Essentials

Essential tools, mods and workarounds for Pixels and other Androids

Featuring Essentials

Essentials WearOS

Navigation

• Features
• Requirements
• Screenshots
• Installation
• Shell Providers (Shizuku & Root)
• Accessibility Permissions
• Localization
• Contributing

Screenshots

Installation

During the installation, you probably will see a warning similar to this claiming that the app is blocked during installation with no way to continue at all.

This is a new restriction on Android with sideloaded apps that can receive sensitive permissions such as Accessibility or Notification Listener, which Essentials both may utilize.

• You can still proceed avoiding this, but you will have to temporarily disable Google Play Protect during the installation.
• But then again, you may notice the toggle for Play Protect in the Play Store being enabled and grayed out, not allowing to be disabled. This is due to the "Advanced protection" feature in Pixels that entirely blocks sideloading. So you will have to disable "Advanced Protection" as well.
• Follow below steps to avoid it during the installation.

IMPORTANT: Yes, this is very annoying, but I understand the need of such prevention to avoid users installing potentially harmful apps from unknown sources. Well I hope you trust me to install my app but anyways, you should always verify the trusted source before installing any APK file from the internet. ʅ(°_°)ʃ

Shell Providers (Shizuku & Root)

• Essentials supports both Shizuku and Root as shell providers for executing advanced system-level commands.
• Shizuku: Make sure to get the latest version of Shizuku preferably from a fork such as thedjchi/Shizuku or other not from the Google Play as it is no longer well supported.
• Root: If your device is rooted, Essentials can bypass Shizuku and use root privileges directly for features like Button Remap and App Freezing.

How to grant accessibility permissions

Localization

How to translate?

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/22ea02cd-1276-4088-8537-c41bd2c4a3fc

Help us bring Essentials to more people around the world! If you're fluent in another language, you can contribute by translating the strings in-app.

Validating Translations

Before submitting translation PRs, validate your changes using the local validation script to ensure proper formatting and XML syntax:

# Validate all translation files for syntax, escaping & placeholder errors
python3 scripts/validate_strings.py

# Auto-fix quote and percent escaping issues automatically
python3 scripts/validate_strings.py --fix

Contributing

We welcome contributions from the community! Whether you're fixing a bug, adding a new feature, or improving documentation, your help is appreciated.

Please read our CONTRIBUTING.md for details on our code of conduct, and the process for submitting pull requests to us.

Thanks

• chalda-pnuzig/emojis.json - Keyboard emojis
• xav-ie/generate-kaomoji - Keyboard kaomojis
• TebbeUbben/ChargeQuickTile - Pixel charging QS
• Link shortener by @Balajitechlabs

Stars <3

Last updated: 2026-08-08

What's New?

• Island
  • Previous media button option
  • Combined notification settings
  • Weather effect haptics control
  • More notification catchup time options
  • Sound mode peek only on change option
  • Scaling improvements
  • Dynamic border colors
  • Fix squished icons
  • Alarm plugin
  • Tap on weather opens brief
  • Show items only on launcher
  • Animation improvements
  • More peek timeout options
  • Alignment hints
  • Calendar priority
  • Hide notification chat icon on lock screen
  • Delayed app change updates
• Weather
  • Separated from island
  • More sources
  • More effects
  • dedicated launcher shortcut
  • Open from weather in island
  • Weather experiments for testing
• Data sim and haptics QS tile
• Brightness adjustment action improvements
• Allow self select in app picker
• Overlay automations for Duo, Island and status glance
• Statusbar cmd fixes
• Open repo from details in your Android
• Haptic intensity control and improvements
• Simulate weather developer option
• Crash fixes
• And of course more minor stuff

Full Changelog: https://github.com/sameerasw/essentials/compare/v18.3...v18.4

Visit the website: sameerasw.com/essentials About Essentials: README More projects: sameerasw.com Show some love: buymeacoffee | GitHub Sponsor