What is “Root” in Android?

Android Rooting

If you are interested in Android, you must have come across the term “Root” atleast once. If you ever wondered what it is, then you are at the right place.

You should know that Android is based off Linux. And if you are familiar with Linux, then you should know about “Root Permissions”. Or, you would have seen “Administrative Privileges” in Windows.

“Rooting gives you complete control over the device you are using.”

Android is a pretty locked-down system (though not as tight as iOS). You can’t change the basic UI i.e. making your ASUS look like a Huawei (except without launchers). You also can’t uninstall some apps placed in by your manufacturer by default.

To do these things, you need to “Root” your device. Rooting gives you complete control over your device. By rooting your device, you can do anything.  You can even uninstall and reinstall Android on your device.

So, what is Root?

Here comes the complicated part.

Whenever you boot into a Linux computer (Your phone, too, is a Linux computer), you boot in as the “User”. You can only perform actions that you are allowed to do as a user. Then there is the “Superuser”. The Superuser can do virtually anything in the computer. This means, the Superuser can install, uninstall, move, or delete anything, including system files.

If you are familiar with the Linux Terminal, you would know the popular sudo commands, e.g.  sudo apt install application

Here, “sudo” stands for SuperUserDO, or “Do/Execute as Superuser”

When you root your Android, you are booting as the root user, or the Superuser. After this, you need to enable root permissions for the apps you need to use as root.

As the SU, you can do pretty much everything you want to. Root is actually a standard feature of all Linux Distributions, including Android.

But actually, unlike other Linux Distros, you can’t simply enable root for an app by long-pressing or right-clicking. This is because Root doesn’t exist by default in your Android’s system file directories. You need to get that little text file called “root”( which has all the stuff that tells your phone to allow some apps complete access to the system) and get through a billion harrowing steps to root your phone,  because Google had removed root by default from Android quite a long time ago.

Why did Google remove the root file?

Because, obviously, since many users who don’t know what to do may accidentally delete some system files which may brick the system and convert your expensive phone into a lightweight paperweight. Google removed root to prevent this from happening.

NOTE: ROOT IS ONLY MEANT FOR DEVELOPERS. IT IS NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO HACK THEIR GAMES/APPS. PLEASE DON’T MISUSE IT.

How to root an Android device?

Please comment down below if you want my next blog to be on “How to root an Android device”. I’ll feature it in my next blog.

Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Nikhil

---