F-Droid Privileged Extension

F-Droid Privileged Extension gives the F-Droid client system-level access to securely install, update, and remove Android applications. It is a separate, compact service that can operate as a system app and communicate with the main F-Droid app through Android’s AIDL inter-process communication. This arrangement lets the client carry out privileged package management without placing the entire F-Droid application in the system partition.

Installing the extension as a system “priv-app” requires root privileges on the Android device. Once integrated, it uses less space in the system partition, system updates do not remove F-Droid, and the root-based process for placing it in the system is safer. It is intended for users who want F-Droid to manage applications with system permissions on a rooted device.

Most users should use the Over-The-Air (OTA) update ZIP variant instead of this build; that variant updates the extension when it was installed using an OTA ZIP. F-Droid Privileged Extension is a System Tools utility for Android, version 0.2.13, with Universal architecture and an open-source license. The current release adds Catalan, Croatian, Gaelic, Italian, and Tamil translations.