What is 'Rooting'

[zaeaton]

I had an iphone 3g for the longest time. I recently got an unlocked Google Nexus 4. I can't for the life of me get the visual voice mail app to work. I'm having trouble figuring this thing out. So, I found this forum. I keep seeing people talking about rooting. What in the world is that and why would you do it? Thanks!

 

[chadthebuilder]

Rooting is the process of giving yourself ultimate system permissions on your phone. Rooting allows you to do many more things that you cannot do without it, such as installing custom ROMs, and running apps that require root permission such as screen recording software and customizing apps that allow you to change almost every aspect of your phone. You can also uninstall apps that come default on your phone (commonly referred to as bloatware). You can even install a completely different OS on your phone such as Ubuntu. There are a few drawbacks, such as, it will void your warranty, and if you do the rooting process correctly, you can brick (ruin it where it is as useless as a brick) your phone.

 

[electricpete]

Rooting Android is like jail breaking iPhone. It allows you to give root permission to programs which gives them much more power to do neat things. If you grant root access to malicious apps they can do much more damage.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

 

[chadthebuilder]

Rooting Android is like jail breaking iPhone. It allows you to give root permission to programs which gives them much more power to do neat things. If you grant root access to malicious apps they can do much more damage.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

Rooting actually is a lot more advanced than jailbreaking an iOS device. Most of the things done by jailbreaking iOS, can be done out of the box with an Android. Rooting goes a lot further and gives you complete access to every part of your phone.

 

[srkmagnus]

Welcome to AndroidCentral!

Rooting is just like Jailbreaking may not be for everyone. Here's a great article with information about rooting and wether it would be something for you: Rooting - is it for me? Some Q&A | Android Central

Let us know if you have any questions.

 

[zaeaton]

Thanks everyone! Sounds too complicated for me now, but maybe I'll get there one day...

 

[merlinCh]

Rooting is very useful actually, don't be afraid of it. as discussed above and I also recommend you to root your device because rooting has so many advantages and you can unroot your device in future whenever you want. so don't worry and give it a try. if you decide to root them ask we will also tell you best ways of rooting.