CheatDroid 4.2 is out

4.1 came out of writing the game guides. 4.2 is about getting CheatDroid onto the phone in the first place, and about the no-root path saying what it can and can’t do before you lean on it.

Temporary root

CheatDroid changes another app’s files, and that has always meant your phone was already rooted. 4.2 adds a way in for a phone that isn’t. A banner on the home screen walks you through a temporary root that lasts until the next restart: it installs KernelSU and DFRoot, then opens DFRoot to switch the access on.

The honest part first, because this one has sharp edges. It only works on some phones and some Android versions, and I can’t promise yours is one of them. If it doesn’t take, the phone may freeze and reboot on its own, and a deliberate restart is also how you turn it back off. Do it on a phone you own. CheatDroid doesn’t carry the exploit itself; it downloads those two apps from their own pages on GitHub and hands off to them.

Shizuku says what it can reach

Without root, Shizuku still opens the data of your own debuggable builds, and 4.2 stops overselling it. Before you grant it, the app tells you plainly what Shizuku can and can’t get at. The apps it can actually open are tagged in the list, so you’re not guessing. And while the connection is still coming up, or it failed, or you denied it, the app says which of those happened instead of showing a flat “ready”.

Back goes back one step

Back used to leave the screen even with an open drawer, a search box or a memory selection sitting in front of it. Now it closes those first, one at a time, and only then leaves. Small thing. It annoyed me for months.

New icon

An adaptive launcher icon, so it takes whatever shape your launcher gives every other icon, and a monochrome version for the themed-icon setting.

Updating

4.x shows the update in its menu within a day, or download 4.2 and install it over the old one. Pro and your settings stay.