ugly blocker app.
From Sam Beckman
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