It wasn’t so long ago when rooting was the in thing. It was an easy process with less risks and complications. But as time went by rooting got harder and riskier. Nowadays no body is even interested in rooting their phone because all the perks that were available when rooting are now at your disposal when you buy almost any phone.
Take for instance screen recording and taking screen shots. In the early days of Android, people used to root to get this benefit. To most it was more of a flex than a functionality. Nowadays, any phone can take a screenshot and this is a functionality that most of us can’t live without. In this article we are going to dive deep on the pros and cons of rooting and whether it is still worth doing it in 2022.
What is rooting?
Before we even dive deeper, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. What exactly is rooting? Well rooting is the process of obtaining access to Android’s Operating System code in order to make tweaks which would have otherwise been difficult if not impossible in an unrooted phone. This gives you the power to alter almost anything. But with great power comes great responsibility.
To make things clearer, it is almost the same as obtaining administration privileges in a Windows PC. Some may still be wondering why one may even be considering rooting in the first place. Well stick around, because that’s what we are going to discuss in this article.
Removing Pre-installed OEM Apps.
Have you ever tried to delete an app that you never installed in the first place only to find out the uninstall function is greyed out. This is one of the most frustrating things. Of course, there are work arounds such as disabling the app but it’s presence in the phone is disturbing to most people. The one work around that actually works is rooting your phone. Once you have successfully rooted, the process becomes a breeze.
But you should be careful on what you delete since it your phone could end up crashing. Consider an app like Google Duo. To be honest since I bought my phone, I have never even bothered opening it but it is still there getting all the frequent updates and taking up my storage yet I cannot uninstall it.
Installing custom ROM.
Installing custom ROMS was the in thing when people started rooting. A custom ROM is basically a slight modification of Android’s operating system which mostly has to do with the user interface. You can consider it as more of a skin to android.
For example, Samsung’s custom ROM is One UI. Other custom ROMs include; Lineage OS, Oxygen OS, crDroid, Havoc OS, Revenge OS, Pixel experience and the list goes on and on. Below are the advantages of installing a custom ROM.
- Early android updates. For example, some custom ROMs receive new android versions ahead of the competition.
- Modifying the feel and look of the user interface. You can customize almost anything. From icons to notification bar to themes with almost an unlimited variety to choose from.
- With most custom ROMs you will be able to remove all bloatware.
- Performance enhancements by overclocking the CPU.
- Battery enhancements through apps like Greenify.
AD blocking.
Advertisements are one of the most annoying things if you don’t have the money to upgrade to a paid version. Well, if you get a chance to root then you might just be in luck. There are apps dedicated to block any types of ads, be it on a website or even in an app. Nothing strikes a nerve like watching a YouTube video when you are desperate to fix something then you are boggled down by tons of ads. Well, YouTube Vanced has something to say about this.
YouTube Vanced comes jam packed with goodies that will elevate your YouTube experience. First, it blocks away all ads giving you a YouTube premium experience. In addition to that, it also allows you to play your favorite music in the background using picture in picture mode. Furthermore, you can also stream videos and music with your phone off.
All these features are not available in the YouTube app unless you pay for premium but once you root YouTube Vanced is all yours. There are many apps that can help you in ad blocking but for YouTube, Vanced is the way to go.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, here are some cons to rooting.
- Your warranty becomes void.
- Once you decide to root, you just bought yourself a free ticket to voiding your warranty. It is not much of a big deal but it is worth noting.
- You may end up bricking your phone.
Bricking is one of the biggest risks that come with rooting your device. Bricking may present itself in two ways. One is soft bricking and the other is hard bricking. A soft brick is one you can easily recover from by reinstalling a custom ROM or a stock ROM. A soft brick may occur by deleting your operating system or your boot folder hence your device won’t be able to boot.
But this one is easily fixed by reinstalling your operating system again. Unlike a soft brick, you can never recover from a hard brick. This is where your device is rendered useless and unusable. So if you decide to root, you should bear in mind that you can render your device useless and totally unusable.
Loss of Data.
One of the costly mistakes that you can do when rooting is not backing up your data. Anytime you don’t backup your data when rooting, there is no guarantee that you will ever get your files back. No matter how fail proof your method is, always remember to back up to your laptop or an external storage device.
Final Thoughts.
Rooting was a very popular way of gaining privileges that other devices did not have. But as years have gone by, phones are continuing to get better and better and there is completely no point of rooting.
Features like customization, taking a screenshot, screen recording and most of these features are now available at your disposal. Furthermore, the risks outweigh the benefits but if you choose to root always consider the cons. Would you consider rooting your device?
Good advice
Great features. Thanks for sharing this.