Back in the day - rooting Android phones and installing custom ROMs were such a big part of Android. I remember so well using titanium backup and Greenify and Cyanogenmod and the list goes on.

Is it still necessary to root in 2023 though?

I have been on vanilla Android without root access for the past couple of years and at this point most root features have made it into the vanilla Android OS. What are your thoughts?

  • janAkaliEnglish
    5•1 year ago

    I still root my phone for Freezing System Apps, reVanced, AdAway(system-wide adblock), Shell automation, circumventing Hotspot restrictions from my Carrier.

    I’ve also been a customization junkie before (mainly with audio mods and UI plugins for Exposed). Not anymore.

    But since then rooting to me become not only a means to the end, but an essential part of my phone, as in I get to control and choose what and why is installed/active, not the Vendor/Google. I would root my phone even if I didn’t had the need, just cause I like owning things, opposed to modern standard of “everything is a service”.

    • kratoz29English
      1•1 year ago

      circumventing Hotspot restrictions from my Carrier.

      What kind of restrictions?

      • janAkaliEnglish
        2•1 year ago

        They require an extra fee to share connection via Wi-Fi.

        Essentially, they can detect that your phone sends two types of ttl packets (your own and recipient device’s).

        When they detect it, they cut 99% of your connection speed and redirect you to page with “Enable wifi sharing for 1$/day or continue at 60 kb/s”. (airplane mode toggle removes the speed cut-off).

        I use a very simple solution:

        echo 63 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_default_ttl

        This line is executed at boot by djs magisk plugin. When the default ttl is 63, it’ll match the ttl value of all Linux and Android recipient devices.

        But I still haven’t defeated the Windows detection: for a start, Windows ttl is 127, but even if I change it on the recipient PC, my carrier could see windows-related packets and still blocks me out. I even tried the vpn, but that’s still not enough.

        • kratoz29English
          2•1 year ago

          Huh, this sounds nice, although I don’t quite understand how to implement it to my scenario, my carrier does not allow hotspot either, that’s why your comment intrigued me, but I am not sure how to achieve this, even when I get the big picture 😅