diff --git a/pythonforandroid/build.py b/pythonforandroid/build.py
index 0cc26db264..05e4e1db7f 100644
--- a/pythonforandroid/build.py
+++ b/pythonforandroid/build.py
@@ -29,14 +29,14 @@
 def get_targets(sdk_dir):
     if exists(join(sdk_dir, 'cmdline-tools', 'latest', 'bin', 'avdmanager')):
         avdmanager = sh.Command(join(sdk_dir, 'cmdline-tools', 'latest', 'bin', 'avdmanager'))
-        targets = avdmanager('list', 'target').stdout.decode('utf-8').split('\n')
+        targets = avdmanager('list', 'target').split('\n')
 
     elif exists(join(sdk_dir, 'tools', 'bin', 'avdmanager')):
         avdmanager = sh.Command(join(sdk_dir, 'tools', 'bin', 'avdmanager'))
-        targets = avdmanager('list', 'target').stdout.decode('utf-8').split('\n')
+        targets = avdmanager('list', 'target').split('\n')
     elif exists(join(sdk_dir, 'tools', 'android')):
         android = sh.Command(join(sdk_dir, 'tools', 'android'))
-        targets = android('list').stdout.decode('utf-8').split('\n')
+        targets = android('list').split('\n')
     else:
         raise BuildInterruptingException(
             'Could not find `android` or `sdkmanager` binaries in Android SDK',
diff --git a/pythonforandroid/recipe.py b/pythonforandroid/recipe.py
index c4131c53e6..62d07cb1bf 100644
--- a/pythonforandroid/recipe.py
+++ b/pythonforandroid/recipe.py
@@ -469,8 +469,7 @@ def unpack(self, arch):
                     elif extraction_filename.endswith(
                             ('.tar.gz', '.tgz', '.tar.bz2', '.tbz2', '.tar.xz', '.txz')):
                         sh.tar('xf', extraction_filename)
-                        root_directory = sh.tar('tf', extraction_filename).stdout.decode(
-                                'utf-8').split('\n')[0].split('/')[0]
+                        root_directory = sh.tar('tf', extraction_filename).split('\n')[0].split('/')[0]
                         if root_directory != basename(directory_name):
                             move(root_directory, directory_name)
                     else:
diff --git a/pythonforandroid/recipes/python3/__init__.py b/pythonforandroid/recipes/python3/__init__.py
index 3a9575148a..2334db6add 100644
--- a/pythonforandroid/recipes/python3/__init__.py
+++ b/pythonforandroid/recipes/python3/__init__.py
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ def build_arch(self, arch):
 
         android_build = sh.Command(
             join(recipe_build_dir,
-                 'config.guess'))().stdout.strip().decode('utf-8')
+                 'config.guess'))().strip()
 
         with current_directory(build_dir):
             if not exists('config.status'):
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4a628df905..c9cebd2314 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 # https://github.com/kivy/buildozer/issues/722
 install_reqs = [
     'appdirs', 'colorama>=0.3.3', 'jinja2',
-    'sh>=1.10, <2.0; sys_platform!="win32"',
+    'sh>=2, <3.0; sys_platform!="win32"',
     'build', 'toml', 'packaging', 'setuptools', 'wheel~=0.43.0'
 ]
 # (build and toml are used by pythonpackage.py)