Android 13 is the latest version of the world’s most popular smartphone operating system, and as is the case with most new software versions, there are always some random scams going on. Over the past few months, “Adroid 13”, touted as the Android 13 installer, has been doing the rounds on TikTok.
What is the ‘Adrod 13’ installer?
Tracing some popular TikTok videos from July and August of this year, “Adroid 13” is one such APK, positioned as a poorly maintained Android 13 installer. An “Install” button and Android 13 Easter Egg icon appear when you open the app.
Upon pressing that “Install” button, the screen is taken over by a message that says “System destroyed” and a toast message that says “Brother your phone is bricked.”
Videos playing from this app have garnered millions of views, but is there any real harm being done here?
This is good news to some extent.
The people making these videos are not actually “destroying” their phones. Our own Dylan Roussel dug into one of the APKs and found it to be a very simple build that just shows this warning image and a toast message. There’s nothing particularly worrying, at least in the version we got. In fact, looking at the app under the hood really shows just how simple it is, with the source apparently being based on Google’s App Inventor tool.
It is quite clear that it was made purely “for memes” and nothing more.
butThat doesn’t mean you should install the app.
While the version we dug into appears safe, you never know what you’re getting when you download an unknown APK like this one, and there are certainly many versions floating around. Files are typically hosted on random file sharing websites, and there is no clear single source. This version was created by “pocoguy.exe” on TikTok, but we’re not sure if it’s original (it’s definitely an early version, though).
Please, don’t download the random APK you see on social media. It’s not worth the risk.
Dylan Roussel contributed to this article,
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