There are a handful of Android apps that I rely on every day, and Shizuku is very near the pinnacle of that list. It’s not an app that provides functionality in the traditional sense, but it usually opens up avenues that are otherwise inaccessible to other apps. I’ve listed my favorite Shizuku-powered apps in a previous article that highlights just how far-reaching it truly is.
Naturally, I’d be pretty lost without Shizuku on my phone, but I wondered how important the app is for our readers. In that aforementioned article, I published a poll asking readers if they use Shizuku on their phones. The results are below.
This poll received just over 2,500 votes. While the balance of ballots cast across the four options is relatively even, just under a third of all respondents (31.4%) use Shizuku regularly on their devices, just as I do.
A larger share of readers (albeit by around 10 votes) admit to having never tried it, but now want to after voting in the poll. That’s a 31.7% share of the vote. A further 27% of voters have installed Shizuku but rarely use it, while only 9.9% of respondents don’t use the app and don’t need it.
I can’t imagine going without Shizuku on my phone, and many readers feel the same way.
Many readers in the comments note that Shizuku no longer works with newer versions of Android, but that’s not entirely accurate. While the Play Store version of Shizuku is barely updated, the GitHub version is far more recent. And, yes, it does work on Android 16 — it’s currently running on my Galaxy S24 FE. Unfortunately, there are issues for those running Android 17, and it’s unclear when they will be resolved.
If you use Shizuku on your Android phone, share how you use it in the comments. Do you rely on it to run a specific app or an entire suite, and have you encountered any issues with newer Android versions?
