Universal Installer

Universal Installer is an installer and package manager by Nguyen Quang Minh, who publishes as PWHS. Its first public release came out in April 2026, and versions followed every few days until September; 1.19.0 came a month after 1.18.0, in October, and 1.20.0 six days later. It installs ordinary APK files and the split-APK bundles that download sites use, and it can do so silently through Shizuku or root. It also has an uninstaller, a tracker for app updates and a way to send files to an Android TV on your network. We read the source code of version 1.18.0 for this page and checked the changes through 1.21.0. Version 1.20.0 added package details and installation troubleshooting; version 1.21.0 adds local installation statistics and milestones, a guided VirusTotal setup, persistent install-progress notifications, and more specific installation-error guidance, including for HyperOS. Its Android 16 AppFunctions let an AI agent that the system authorizes read the installed-app list and installation or download history, and open an app’s uninstall screen.

What it installs

• Single APKs, and bundles: .apks, .xapk, .apkm and .apk+, plus ordinary .zip files holding split APKs. Several loose split APKs can also be combined into one install.
• Only the parts your phone needs. For a bundle it pre-selects the splits for your phone’s processor, its screen density, and the languages in your settings plus English. You can change the selection before installing.
• OBB game data. It finds .obb files in a bundle and copies them to Android/obb/<package name>/ once the app has installed. Android 11 and later block that folder for most apps, so when a direct copy fails it tries Shizuku, then asks you to grant the folder in Android’s file picker.
• APKM files are read as ordinary ZIP archives. We found no code for the encrypted .apkm files APKMirror used to publish; according to App Manager’s changelog, APKMirror has since stopped encrypting them.

For what these formats are and why “App not installed” appears, see our guide to XAPK, APKS and APKM files.

Ways to install

• Standard: Android’s normal installer, which shows its confirmation for each app. The first time, Android asks you to allow Universal Installer to install unknown apps.
• Shizuku: installs without a prompt (since 1.19.0 also through Porter, an app that offers the same interface, and in a combined mode that falls back to Dhizuku), with options that are all off by default except replacing an existing app: allow downgrade, grant all requested permissions, install for all users, allow test-only apps, and bypass Android 14’s block on apps with a very old target SDK.
• Root: the same kind of options through pm install. Shizuku and root can also install into a work profile or another user.
• Dhizuku: uses device owner rights instead of a shell, so it needs a phone where Dhizuku has been made device owner; it offers only the downgrade option.
• Custom and microG: a shell command template of your own, or handing the file to microG’s companion app.

An option to make apps appear as installed by another store, Google Play by default, is available in the Shizuku and root modes and off unless you turn it on.

Checks before installing

• Signature. It compares the new file’s signing certificate with the installed app’s and warns about a mismatch, which, as the code notes, Android itself reports only as a generic conflict. Certificates rotated by the developer count as a match.
• Downgrade. It warns when the file is older than the installed version.
• Trackers. It scans the app’s code against a list of tracker signatures from Exodus Privacy that ships inside the app, so this works offline. Since 1.19.0 an option, off by default, stops prompt-free installs of apps in which it finds trackers.
• VirusTotal, only if you enter your own free API key. Then it looks up each package’s SHA-256 hash automatically when you open it, and uploads the file itself only when you tap scan (for files up to 650 megabytes).

What it connects to

From our reading of the code, the copy here makes no network requests by itself when it starts. It goes online for:

• VirusTotal, as above, and only with your key.
• Updates. The Updates tab tracks apps you add from GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg or F-Droid, by asking those sites for their latest releases. The first time you open it, it adds Universal Installer itself to the list and checks GitHub.
• Downloads from a link you paste, saved to Download/UniversalInstaller.
• Sync & Share, a web server on your local network that you switch on, for fetching files from another device such as a TV.

About Sync & Share: it serves the packages in Download/UniversalInstaller over plain HTTP on port 8080 and asks for a PIN, 1234 if you don’t set one. In our reading of the source through 1.21.0, the PIN check can be bypassed by another device on the same network, so treat anything in that folder as visible to everyone on the network while the server is on, and switch it off when you’re done. It serves only that folder.

The developer’s privacy policy says the GitHub build sends “nothing. It creates no account, transmits no usage statistics, and reports no crashes”, which matches the open-source flavour we host. Version 1.21.0 adds analytics event calls for its new statistics screen and other actions, but that flavour binds them to a no-op sink and includes neither Firebase Analytics nor Crashlytics. The policy lists VirusTotal and local sharing as features that use the network, used “only when you explicitly trigger them”. Two differences in the code remain: the update tracker and link downloads go online too after you open or use them, and once a VirusTotal key is set, the hash lookup runs whenever you open a package, not only when you ask for a scan.

The permissions it asks for

Universal Installer declares 23 permissions; the one added in 1.19.0 is for talking to Porter. The less obvious ones, as the manifest and code explain them:

• Query all packages: to list every installed app, including ones without a launcher icon, and to tell an update from a new install.
• Usage access: only for sorting the uninstall list by last use; you grant it in Android’s settings.
• All-files access: for its automatic scan of your storage for packages.
• Camera: the QR scanner for pairing with a TV.
• Fingerprint and biometrics: an optional lock before installing or uninstalling. The code calls it “best-effort UX, not a security boundary”.

About this file

• This is the developer’s own build of version 1.21.0, the phone version (app-release.apk), signed by the developer (CN=Minh, O=PWHS). It is the same file as on the project’s GitHub releases and on IzzyOnDroid. The GitHub release also has separate Android TV and Wear OS builds; this is the phone build.
• The project builds a separate Google Play version, published by NQM Innovation Lab, which according to the build files includes Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics; the build here has neither. We haven’t verified which key signs the Play version, so don’t count on one updating the other.
• The 7.3 MB file runs on ARM and x86, 32- and 64-bit, from Android 7.0. Our scan found no trackers. It contains the Shizuku and libsu (root) libraries for the privileged modes.
• The screenshots come from the project’s store listing and show version 1.6.0, before the Updates tab was added.
• It is licensed under the GPL-3.0.

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

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

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 IzzyOnDroid repository. We host and check only the newest one. Full changelog.