Android is by far the most popular mobile operating system in the world in part because it’s powerful and highly configurable. The features included with a new Android device are only scratching the surface, though. A rooted Android device gives you complete control over how things work — you’re free to make changes to system files, permissions, boot settings, and more.
This opens up an entirely new world of apps and tools, but you know what they say — with great power, comes great responsibility. Just be aware you can break things messing around with root access. With that in mind, here are the best root apps available on Android.
Xposed Framework
Xposed isn’t an app in the strictest sense, but rather an app that installs a new system framework that allows you to make extensive modifications to the interface and features of your device. The big advantage here is that you can make mods without actually altering any system files. This should work on most rooted Android devices, but you’ll want to make a backup of your device in recovery before attempting. If Xposed doesn’t work, your device will fail to boot and will probably need to be restored.
After installing Xposed, you need modules to actually make the tweaks. The most popular one by far is called GravityBox. This app is a collection of mods for every conceivable part of the operating system. The QuickSettings can be edited, status bar colorized, editing hardware key functions, and a ton more. However, it’s only suited for use on mostly stock ROMs like those on Nexus and Google Play Edition devices. For other phones and tablets, check out the assortment of smaller modules out there to get the mods you want.
Xposed and all the modules are available for sideload only — so you’ll have to enable that in developer settings. One of the nice things about using Xposed is that these are all softmods that happen in memory. If you want to do an OTA update, you just have to disable your modules, reboot, and you’re completely stock again. ROMs don’t quite hold the same allure they once did.
Greenify
Android has gotten a lot better at managing background apps in the last few years, but sometimes things can still misbehave behind the scenes. It’s not just the potential battery life issue either. Some apps bug you with notifications and messages, but you still need to keep them around for one reason or another.Greenify is a root app that can safely put these apps into hibernation so they don’t cause problems.
Greenify isn’t a task killer — it’s using root to silence apps without getting in the way of how Android actually manages tasks. The app suggests which processes might be of interest based on what is running in the background and what has scheduled wake-ups. It even tells you which apps use Google’s cloud messaging service, so you can avoid hibernating them unless absolutely necessary. You can add any app — suggested or not — to the Greenify list.
The apps you select for this treatment will run in the background for a few minutes, which is sufficient to multitask a bit without losing your place. However, any longer than that and the background process will be ended gracefully so it won’t affect your battery life or annoy you with messages. It even comes packaged with an experimental Xposed module if you are running that. This app is free in Google Play.
Titanium Backup
Google has implemented cloud data backups, but most developers still fail to properly utilize it. That means switching devices results in losing the settings and saved games from your old device, well unless you back things up manually. There are several ways to go about this, but nothing is as powerful as the root-only app Titanium Backup.
This app lets you take the app data from the system directory and save it to your SD card or cloud storage for later restoration. You can also choose to backup the APK with the data. If you have the space, that allows you to restore the app and its data in one step. Titanium runs backups on command, of course, but it also has scheduling functionality that can automatically back up chosen apps.
Titanium uses root access to run a more brute force backup method than the similar root-optional app Helium. Titanium can save the data from an app without regard to the developer’s intentions. You can definitely break things with Titanium, but that’s the price of power.
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