Nowadays, rooting your Android smartphone is not as popular as it was in the good old days.
In that era, only a few devices could live up to their potential, and phone users saw rooting as the way out.
Getting plagued with iffy mobile apps was the norm then: Poor user experience, wasted data, wasted battery life gave people a hard time enjoying apps on their device.
As all Android mobile phones are running the Linux kernel & middleware, which share a lot of similarities with a Linux distribution you’d install under the hood on your computer, rooting the handsets was the method we used in trying to get them fixed our own way.
By rooting a mobile, you can gain full access to everything in the OS, and with those permissions, you are able to change it all.
In modern times, Android smartphones are now smarter since they are quite a bit better than they were over a decade ago.
Notwithstanding, there are still some of us that show a preference for the root experience. Fortunately, there are still tons of great root apps that enhance functionality and do things un-rooted mobile phones cannot do. We have listed 10 of the best among these root apps for Android below.
Top Root Apps for Android Phones
Kindly note that some of these applications are not on the Play Store, so using those is at your own risk.
AdBlock Plus (ABP)
This is a free open-source mobile app that helps you remove ads from your phone. It is also a particularly useful app for root users (though bloggers may not like it ).
It is undoubtedly among the most popularly used root apps. AdBlock Plus can be configured to allow some unobtrusive ads to get through, and it has light configurable options. ABP is not available on Google Play.
Apps2SD
Designed by GSTMaid.com, Apps2SD allows you to move apps to your SD card with root. The software functions like the majority of apps-to-SD apps.
Apps2SD is great for moving your APK, odex, dex, lib, external data, internal data, and others and also features a Busybox installer.
Apart from these, this program comes with app remover, a terminal emulator, support for adoptable storage as well as some other useful tools. Though moving applications to your SD card is not quite popular as it was in the past, it is still effective for creating additional space in devices that have less internal storage. Unlike AdBlock Plus, Apps2SD is on Google Play. It is free but has ads.
JRummy Apps
JRummy Apps says it is the “#1 Rooted Developer for Android with 1,000,000+ Happy Users.” JRummy — whose parent company is Maple Media, LLC — is a developer on the Google Play Store that has loads of popular root apps.
These include ROM Toolbox (quite popular), a BuildProp editor, BusyBox installer, a root file explorer, and several others.
These apps will help you handle various basic root use cases and are equally very useful for active modders as well as tinkerers that seek to do more after the ROM installation. The ROM Toolbox is the brand’s flagship software and comes with a lot of built-in features and capabilities. While JRummy apps vary in cost, the majority of them have both a free version and a premium version (up to $5.99).
FK Kernel Manager
FK Kernel Manager is a root app for smartphones that have Franco Kernel installed. Designed by Francisco Franco, this software is great for tweaking a variety of things, such as the governor, CPU frequencies, GPU frequencies, Display & Sound control, colour temperature presets, and tons of others.
Kernel Manager equally comes with support for many devices, particularly those in the Google and OnePlus families of smartphones. While it is not the only app that focuses on a specific aftermarket ROM or kernel, the software is definitely the best for you if it supports your mobile device.
Also, FK Kernel Manager is among the few presently in active development on Google Play. The root app is highly recommended if you are looking for more control. It goes for $3.49.
Magisk
Magisk is another popular root app that is also free. While it is relatively new, it is a powerful program. With this app’s big function, you can hide root very effectively.
It also allows you to carry out different activities for fun, such as playing Pokemon Go or watching Netflix while rooted. Magisk comes with several other functions, one of which is modules that offer you even more functionality.
The software is no longer available on the Play Store. So, you will need to get the APK from XDA-Developers. Magisk root app is equally in active development, which means new features, designs as well as fixes are added to it, fairly frequently.
Migrate
Migrate is developed by BaltiApps and is among the top root apps on Google Play under the “Productivity” section.
It’s among the newer root apps we have rated on this list. The software is a ROM migration tool that allows you to basically back-up your data, which includes apps, app data, SMS, call logs, along with other bits of info.
It creates a flash-able ZIP file. You will then flash a new ROM as well as the flashable zip, afterwards. Once you boot up your device, it will be like you never left after you did the final installation.
Migrate is still in beta, so it is very new. But this gets rid of the bulk of the setup process out of the installation procedure of a new ROM and equally works with the Magisk app (BaltiApps, its developer, recommends it). You can get the software for free without any ads or in-app purchases as of now.
Quick Reboot
Quick Boot is the brainchild of AntaresOne. The app is both simple and useful in an absurd manner. In the majority of similar root apps on Android, the power menu is not so great as you are only allowed to power down, and occasionally, you can reboot your device.
Quick Reboot takes care of this issue by enabling you to boot to recovery as well as boot to bootloader. It also allows you to access device-specific things, such as fast boot on certain devices or download mode for Samsung devices.
Quick Reboot is not only quick but also easy to use. It makes it a little bit less of a priority for you to search for an advanced power menu for your mobile phone. Newer versions on Android come with improved power menus, but this app still does a decent job of fixing the gaps.
Servicely
This is another app developed by Francisco Franco, who also designed FK Kernel Manager mentioned above. Aimed at improving your battery life, with Servicely, you can control background services with ease.
This capability lets you do something like preventing your Facebook app from working in the background when your phone screen is off, without you being aware. This is a stop-gap to make your battery last longer by stopping rogue mobile applications and unwarranted wake ups of your smartphone.
Solid Explorer File Manager
Solid Explorer, released on Google Play on July 1, 2015, by NeatBytes, has enjoyed over a million downloads on the platform. It is a nifty file manager, which works without root for the majority of tasks. It can do the usual things, like unzip files, copy and paste, and so on.
The app also supports cloud storage as well as network storage devices. It has a feature that enables root within the app, and this capability lets you do every kind of stuff you could not do, previously. While there are many good file manager apps with root access, Solid Explorer is clean and works efficiently. On top of that, it is cheap, without ads.
Substratum
Substratum is a theming engine for the Android OS and isn’t available on all rooted Android devices. But it works quite smoothly on the one phones it supports.
The app should work most efficiently on stock Oreo, stock Nougat, Samsung smartphones running Nougat as well as a couple of other devices & Android OS versions.
After downloading the app from Google Play and installing it, seek out Substratum themes on the Internet or the Play Store. You can now apply the theme. Some themes are not free, but there’s a good selection of free one also.
To root your device and enhance its functionality, you can pick any app that suits your style and needs from the ones above.
