‘Adrod 13’ pretends to brick phones for the TikTok memes: Please don’t install random APKs

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’s always a few random scams being passed around. Over the past couple of months, “Adrod 13,” pitched as an Android 13 installer, has been making the rounds on TikTok.

What is the ‘Adrod 13’ installer?

Tracing back to a few popular TikTok videos from July and August of this year, “Adrod 13” is an APK that is positioned as a poorly-made Android 13 installer. Opening the app shows an “install” button and the Android 13 easter egg icon.

On pressing that “install” button, the screen is taken over by a message that says the “system has been destroyed” and a toast message that says “bro ur phone has been bricked.”

Videos playing off of this app have racked up millions of views, but is there any actual harm being done here?

This is the somewhat good news.

People making these videos aren’t actually “destroying” their phones. Our own Dylan Roussel dug into one of the APKs and found that it’s a very simple build that just shows this warning image and a toast message. There’s nothing particularly worrisome, at least in the version we found. In fact, looking at the app under the hood really reveals just how simple it is, with the source clearly being based on Google’s App Inventor tool.

It’s quite obvious that this was created solely “for the memes,” and nothing more.

But, this does not 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, and there are definitely multiple versions floating around. The files generally seem to be hosted on random file sharing websites, and there’s no clear single source. This version was made by “pocoguy.exe” on TikTok, but we’re not certain it’s the original (it’s definitely an early version, though).

Please, don’t download random APKs you see on social media. It’s not worth the risk.

Dylan Roussel contributed to this article.