Activity Manager

Activity Manager is an open-source launcher and inspector for Android activities. An activity is usually one screen or entry point inside an app. Some are exposed for other apps to open; others are internal implementation details that the developer never intended to place in the launcher.

This page covers F-Droid’s 5.5.3 build. We matched the APK to F-Droid’s signed index, inspected its manifest and read the source at the exact commit used by the recipe. We did not execute its root or Shizuku launch path on a phone.

Browse apps, activities and manifests

The main list opens each installed package and shows its declared activities. Activity Manager can start ordinary exported activities without special access. Its Manifest Viewer exposes the application manifest in a searchable view, which is useful when you need the exact component name or want to understand an intent filter rather than guess from a screen label.

You can pin apps to the top and clear and rebuild the app cache while keeping those pins. Version 5.5.3 adds an experimental card layout for app and activity lists; the preceding 5.5.2 release added the tablet version of that layout. These are presentation changes, not new privileged powers.

Intent Builder, shortcuts and interception

Intent Builder creates a custom Android intent instead of opening a component with empty defaults. It can set the action, data or other supported fields and start the result; using its elevated launch action requires root. The separate History screen can export an equivalent shell command. You can also create home-screen shortcuts for an activity or built intent. Its “app” shortcut opens that package’s activity list inside Activity Manager rather than launching the target app itself.

Since 5.5.1, the app includes a system-wide intent interceptor for examining shared content, links and other intents. Its manifest ships that interceptor disabled; enabling it adds Activity Manager to compatible Android chooser flows. That is better treated as a debugging switch than a permanent default, since it can make chooser lists busier and can expose the metadata of content you deliberately send to it.

What root or Shizuku changes

Android normally prevents one app from launching another package’s non-exported activity, and an exported activity can still require a protected permission. Activity Manager has two different ways around those checks. If root is available, it takes priority and runs am start -n through su. With Shizuku, it does not ask the ADB shell to start the target directly: it grants itself WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS, backs up the current assistant and voice_interaction_service settings, temporarily makes the target activity the assistant, clears the voice-interaction service and injects the Assist key so Android opens it as the system user.

The Shizuku path waits two seconds and restores both assistant settings. If the process dies in that window, restoration is deferred until Activity Manager next starts. Its onboarding automatically runs pm grant once Shizuku is ready, and that WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS grant remains until it is revoked or the app is uninstalled. Shizuku support needs Android 7.0 or later, so Android 6.0 devices have only the root route. Grant either route only when needed, verify the package and activity name, and avoid firing unfamiliar intents at system packages. Exported activities that need no special permission, manifest reading and ordinary shortcuts do not require it.

The measured APK includes the Shizuku provider and declares seven permissions. They cover listing installed packages, legacy launcher shortcuts, Shizuku and WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS. REORDER_TASKS is also present because an AndroidX test dependency was included in the release; the fixed source does not use it as an Activity Manager feature. A normal install does not receive WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS merely because it appears in the manifest, but this app’s Shizuku onboarding explicitly grants it.

Privacy and compatibility

Activity Manager has no internet permission, and our scan found no known tracker SDKs. App labels, manifests, pinned entries, history and custom intents stay on the device unless you explicitly copy or share them. The manifest allows Android system backup, so the local database may also be included in a device backup. Android or a target app can of course perform network activity after you launch it.

The app supports phones, tablets and Android TV and needs Android 6.0 or later. Its native libraries cover 32- and 64-bit ARM and x86 devices.

About this file

• This is F-Droid’s source build of 5.5.3, signed with F-Droid’s key. A developer-signed GitHub build cannot update it in place.
• The 5.3 MB APK needs Android 6.0 or later and contains native libraries for arm64-v8a, armeabi-v7a, x86 and x86_64.
• It declares no internet permission; our static scan found the Shizuku API and no known trackers.
• Its measured SHA-256 is fb5c15c994239cae33c501338f9f865240cf41ca550ee0273401da7566f0c633, matching F-Droid’s signed index.
• Activity Manager is licensed under Apache-2.0.

Shizuku API. Uses the Shizuku API, so it can do ADB-level work without root once Shizuku is running. (rikka.shizuku.ShizukuProvider)

CPU types in this build: arm64-v8a (64-bit ARM, almost every phone since 2017); armeabi-v7a (32-bit ARM, older and budget phones); x86 (32-bit Intel, emulators); x86_64 (64-bit Intel, emulators and Chromebooks).

Versions currently kept in the F-Droid repository. We host and check only the newest one.