The mobile is yours, but the system prevents you from accessing all the files. To do this, you need to be more than just a user: you must be a superuser. This isn’t the synopsis for the next Marvel movie, it’s basically the explanation of what the root is.
Root, custom recovery, ROM, bootloader and other words were on everyone’s lips a few years ago and the truth is that they are not heard as much today. What happened to root on Android phones? Outdated?
At first it was almost essential
To understand the importance of root in the early days of Android, we need to remember what the hardware and software looked like back then. It was not uncommon to have a mobile with 512MB of RAM and 400MB of storagelike the Xperia Mini Pro. Very fair hardware-wise phones, with slightly rough Android and layers of Android touching the pinnacle when it comes to bloatware: an explosive combination.
The mobiles worked correctly when unboxing, but after months and after having accumulated updates for heavy applications like Facebook, the mobile could no longer manage its soul. On my first mobile, for example, I had to juggle to keep WhatsApp open and not miss notifications: RAM did not give more than itself.
Updating apps was also an adventure, as moving apps to the MicroSD card was very difficult and the internal memory space filled up quickly. Updating an app sometimes required uninstalling another app or empty the cache infinitely to make room. All this, at a time when mobile phones often arrived with pre-installed and/or duplicate applications that did not interest us and could not be uninstalled.
SuperSU, Titanium Backup, Xposed Framework and Root Explorer
The solution, the root. With root access, you can put and delete as you please, managing to make the mobile less performance-hungry, and ending with pre-installed apps that you weren’t interested in at all. Quite popular at the time were ROMs that leaned towards minimalism (removing bloatware from the official ROM) and those that went in the opposite direction, adding lots of extra options.
Rooting the mobile was very useful when your phone was low on memory, full of bloatware, lacked customization options, or stopped updating
Let’s also not forget that Android was much more basic, so many customization options were not present, although yes sometimes in some layers. With root, you had the ability to modify parts of the operating system in amazing ways using the Xposed Framework and all-in-one modules like Gravity Box.
On another side, system updates were even worse than today. Android was more unpredictable in its early days than it is now, when we get a unique new release every year. The mobiles arrived with very outdated versions and were updated, if that, very late, although often not even that. If your phone manufacturer was too busy releasing projector phones to update your phone, you can always turn to the ROM maker community and try a new version of Android.
Then the problems started, and the laziness
Android has aged and the chaos of its early days has begun to level off in the years since Honeycomb’s failure with KitKat, Lollipop, and especially since Marshmallow. The hardware was also getting better over the years. and the fights to update apps, free up RAM and free up space, although they have never ceased to exist to this day, have become something more sporadic and not a life situation or death.
Android rooting, ROMs and extreme customization were still very present for those who had used it extensively in previous years, but it didn’t have as much to offer new users. ROM development began to slow down and root itself started getting complicated.
Interest in rooting started to drop from 2016. The following year Chainfire was selling SuperSU and Xposed Framework officially stopped updating in 2018.
Several root heavyweights threw in the towel upon realizing that there was not much interest in the question: The legendary Chainfire sold SuperSU in 2017 and abandoned all root applications in 2018. His reasons: lack of time and that he didn’t even use root on his mobiles anymore, except for development problems. For its part, the official development of the Xposed Framework ended with Android Oreo in 2018, although versions based on Magisk, such as LSPosed or EdXPosed, survive it.
In the battle between Google – which wants to know when a phone is rooted – and applications to hide that a phone is rooted – Google seems to have taken the lead
When one door closes, another opens. Old root tools have given way to Magisk, better suited to the new internal complexity of Android. Magisk breathed fresh air into a run-down Android root scene with Xposed-esque modules and the promise of being able to modify the system without modifying it, being able to pass system integrity tests. At least sometimes.
These tests have become increasingly important as cell phones have become more and more central to our lives. Year after year, mobile payments are gaining ground and these types of applications are precisely the ones that cause the most problems on rooted mobiles. In a more playful area, even games like Pokémon Go could refuse to start on a rooted mobile.
With an Android that has added layers, more layers, and root that is causing problems with increasingly common things like mobile payments, for many root is no longer worth it.
add this to an Android and more complete diapers every yearthus canceling -at least in part- the advantage of rooting to personalize the system, and the fact that rooting a mobile today can be quite cumbersome due to the additional protections that have been added to the system, multiple partitions and others, and the balance between whether you’re interested in getting into the root or staying as you are was chosen by many for this second option.
For many, root is no longer worth it for what you get in exchange for the time you spend setting it up and any problems it may cause you with this or that. Yes it is useful for developers, experienced users and to brighten up an old mobile, but it doesn’t seem like something nearly essential like it was years ago.
Despite everything, the root survives
The root is not in fashion, it is undeniable. Google reflects this masterfully in its Trends tool which reflects the interest of certain searches. The root had its peak in 2015 and 2016 and since then the interest is slowly extinguished, but the flame is not completely extinguished.
In the XDA forums, it’s not hard to find ROMs and root instructions for any current terminal that allows it, and development of Magisk continues (half gas, yes), in addition to others heavyweights such as the legendary TeamWin TWRP or LineageOS. It’s impossible to know how many mobiles are rooted today compared to the past, but according to the creator of Magisk himself, the total number of rooted mobiles is “crazy”.
I recently had the chance to find out how many devices are running Magisk (yes, some Google teams are tracking Magisk usage closely 🕵️), and the number is actually INSANE. Also, it only counts devices running GMS; I know for a fact that there is a large user base in China.
— John Wu (@topjohnwu) October 5, 2022
Root survives for more advanced users, but it’s no longer something recommended for ordinary users, who just don’t understand why they should go to so much trouble for something that doesn’t offer them much benefit and sometimes gives them headaches . And it’s good that he’s still alive, because he’s as much a part of Android as the green robot.
