Hello everyone,

On this post I am going to highlight the meaning of rooting and some of its benefits.

What is rooting?

Almost all Android devices users know the word ‘rooting’ and that it applies to the Android ecosystem but alot of them don’t know its function and the uncountable rights they could possess when they root their devices. So, they are in the dark on what ‘rooting’ is and how they could root their devices.

Rooting is a process where the user of a mobile device breaks the restrictions imposed by the mobile device manufacturer to obtain the rights to do whatever the user wishes with his/her device.

How is that possible?

The Android operating system is quite versatile in its applications to our daily lives, it could do a lot of things, depending on the hardware, which most of us don’t know because the manufacturers have decided to restrict some functions to particular models. That way they created high-end, mid-range and low-end devices. But, depending on the Android version in question, all devices running the version have the functionality to run the same type of apps or attributes provided by the OS.

For example, a Tecno Camon CX running Android 7.0 (Nougat) can do virtually all the things that a Samsung Galaxy S8 running on the same 7.0 (Nougat) can do, the only barrier between the two is the hardware (we would not go into explaining how hardware works on this post but rather in a later post) but unfortunately Tecno has cancelled or disabled some of those functions, as most manufacturers do, in order to protect their flagship: The Phanthom 6.

So, the only way you could enable such functions is by activating root permission aka ‘rooting’ on your device. Rooting would give you access to all the functions which Tecno did not activate on default. Such functions could include:

  • Installing custom recoveries like cwm, twrp etc
  • Modifying system fonts
  • Creating nandroid backups
  • Increasing system speed
  • Increasing device RAM
  • Creating partitions on device storage
  • Changing the boot animation
  • Modifying the look and feel of the whole device
  • And most importantly, installing custom rom – a totally modified or/and updated version of your device rom

Look at the picture below, it is a screenshot of my modified Tecno S9. Key features include

  • a modified navbar
  • modified status bar
  • date and time at the centre and signal bar and battery bar at the far-right

Actually, you could do a lot of things when you acquire root permission on your device including damaging your device. So, you should be careful which app you give root permission to. Nevertheless, there are more pros than cons to rooting.

How can I root?

Earlier Android devices required using PC to root and the task was daunting for newbie to perform but nowadays all known root exploits are being kept by some app makers like kingroot on an online database where users who install the app can get their devices rooted when they connect the app online. The app will check the device spec, both hardware and software and then choose the best exploit for the device. All these will usually happened without the user knowing that it was happening.

As it is all devices have the right exploit that will work with each of them and getting the right exploit is a work for developers to figure out but the rooting app would take care of that for you.

Root apps

Framaroot can virtually root a lot of devices running on Android 4.2 (jellybean) and below while Kingroot can root a lot of mediatek (mtk) devices running 4.4 (kitkat), 5.0, 5.1 (lollipop) upto 7.0 (nougat) and so far they claim it can root devices running 8.0 (oreo). But to root your device, I recommend using kingroot which you can just install the app, launch it and let it do the rest for you. To be on a safer side, you can simply google the tutorial on rooting your device or check out our tutorials section.

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, feel free to post it in the comments section or you can contact us using the contact form on the contact section.