FFUpdater

FFUpdater is a specialist installer and updater for a curated list of browsers, mail clients and privacy tools. Instead of adding arbitrary release URLs, you pick from definitions built into the app. It finds a suitable upstream APK, compares versions and signing information, downloads the update and can pass it to Android’s installer or a privileged installation method.

This page covers F-Droid’s 81.0.0 build from June 2025. We matched its 5.0 MB APK to F-Droid’s signed index and inspected the fixed release source, download-source documentation and version 81 changelog. The release adds IronFox and changes update caching and background reliability. We did not install each supported third-party application.

Supported catalogue and sources

Version 81 includes Firefox, Firefox Beta and Nightly; Firefox Focus, Focus Beta and Klar; Fennec F-Droid; Iceraven and IronFox; Tor Browser and Tor Browser Alpha; Thunderbird and Thunderbird Beta; Brave channels; Chromium, Cromite, DuckDuckGo, Privacy Browser, Vivaldi and Thorium; plus FairEmail, K-9 Mail and Orbot. These packages come from different upstream sources and do not all share one licence or privacy policy.

The app itself is open source, but F-Droid applies NonFreeAdd because it promotes or installs software that is not fully free. F-Droid’s metadata does not single out Vivaldi as the reason for that label. FFUpdater’s own README separately describes Vivaldi’s published source as incomplete. Installing an app through FFUpdater does not make that target app open source, independently audited or endorsed by FFUpdater.

FFUpdater compares a target APK against signer fingerprints in its built-in definitions. Android also rejects an update signed by a different key unless the existing app is removed, which risks its local data. A whitelist is useful but is not independent proof that every listed upstream source remains safe; review the source and displayed fingerprint rather than forcing a reinstall around a warning.

This catalogue is stale enough to affect whether an advertised target can actually update. The 81.0.0 APK is from 15 June 2025. Iceraven changed its release asset names, while this FFUpdater build still expects the old browser-…-forkRelease.apk pattern; its open issue reports users stuck on Iceraven 2.48 even though newer releases exist. Thorium’s current Android release has no APK assets. Firefox 144 and later require Android 8, although FFUpdater itself still runs on Android 5–7 and can offer that incompatible browser line. Check the resolved version and device requirement before relying on a download.

Background checks, downloads and installs

Background update checks are enabled by default, with a six-hour interval. Checks and downloads are enabled, update checks may use metered networks, and the separate download on metered networks setting is off. However, version 81’s background downloader checks the update-check metered preference instead of the download preference. With the defaults, it can therefore download an APK over a metered connection even though the download setting says not to. Until that bug is fixed, disable background downloads or disable metered update checks if avoiding mobile-data downloads matters.

The worker blocks a check while power-save mode has been enabled recently, while data saver is active or while the battery is low. Although the source defines a helper for power save lasting longer than 24 hours, version 81 does not use that helper in the update path; it therefore does not support the stronger claim that checks resume after 24 hours while downloads remain off. WorkManager scheduling and manufacturer restrictions also mean the six-hour interval is a request, not an exact alarm.

For unattended installation the app requests USER_ACTION_NOT_REQUIRED for Android 12 package sessions and can also use root or Shizuku/Sui on Android 6 and later. Without a privileged route, the no-prompt path is limited to packages FFUpdater installed or for which it holds update ownership; Android 14 introduced the explicit update-owner permission and enforcement. Ordinary installs still present the system confirmation screen.

There is also a first-run default inconsistency: the settings XML displays background installation as enabled, while the code reads an absent preference as false and does not initialize XML defaults at startup. In practice, unattended background installation is off until the settings screen writes the preference. Granting root or Shizuku materially increases what the updater can do, so enable it only if that trust is worth the convenience.

Network and build facts

The APK requests internet, network and Wi-Fi state, foreground data-sync service, boot, wake lock, notifications, legacy external-storage access, package installation/update ownership and Shizuku permissions. It can request exemption from battery optimizations. Our static scan found no known tracker SDKs. That result does not cover the servers used to check or download each supported app.

The F-Droid APK is reproducibly matched to the developer’s signing certificate, so its signer is the upstream key rather than F-Droid’s general repository key. Keeping the same signer permits compatible developer and F-Droid copies to update one another.

About this file

• This is the developer-signed, reproducibly verified 81.0.0 APK published through F-Droid.
• The release is from 15 June 2025; Iceraven’s changed asset names and other stale definitions mean every catalogue entry should not be assumed to work today.
• It needs Android 5.0 or later and includes native libraries for 32- and 64-bit ARM and x86.
• Its measured SHA-256 is b1a854c248ca3336afd112f8f620c5c8c44c02dd6aac5784199f9931c2377ce6, matching F-Droid’s signed index.
• FFUpdater is GPL-3.0 or later. Our scan found no known tracker SDKs; F-Droid’s NonFreeAdd label concerns software the app can install.

Shizuku API. Uses the Shizuku API, so it can do ADB-level work without root once Shizuku is running. (rikka.shizuku.Shizuku$$ExternalSyntheticLambda0)

libsu (root shell). Bundles libsu, a library for running commands in a root shell. (com.topjohnwu.superuser.NoShellException)

Flagged by F-Droid:

• NonFreeAdd: Promotes non-free add-ons.

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. Full changelog.