VInstall for Android TV

An Android TV-focused fork of VInstall, adapted for reliable five-way remote navigation and package management on a television.

Note

This is an independent Android TV port, not an official release of the upstream VInstall project. For the original project, its releases, or upstream support, visit vinstall/VInstall.

The original phone interface is retained as the phone build flavor, while the tv flavor provides the television experience and can be installed separately.

What This Fork Adds

• A Leanback-style home screen designed for D-pad remotes
• Remote-friendly package selection, settings, installation history, and queue controls
• A built-in TV file browser for devices without a suitable system document picker
• Browser-to-TV transfers over the local network using a six-digit pairing code
• Separate phone and tv application flavors
• Additional archive validation, storage checks, and installer hardening

Screenshots

Captured on an NVIDIA Shield Android TV using the tv debug build.

Dashboard	Package installer

Browser transfer	Settings

Testing

See the physical-device test matrix for verified Shield TV behavior and flows that still require device testing.

Features

Package Installation

Supports six package formats:

Format	Description
APK	Standard Android package
XAPK	APK with OBB expansion data or split APKs bundle
APKS	Split APKs archive (SAI format)
APKM	Split APKs archive (APKMirror format)
APKV	Encrypted or plain split APKs archive (custom format, see APKV spec)
ZIP	Generic ZIP archive containing APK split files

For split APK formats (XAPK, APKS, APKM, APKV, ZIP), individual splits can be selected or deselected before installation. APKV files support optional password-based encryption and integrity verification via SHA-256 checksums.

Install Modes

Three installation modes are available:

• Normal — uses the standard Android package installer
• Root — installs silently using root access
• Shizuku — installs silently via the Shizuku service without requiring full root

App Manager

Browse all installed user apps with the ability to:

• View app details: version, SDK range, install and update dates, APK size, data directory, split count, and requested permissions
• Launch or open the system app info page
• Export the app as an .apkv archive
• Uninstall the app (supports Normal, Root, and Shizuku modes)
• Compute and copy the APK hash (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256)

Backup/Export

Export any installed user app as an .apkv archive directly from the App Manager or the dedicated Backup screen. Exports are created in private app storage and can then be saved with Android's document picker. Optional password-based encryption is supported when exporting.

Android TV Experience

The tv flavor is a separately installable, five-way-remote-friendly build with a Leanback dashboard. Its Receive screen starts a lifecycle-bound LAN server with a six-digit pairing code for browser uploads and authenticated APKV downloads. Received packages are always reviewed and explicitly installed on the TV.

XAPK expansion files are accepted only when Root or an active, granted Shizuku installation mode is selected. VInstall validates the APK package name and writes only .obb files beneath that package's protected OBB directory.

Settings

Setting	Description
Install mode	Normal, Root, or Shizuku
Theme	Light, Dark, or follow system
Confirm before install	Show a confirmation dialog before installing
Clear cache after install	Automatically remove temp files after installation
Debug window	Show or hide the in-app log viewer
Crash Reports	Logs can be viewed, copied, or cleared directly from the app

Requirements

• Android 5.0 (API 21) or higher
• "Install unknown apps" permission granted for this app
• Root or active Shizuku access is required for XAPK packages that contain OBB data
• Root access required when using Root mode
• Shizuku installed and running when using Shizuku mode

Building

Debug

./gradlew assemblePhoneDebug
./gradlew assembleTvDebug

Release

Using GitHub Actions (CI)

Before triggering a release build, create a keystore and configure the following secrets in your GitHub repository settings:

Secret	Description
KEYSTORE_BASE64	Base64-encoded .jks keystore file
STORE_PASSWORD	Keystore password
KEY_ALIAS	Key alias
KEY_PASSWORD	Key password

Then push a tag prefixed with v to trigger the release workflow:

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

The signed release APK will be automatically attached to the corresponding GitHub Release.

Using a Local Keystore

Alternatively, you can build a signed release APK locally by adding the following properties to your local.properties file:

STORE_FILE=/absolute/path/to/your/keystore.jks
STORE_PASSWORD=your_store_password
KEY_ALIAS=your_key_alias
KEY_PASSWORD=your_key_password

Then run:

./gradlew assemblePhoneRelease
./gradlew assembleTvRelease

Gradle Wrapper

The gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar file is included in the repository. However, if you want to generate the file again, just type:

gradle wrapper --gradle-version=9.4.1

APKV Format

VInstall introduces APKV, a custom container format for archiving and distributing Android application packages. It supports plain and password-encrypted payloads, embeds an application icon, includes integrity checksums per APK file, and includes a structured JSON manifest. The full specification is available in the APKV spec and apkv-cli.

License

Licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

Credits

This project uses the following open-source libraries:

Library	Author	License	Notes
AndroidX	Google	Apache 2.0
Material Components for Android	Google	Apache 2.0
Kotlin Coroutines	JetBrains	Apache 2.0
Gson	Google	Apache 2.0
Shizuku	RikkaApps	Apache 2.0
Bouncy Castle	The Legion of the Bouncy Castle	MIT-style	Removed in v0.4.2-hotfix2

Upstream Project and Credits

VInstall was created by AlwizBA and is maintained at vinstall/VInstall. This fork retains the upstream project and license while adding the Android TV-specific work described above.