Nick Fernandez / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Citron, the last actively developed Switch emulator on Android, just got a big update.
- It’s focused on stability and compatibility, including specific fixes for Samsung devices.
- Early testing indicates improved performance, even without tinkering with settings.
Switch emulation in 2025 is barely limping along, but the last bastion of hope just got a significant upgrade. Citron V0.5 is a new, experimental build with many improvements in stability and compatibility.
The update includes several fixes for Vulkan rendering, as well as some specific workarounds for Samsung drivers. The UI has also been updated, with improved performance monitoring. It’s still very clearly a Yuzu fork, but it’s the most advanced fork there is.
Android Authority briefly tested the app, and early results indicate improved performance across the board. Several games that experienced graphical errors and crashing in other Yuzu forks ran without adjusting settings. Your mileage may vary, and performance may be even better with the latest turnip drivers.
Citron has steadily made progress, building on what Yuzu started.
Version 0.5 comes less than a month after the previous update, which also brought significant compatibility upgrades for popular games. At that time the website stopped referring to it as a “Nintendo homebrew emulator,” with the homepage reading “Experience Nintendo Switch games on your PC with unprecedented performance and compatibility.” That has now been reverted, with the app once again nominally a “Nintendo homebrew” project.
It’s unclear whether this will keep the emulator safe from Nintendo’s legal ire, although any discussion of piracy is strictly prohibited. Nintendo has previously shut down popular emulators like Yuzu and Ryujinx, while still admitting that emulation itself is technically legal.
Download the latest build of Citron for Android on the official website. A Linux build of V0.5 is expected to launch soon.
