What happened to Android Cental?

[IsHacker]

So I saw many threads on AC from 2010-2019, and it seems like this forum was very technically advanced in the past, maybe even more than XDA at that time! People talked about rooting, custom roms and modding their devices in almost impossible ways, and still got answers! But now? I see people on this forum who barely know how to open settings, or even turn on a phone. And if someone talks about the rooting and custom rom stuff now, they get referred to XDA.
Why is this so? What really happened to Android Central?

 

[Laura Knotek]

My hypothesis is that Android has matured and developed to the point that there is no need for the majority of users to bother with rooting and custom ROMs. I was one of those who did indeed participate in those activities back in the day. However, nowadays I feel that those activities are more detrimental than helpful for my use case. For example, why would I root and install custom ROMs if that eliminated my ability to use Netflix and banking apps? Most likely, the majority of Android Central members have similar use cases as me.

 

[B. Diddy]

I've been here since 2012 (holy cow, has it really been 13 years?!?), and I can safely say that the Android Central forums have always been for the more general user, rather than the hardcore tinkerer. There's a wide range of experience in our community, from the veteran tech nerd to the absolutely noob, and unlike some other forums (both past and present), we have always tried to welcome everyone. XDA, on the other hand, has always been aimed at the very experienced techie, and for many years we have referred people there -- that's not a recent development.

I agree completely with Laura about the decline in rooting/ROMming interest in general.

 

[monsieurms]

I've been here since 2012 (holy cow, has it really been 13 years?!?), and I can safely say that the Android Central forums have always been for the more general user, rather than the hardcore tinkerer. There's a wide range of experience in our community, from the veteran tech nerd to the absolutely noob, and unlike some other forums (both past and present), we have always tried to welcome everyone. XDA, on the other hand, has always been aimed at the very experienced techie, and for many years we have referred people there -- that's not a recent development.

I agree completely with Laura about the decline in rooting/ROMming interest in general.

I've been here since nearly the foundation... What was that, late 90s? I have resisted many people suggesting rooting but it is a sort of moot issue for me now. I agree with Laura too

 

[tube517]

I had the EVO 4G and the rooting/rom community was booming. Every android forum was into the hoopla
I also had a Toshiba thrive tablet and that ROM community was strong. As the devices got better and the phone manufacturers started making it harder to root, it all started to die down. There is still a community of rooters and developers but it is not as big as the early 2010s. They are all at XDA which has always been the forum to get first hand opportunities at rooting and custom roms.

I would stay up late flashing ROMs and rooting every device I had but that changed for me with the Samsung Galaxy S8+. That phone was so smooth at the time that I started to give up on rooting. I also wanted to have a functioning tap and pay - samsung pay or Google pay. I couldn't have that if rooted. As tap and pay started growing and is where it is at now, I gave up rooting.

 

[mustang7757]

XDA was the go to from the beginning for Root,custom Roms as Developers shared their work and a big part of the XDA Forums for what it is , we just learned from them and shared our experiences on Android forums such as here and other forums.
Time has changed and most don't want or really need to with how far phones are advanced today .

 

[Bkdodger1]

I think you will find that most of the people that are on here that do have the experience with the rooting and all the tweaks are no longer modding their phones. This place has always had a nice balance of both the experienced users and the casual users with help across all the devices. We would always recommend XDA since there are more current members there that do mod devices.