Hyper Browser exists for one job that no backup app does well: reconciling what is on your phone against what is in your cloud. Two file trees side by side, a gallery for looking at photos properly before you decide, and Google Drive mounted as a pane like any other folder. Move a keeper up to Drive, delete the local copy of something you never want backed up, and see both sides while you do it.
What it does
- Two independent file panes — local storage, SD card, USB, or Google Drive in either pane.
- Copy, move and delete across panes, including local ↔ Drive in both directions.
- Built-in gallery with three zoom stages, so you can actually judge a photo before deleting it.
- Create folders anywhere, including on Drive.
- Light, inverted and hacker themes.
- No account required for local browsing. No ads, no analytics, no telemetry.
Download
Hyper Browser is distributed as a direct APK while Google Drive verification is in progress.
Download the APKAndroid will ask you to allow installs from your browser or file manager the first time. Play Protect also warns about apps installed outside the Play Store; that is normal for a sideloaded app.
What to expect when you install
Hyper Browser is not on the Play Store and has not been through Google's Drive verification, so you will meet two scary-looking warning screens on the way in. Both are expected. Here is what they are and why they appear, so you are not deciding whether to trust something in the middle of a security prompt.
1. "For your security, your phone is not allowed to install unknown apps"
This one comes from Android, and it appears for every app installed outside the Play
Store — the same way Windows warns about an .exe it has not seen before. Tap
Settings and allow your browser or file manager to install apps, then go back
and continue. Play Protect may add a second "unsafe app" notice; choose
Install anyway. Neither screen means anything has been found wrong with the
app — only that Google has not scanned it, because it was never submitted to them.
2. "Google hasn't verified this app"
This one comes from Google's sign-in flow, and only when you connect Google Drive. Tap Advanced, then Go to Hyper Browser (unsafe). Verification for the Drive scope requires a third-party security assessment costing roughly $600 a year, which this project does not currently fund. Until then, every app in this position gets the same banner.
3. The Drive permission checkbox
The consent screen then asks you to tick a box granting access to "See, edit, create, and delete all of your Google Drive files." You must tick it, or the Drive pane will have nothing to show. That wording is Google's, and it is broad because a file manager genuinely needs it — see Google Drive access below for why, and the privacy policy for what the app does and does not do with it.
Skipping all of this requires Play Store distribution and paid Drive verification. If enough people ask, that is the path.
Google Drive access
Hyper Browser requests the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive scope. That is the
broadest Drive scope Google offers, and the app asks for it because the app is a file manager: it
has to list, open, create, move and delete any file or folder you point it at, including
files that existed on your Drive long before you installed it. Narrower scopes such as
drive.file only expose files the app itself created, which cannot back a browsable
file tree.
Your Drive is contacted directly from your device. The developer operates no server, and no file content, file name or account detail is ever sent anywhere other than Google's own API. See the privacy policy for the full disclosure.
Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| All files access | Browsing and moving files anywhere on the device. Android's folder picker cannot grant access to the internal storage root, and the media APIs only expose photos and videos, so neither can back a general file manager. |
| Photos, video and audio | Listings, grid thumbnails and the gallery viewer. |
| Internet and network state | Google Drive requests, and failing fast when offline. |
Support
Questions, bugs and feature requests: gregorydearth@gmail.com.