Monerujo is the original Android Monero wallet — eight years in, still pseudonymous, still open source.

How it works

Monerujo is a non-custodial Android wallet for Monero (XMR). The app runs the Monero wallet code locally; private spend and view keys are generated on the device and never leave it. It connects to a remote Monero daemon — the user can pick the bundled defaults or a self-hosted node — so the device avoids syncing the full chain. Builds are distributed through Google Play and the project's own F-Droid repository at f-droid.monerujo.io. The codebase, m2049r/xmrwallet, is Apache-2.0 and has been continuously maintained on GitHub since 2017. The current release is v4.1.7 "Exolix" (June 2025), shipping Monero Core v0.18.3.4 and the in-app swap integration. Notable extras include Sidekick (a separate-phone signing setup added in v4.0.7), Ledger Nano S hardware-wallet support, CrAzYpass offset passphrases, and OpenAlias resolution.

KYC & privacy

The wallet itself asks for nothing. No email, no phone, no signup, no account. Keys, seeds, and transaction history live on the device; a backup is a local file the user copies off the phone. Node connections leak the standard remote-node metadata (the daemon sees that an IP queried for outputs), so privacy-minded users route Monerujo through Tor via Orbot or run their own node. The built-in Exolix swap is marketed as "KYC-free", but the exchange's own AML logic can flag specific swaps — that risk belongs to Exolix, not the wallet. One feature deserves a footnote: PocketChange, which splits an incoming output across ten enotes for spending convenience. Moonstone Research's postmortem of the September 2023 Monero CCS hack concluded the attacker was likely a Monerujo user with PocketChange enabled, because the eleven-output transaction signature is rare on the network. The feature is opt-in and can be left off.

Strengths and limits

The strongest argument for Monerujo is dullness in the engineering sense. Eight years of releases, a public changelog, an actively rebuilt Monero Core every cycle, and a maintainer (m2049r) who still ships patches under the same pseudonym. Apache-2.0 means anyone can fork it if the project ever stops. Sidekick is a quietly clever feature: a second, offline phone holds the keys while the online phone is just a relay. Limits are visible too. There is no iOS build, no desktop port, no browser extension. Hardware support is limited to Ledger Nano S — newer Ledgers and other signers aren't covered. The app has never been through a named third-party security audit. And the PocketChange episode shows that even good-faith UX shortcuts can leave a network-visible fingerprint.

Verdict

Monerujo is what an Android-only Monero wallet should look like in 2026: small surface, no servers asking your name, an obvious upgrade path through F-Droid, and a maintainer who keeps shipping. The privacy ceiling is whatever the Monero protocol allows, minus a few opt-in features the user chooses themselves. Use it on Android, leave PocketChange off if you're spending from a publicly known address, and route the daemon through Tor. Grade: A- (8.8/10). Trust: TRUSTED.