Why You Should or Shouldn’t Root Your Android

Rooting is gaining privileged control over a Linux or Unix system. Rooting an Android device is the same. Find out why you should never root your Android device here.

Why You Should or Shouldn’t Root Your Android? One of the main benefits of using an Android phone is the ability to customize.

However, some people are looking for even more customization options and want to unlock features not available to other Android users.

You can do this by rooting your device, but if you don’t take the necessary precautions, you could permanently lose your device or face a serious problem.

If you are one of those people who have doubts about rooting their phones, you have come to the right place because in this article, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of rooting an Android phone so that you can make a better decision.

What is rooting?

Rooting is the process that unlocks your phone’s operating system. By doing this with your Phone, you can gain “administrator”or “superuser”access to the operating system, which can be used to make changes to the operating system, even changes that the manufacturers prevent you from doing.

Why do people root their phones

In the early days of Android, mobile phone manufacturers were very slow in releasing the latest updates.

Updating the phone was sometimes necessary as it was the only way to fix many software and security issues with the mobile phone.

For this reason, people have taken matters into their own hands and started rooting phones in order to have early access to newly released updates.

Nowadays, even though manufacturers release updates within a month of release, people still root their phones in order to have full control over their devices and extend their functionality beyond what is allowed by the manufacturers.

Benefits of Rooting Your Android Phone

1. Get the latest OS updates
2. Endless customization
3. Block intrusive ads
4. Install all mods and “incompatible”apps you want
5. System backup and restore
6. Remove pre-installed apps to get more storage and improve device performance
7. Automate everything
8. Improve performance and battery life

1. Get the latest OS updates

As mentioned above, mobile phone manufacturers take a long time to send updates to phones. In most cases, it takes more than a month to receive updates after they are released by the telecom operator.

On the other hand, the developer community gets full access to updates months before the carrier releases updates, as well as some bonus features.

You can also get early access to updates if you have a rooted phone. You just need to find the desired OS version and install it on your phone without any problems.

2. Endless customization

Android phones already offer a lot of customization options, but rooting your phone will take your customization to the next level. Here are a few things you can tweak:

• You can download custom ROMs.
• Control your device with customizable gestures.
• Add features like widgets to your notification bar.
• Change how certain features appear or work, such as the notification bar or lock screen.
• Add sliding keyboards.

3. Block intrusive ads

There is not a single person who does not agree that advertising is annoying. They slow down our phones and pose a threat to our privacy.

Some apps can block these ads for you, but they ask for your personal information before blocking ads, such as:

1. Location
2. Phone number
3. Contact list

By rooting your phone, you can get permission to block these ads so that the next time you use your phone, you won’t be annoyed by an ad pop-up.

4. Install all mods and “incompatible”apps you want

There are certain apps that you cannot install or use on your Android smartphone due to some locks or restrictions set by carriers or manufacturers.

If you have root access on your phone, you can install such applications without any problems and make them work.

For example, there are many hacked versions of your favorite mobile games on the web that you can’t download due to Android restrictions. But if you have a rooted device, you can install and play them without problems.

5. System backup and restore

Once you have rooted your phone, you can backup and restore almost everything on your phone with certain backup apps.

You can easily transfer your data to a new phone, and if you accidentally mess something up on your phone, you can restore your phone to the point where you didn’t mess up that thing.

6. Remove pre-installed apps to get more memory and improve device performance.

Whenever you buy a new Android phone, it comes with certain pre-installed apps that cannot be removed because the manufacturers won’t let you uninstall them. The problem with these apps is that:

• They are rarely used for your android phone.
• They take up unnecessary space.
• They can also run in the background and consume your phone’s RAM and battery.
• Phone manufacturers mainly install this malware to generate passive income.

If you have root access on your phone, you can uninstall these apps and prevent them from running in the background and using system resources.

7. Automate everything

You can find several applications on the Internet that allow you to automate your mobile phone. Though it is not necessary to have a rooted phone to use these apps.

Some features require root access.

For example, to automatically switch between network types such as (LTE/3G/2G), you need root access due to Android security restrictions.

8. Improve performance and battery life

Newer Android phones have great performance and battery life, but rooting your phone can improve it even more.

Once you have rooted your phone, you can decrease or increase your phone’s CPU clock speed (if supported).

Apart from this, you can also disable background apps which will free up space in your RAM to improve phone performance and save most of your battery.

Disadvantages of Rooting Your Android Phone

1. No more guarantee
2. It is illegal
3. Risk of blocking your device
4. The process is complex
5. Disclosure of personal information
6. Security risks
7. Update problems
8. Performance issues and bugs

1. No more warranty

If you recently bought your phone and it is under warranty, you may lose your warranty coverage after rooting your phone.

While some mobile companies such as OnePlus, Xiaomi, Poco and Google allow you to unlock your device’s bootloader using their official method without voiding your warranty.

However, big companies like Huawei and Realme won’t accept your warranty if your phone is rooted. Therefore, you should think twice before rooting your phone.

2. It’s illegal

Rooting your phone may be illegal depending on your country or region. In the US, mobile device software is subject to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

According to it, rooting is illegal in the US, but there was a 3 year exception that started on October 28, 2015 and ended.

However, rooting is not illegal in Europe, plus you can also make warranty claims on your phone’s hardware because, according to the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), rooting a device and installing unofficial software does not affect your hardware warranty rights.. .

This warranty only covers the hardware of your phone. If the seller or manufacturer can prove that the problem with the hardware is due to rooting or downloading unofficial software, you will not be able to make a warranty claim.

3. Risk of blocking your device

The term “brick”is used when your device becomes unusable and has the same value as a brick because it can no longer be used as a phone.

This mostly happens due to software issues that come from rooting the phone.

In this case, your phone usually won’t boot or is stuck in a boot loop (a bug where the device restarts the boot process just before it completes).

This can be a major problem, especially if your phone is new, because your entire investment could be wasted.

These issues are more common on Android 8.0 phones. While some online guides can help you unlock your phone, there is only a small chance that they can be successful.

4. The process is complicated

There is no one-size-fits-all method for rooting your device, and each phone company requires a different rooting method.

Companies that allow phones to be rooted have their own official methods that must be followed exactly. Mainly involved in the process:

• Connecting phone to PC.
• Firmware of some files.
• Entering commands into the terminal.

Since mobile device manufacturers are now aware of the problems associated with rooting, they are either stopping the process entirely or making it harder for users to prevent their phones from being rooted.

5. Disclosure of personal information

Rooting your phone can open a loophole for hackers and malware, and they can easily access your login details for various apps.

Even the apps you use to transfer and receive money can be compromised.

In most cases, apps that help you root your device are not trustworthy.

The app brings malware to your device, which gives hackers access to all your data on your Android device. Sometimes hackers may even mess with the software on the device.

6. Security risks

Rooting your phone provides you with many features, but these features come at the cost of security as rooting can expose your phone to malicious apps and malware.

Rooting your device also breaks Google SafetyNet, which is present in Play Services and allows developers to know about the health of your device.

7. Update problems

Even though rooted phones can install the latest update weeks before release, they don’t receive some official OTA updates, which means they can no longer receive security patches.

Therefore, they may have trouble updating their phone and not get some of the latest features.

8. Performance issues and bugs

Without a doubt, rooting your device provides many features to improve your phone’s performance through various mods and tweaks, but these features also bring some bugs.

Usually mods are developed by independent developers. For this reason, it may take some time before these issues are resolved for your specific device.

Also, once you root your phone, bugs and performance issues will become a part of your daily routine.

How to know if your phone is rooted

If you’ve bought a used phone and want to make sure it’s not rooted, you can follow these steps:

• Go to settings.
• Scroll down and click About phone.
• Click on Status.
• Check device status.

If the device status says official, it means that the software has not been modified in any way and the device is not rooted.

However, if it says something else, it indicates that the device is rooted and you should avoid buying it.

Conclusion

The process of rooting mobile phones is not as easy as it used to be, as manufacturers have made this method more difficult for users.

Unless you are a mobile expert, it will be quite difficult for you to root your phone. When it comes to rooting your phone, you need to know Android tools and be able to fix errors using the command line.

If you know all these things, then you need to be aware of all the threats that this process can bring to your phone.

So the bottom line is if you have a good reason to root your phone you should go for it, but if you want to see what happens if you root your phone it’s better to buy a separate device for it rather than using your phone for this experiment.