Should You Root Your Android Phone or Not?
Android root access isn’t a new thing in the Android world, yet many Android phone users keep asking questions about the good, the bad and the ugly part of rooting Android phones.
Every day, Android users keep asking questions such as, Should I root my phone? What does rooting mean for Android? What can I do with a rooted phone? Does rooting damage my phone? among others.
To be sincere, these questions are important questions all Android users should ask when considering rooting their phones. If you really care about the money you spend in purchasing your phone, you shouldn’t just jump into rooting and start toying with the Android root access.
You should consider the pros and the cons of rooting and then decided if rooting your phone is worth it.
The aim of this post is to present to you the sincere answers to the above frequently asked questions about Android root access and other related questions.
Now, let’s get started!
What does rooting mean for android?
As you might have already known, the Android Operating System is an open-source OS. This means the OS is freely available for anybody to modify and use. So what OEMs (i.e. phone makers) do when developing a stock ROM is to get the “raw Android OS”, tweak it, customize it with their User Interface (UI), and then lock some of the functionalities of the software.
The reason some of the functionalities are locked is to prevent end-users (you and me) from tampering with the configuration of the phone. So, basically, when you buy a new Android phone, you buy it unrooted (locked).
However, when you subject the phone to the rooting process, you literally unlocked all the locked functionalities in the OS, and have access to the root (the core) of the OS.
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What can you do with a rooted phone?
Simple, you can do anything you aren’t able to do with your unrooted phone.
These include installing a custom ROM, which gives your phone a whole new look, installing unsupported apps, and performing a full backup of your phone (including the OS and installed apps).
Other things you can do with a rooted phone include overclocking your processor to improve its speed, and more importantly, uninstalling those useless pre-installed apps eating up your phone’s memory space.
What are the disadvantages of rooting android phones?
Another related question people often ask about Android root access is What are the disadvantages of rooting Android phones? Actually, if you are very good with the Android OS, there aren’t many disadvantages other than the fact that your phone’s warranty is void, immediately after you rooted your phone.
This means if your phone develops a fault, your OEM wouldn’t be able to repair or service it for you under a warranty.
Aside from the void warranty issue, another disadvantage of rooting Android phones is the risk of bricking. Bricking on Android means the corruption of the OS, which leads to a situation whereby the phone is unable to boot up. At times, the phone would boot up but wouldn’t pass the logo of the phone’s manufacturer.
Bricking occurs when the system settings or some system apps of the phone are misconfigured or uninstalled. It can be fixed by flashing a new ROM (Stock or Custom); however, all the previously installed apps and files on the phone will be gone.
Does rooting damage your phone?
Perhaps, this is the most important question bothering a lot of Android phone users: Does rooting damage an Android phone? The answer to this question is on two sides (i.e. No and Yes).
As I have stated in the disadvantage of rooting android phones: you can brick your phone – but only if you do what you are not to do. If you are careful and strictly obey instructions you are asked to follow when dealing with your Android root access, you are likely not to damage your phone.
Rooting a phone, in it is own sense, doesn’t damage the phone, unless on two occasions. One – tapering with the system files or misconfiguring the system files; two – installing official OTA update sent to you by your OEM on your rooted phone.
The second occasion is the reason you are always asked to unroot your phone, if it is rooted, before running OTA updates; this leads us to the last question people often ask about Android root access – whether a rooted phone can be unrooted.
Can you unroot your phone?
Yes, some phones can be unrooted, after they have been rooted. The unrooting process just undoes the root access and locks back all the root features. When some phones are unrooted, they are totally unrooted, with no signs of ever been rooted.
Final Words on Android Root Access
Rooting an Android phone is neither bad nor good. If you ever consider rooting your phone, look at the major things you can do with a rooted phone and ask yourself if those things are really what you want. I mean: Do you want to install a custom ROM? Do you want to remove your system apps? and others.
If you aren’t keen into doing any of those, then you shouldn’t root your phone! But if those are what you really want, then go ahead and grant Android root access to your phone. However, be careful when configuring your phone’s root and when dealing with the system apps.
In conclusion, if you don’t have a big heart, stay away from rooting!
About Author
Adedapo Olatunde is an editor at Techrabytes and an author at HowToTechNaija. He loves everything tech and everything space – and hopes to be one of the first tourists to Mars.
