Essential tools and mods for Android nerds
Essentials
Essential tools, mods and workarounds for Pixels and other Androids
sameerasw.com/essentials
Featuring Essentials
Navigation
- Features
- Requirements
- Screenshots
- Installation
- Shell Providers (Shizuku & Root)
- Accessibility Permissions
- Localization
- Contributing
Extension
Features
Sound and Haptics
- Sound mode switcher
- Ambient music glance - Media playback on AOD and screensaver
- Call vibrations - For call accept, decline and ending
Security and Privacy
- Screen locked security - Disable QS tiles while locked
- App lock
Notifications and Alerts
- Notification lighting - Edge lighting and more alerts for notifications
- Flashlight pulse - Pulse flashlight for notifications
- Snooze system notifications
- Battery notification for all your connected devices
Input and Actions
- Link actions - Intercept and share links from default apps
- Button remap
- Keyboard
- Circle to search automations
Widgets
- Screen off empty widget
- Batteries
Display
- Customize statusbar icons and modules
- Dynamic Always on Display
- Caffeinate to keep screen awake
- Dynamic night light - App based night light
- Scale and animation adjustments
- Glove mode
- Hide gesture bar
Watch
- Sync all calendars to your WearOS watch periodically
Other
- Maps power saving mode - For not just Pixel 10, Any Android device
- Are we there yet? - Get reminded when your stop is closeby
- Watermark - Add EXIF data and logos to captured photos
- Flashlight enhancements - With brightness controls and global fade-in-out effect
- Private DNS - Pick your custom DNS or cycle through them easily
- Your Android - Everything about your device in one place
- Eye dropper - Android 17 color picker
DIY
- Automate things yourself and make custom triggers
App Freezing
- Save power and less distractions by freezing away rarely used apps
App Updater
- Check for sideloaded app updates directly from GitHub
Quick Settings Tiles
- Toggle UI blur
- Toggle chat bubbles
- Toggle sensitive content on lock screen
- Toggle tap to wake
- Toggle AOD
- Caffeinate controls
- Charging optimization (Pixel)
- Sound mode switcher
- Mono audio toggle
- Flashlight controls and brightness adjustment
- Stay awake
- NFC toggle
- Adaptive brightness toggle
- Private DNS toggle
- USB debugging toggle
- Developer options toggle
- Toggle other in-app features
Requirements
- Android 8.0 or higher (Feature support may vary)
- App permissions are optional, Grant necessary permissions for each feature
- Targetted for Google Pixel devices extending to other Androids
- Tested on Google Pixel 7 (Android 17 beta program).
Some features and functionalities might not work as expected on other OEMs. (Especially NothingOS and OneUI)
Screenshots
Installation
During the installation, you probably will see a warning similar to this claiming the app 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 both Essentials 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 play store is 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 belwo 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 yangFenTuoZi/Shizuku or other not from the Google Play as it is no longer well supported especially with Android 16 QPR1 up.
- 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
Help us bring Essentials to more people around the world! If you're fluent in another language, you can contribute by translating the app on Crowdin.
Support translation on Crowdin
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
Stars <3
Last updated: 2026-04-06