Shizuku API is the API provided by Shizuku and Sui. With Shizuku API, you can your Java codes (JNI is also supported) as the identity of root or shell (adb).

To use Shizuku APIs, you need to guide the user to install Shizuku or Sui first. Both of them require Android 6.0+.

Shizuku is a standard Android application. You can guide the user to download Shizuku from https://shizuku.rikka.app/download/. Shizuku works for both rooted and unrooted devices.

On unrooted devices, Shizuku needs to manually restart with adb every time on boot. Before Android 11, a computer is required to run adb. Android 11 and above have built-in wireless debugging support, user can start Shizuku directly on the device.

Sui is a Magisk module. Magisk requires an unlocked bootloader.

No additional setup steps are required except for the installation. You can guide rooted users (searching su in PATH is enough) to download Sui from Magisk or https://github.com/RikkaApps/Sui.

A demo project is provided. See demo for more.

I'll say the difficult words first, using Shizuku APIs is similar to framework or system app development, some experience in developing common applications may not be applicable. You have to get used to digging into Android source code to find out how things work, cs.android.com and AndroidXref sites will be your best friend.

def shizuku_version = (the versoin above)
implementation "dev.rikka.shizuku:api:$shizuku_version"

// Add this line if you want to support Shizuku
implementation "dev.rikka.shizuku:provider:$shizuku_version"

The first step is to acquire the Binder from Shizuku or Sui.

Shizuku class provides listeners, Shizuku#addBinderReceivedListener() and Shizuku.addBinderDeadListener(), that allows you to track the life of the binder. You should call methods in Shizuku class when the binder is alive or you will get an IllegalStateException.

The steps to get a Binder from Sui and Shizuku are different.

Call Sui.init(packageName) before using Shizuku class. This method only needs to be called once. If this method returns true, means Sui is installed and available.

For multi-process applications, call this method in every process that needs to use Shizuku API.

Note, request the binder for Sui only requires two times of binder IPC, this is significantly cheaper than initialize Shizuku which uses ContentProvider. Sui.init(packageName) can be used in main thread, you don't need to worry about performance.

Add ShizukuProvider to AndroidManifest.xml.

<provider
    android:name="rikka.shizuku.ShizukuProvider"
    android:authorities="${applicationId}.shizuku"
    android:multiprocess="false"
    android:enabled="true"
    android:exported="true"
    android:permission="android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL" />

<!-- android:permission="android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL" is to protect this provider from accessing by normal apps -->

For multi-process applications, you need to call ShizukuProvider.enableMultiProcessSupport() in every process which needs to use Shizuku API.

Starting from v12.1.0, Sui is initialized automatically in ShizukuProvider. You can opt-out this behavior by calling ShizukuProvider#disableAutomaticSuiInitialization() before ShizukuProvider#onCreate() is called. Unless there are special reasons, apps that support Shizuku should also support Sui, otherwise it will cause user confusion.

Requesting permission is similar to requesting runtime permissions.

A simple example of requesting permission:

private void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode, int grantResult) {
    boolean granted = grantResult == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED;
    // Do stuff based on the result and the request code
}

private final Shizuku.OnRequestPermissionResultListener REQUEST_PERMISSION_RESULT_LISTENER = this::onRequestPermissionsResult;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    // ...
    Shizuku.addRequestPermissionResultListener(REQUEST_PERMISSION_RESULT_LISTENER);
    // ...
}

@Override
protected void onDestroy() {
    // ...
    Shizuku.removeRequestPermissionResultListener(REQUEST_PERMISSION_RESULT_LISTENE;
    // ...
}

private boolean checkPermission(int code) {
  if (Shizuku.isPreV11()) {
    // Pre-v11 is unsupported
    return false;
  }

  if (Shizuku.checkSelfPermission() == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
    // Granted
    return true;
  } else if (Shizuku.shouldShowRequestPermissionRationale()) {
    // Users choose "Deny and don't ask again"
    return false;
  } else {
    // Request the permission
    Shizuku.requestPermission(code);
    return false;
  }
}

Shizuku can be started with ADB or ROOT, and Sui is a Magisk module, so the privilege could be ADB or ROOT. You can use Shizuku#getUid() to check your privilege, for ROOT it returns 0, for ADB is 2000.

What ADB can do is significantly different from ROOT:

• In the Android world, the privilege is determined by Android permissions. See AndroidManifest of Shell, all the permission granted to Shell (ADB) are listed here. Be aware, the permission changes under different Android versions.

• In Linux world, the privilege is determined by Shell's uid, capabilities, SELinux context, etc. For example, Shell (ADB) cannot access other apps' data files /data/user/0/<package>.

This is a relatively simple way, but what you can do is limited to Binder calls. Therefore, this is only suitable for simple applications.

Shizuku API provides rikka.shizuku.ShizukuBinderWrapper class which forward Binder calls to Shizuku service which has ADB or ROOT privilege.

User Service is like Bound services which allows you to run Java or native codes (through JNI). The difference is that the service runs in a different process and as the identity (Linux UID) of root (UID 0) or shell (UID 2000, if the backend is Shizuku and user starts Shizuku with adb).

There are no restrictions on non-SDK APIs in the user service process. However, the User Service process is not a valid Android application process. Therefore, even if you can acquire a Context instance, many APIs, such as Context#registerReceiver and Context#getContentResolver will not work. You will need to dig into Android source code to find out how things work.

Be aware that, to let the service to use the latest code, "Run/Debug configurations" - "Always install with package manager" in Android Studio should be checked.

• Start the User Service

  Use bindUserService method. This method has two parameters, UserServiceArgs and ServiceConnection.

  UserServiceArgs is like Intent in Bound services, which decides which service will be started and some options.

  ServiceConnection is same as Bound services, but only onServiceConnected and onServiceDisconnected are used.

  Unlike Bound service, the service class must implement IBinder interface. The usual usage is public class YourService extends IYouAidlInterface.Stub.

  The service class can have two constructors, one is default constructor, another is with Context parameter available from Shizuku v13. Shizuku v13 will try the constructor with Context parameter first. Older Shizuku will always use the default constructor. Beaware that the Context does not work as same as Context in normal Android application. See "Use Android APIs in user service" below.

  Shizuku uses tag from UserServiceArgs to determine if the User Service is same. If tag is not set, class name will be uses, but class name is unstable after ProGuard/R8. If version from UserServiceArgs mismatches, a new User Service will be start and "destroy" method (see below) will be called for the old.

• Stop the User Service

  Use unbindUserService method. However, the user service process will NOT be killed automatically. You need to implement a "destroy" method in your service. The transaction code for that method is 16777115 (use 16777114 in aidl). In this method, you can do some cleanup jobs and call System.exit() in the end.

For "Remote binder call", as the APIs are accessed from the app's process, you may need to use AndroidHiddenApiBypass or any ways you want to bypass restrictions on non-SDK interfaces.

We also provides HiddenApiRefinePlugin to help you to programing with hidden APIs conveniently.

• Breaking change: desugaring is required if min API of your app is 23
• Listeners now has an optional Handler parameter that determines which thread will the listener be called from

• The constructor of UserService can have a Context parameter which value is the Context used to create the instance of UserService

• Fix onServiceDisconnected is not called if the UserService is stopped by Shizuku#unbindUserService

• Automatically initialize Sui if you are using Shizuku

  You can opt-out this behavior by calling ShizukuProvider#disableAutomaticSuiInitialization() before ShizukuProvider#onCreate() is called

• Add a lot more detailed document for most APIs

• Drop pre-v11 support

  You don't need to worry about this problem, just show a "not supported" message if the user really uses pre-v11.

  • Sui was born after API v11, Sui users are not affected at all.
  • For Shizuku, according to Google Play statistics, more than 95% of users are on v11+. Shizuku drops Android 5 support from v5, many of the remaining 5% are such people who are stuck at super old versions.
  • A useful API, UserService, is added from v11 and stable on v12. I believe that many Shizuku apps already have a "version > 11" check.
  • I really want to drop pre-v11 support since a possible system issue that may cause system soft reboot (system server crash) on uninstalling Shizuku.

• Add Shizuku#peekUserService that allows you to check if a specific user service is running
• Add Shizuku.UserServiceArgs#daemon that allows you to control if the user service should be run in the "Daemon mode"