Any reason to keep root these days?

gar

Hi

I have rooted my phone's since I had an iPhone to jailbreak.
Had android for years now.
Current op3 is on marshmallow and rooted.
I'm finding a few apps I want to use require root to be gone and bootloader locked.
Got me thinking can I live without root.
Initial reason was for having Cerberus for tracking my phone if it got lost. Google can finally do that minus a few features.
Greenify I have for a few apps but I think android is pretty efficient these days
Can charge DPI in marshmallow now.

So at the moment I can't use android pay, some banking limitations

Thoughts

The high horse brigade

gar wrote: »

Hi

I have rooted my phone's since I had an iPhone to jailbreak.
Had android for years now.
Current op3 is on marshmallow and rooted.
I'm finding a few apps I want to use require root to be gone and bootloader locked.
Got me thinking can I live without root.
Initial reason was for having Cerberus for tracking my phone if it got lost. Google can finally do that minus a few features.
Greenify I have for a few apps but I think android is pretty efficient these days
Can charge DPI in marshmallow now.

So at the moment I can't use android pay, some banking limitations

Thoughts

I root for decent Adblock and Titanium backup

gar

gar wrote: »

Hi

I have rooted my phone's since I had an iPhone to jailbreak.
Had android for years now.
Current op3 is on marshmallow and rooted.
I'm finding a few apps I want to use require root to be gone and bootloader locked.
Got me thinking can I live without root.
Initial reason was for having Cerberus for tracking my phone if it got lost. Google can finally do that minus a few features.
Greenify I have for a few apps but I think android is pretty efficient these days
Can charge DPI in marshmallow now.

So at the moment I can't use android pay, some banking limitations

Thoughts

I can live without root, and have before. For me, the main benefit is running custom roms and all that comes with them. I also do my own modding.

BTW, root doesn't stop Android pay etc, the devs always have ways to work around these things.

jimmycrackcorm

For the convenience of my banking app, I have to do without root. I did enjoy trying out custom roms previously but with cyanogen gone also it's gotten quieter.

Grassey

I could never go back to a phone without adblock.

gar

Grassey wrote: »

I could never go back to a phone without adblock.

Almost forgot about adaway

donspeekinglesh

The high horse brigade wrote: »

I root for decent Adblock and Titanium backup

Same. And f.lux
Cerberus manages fine without root on the other devices I have it on.

sentient_6

I use Brave browser for ad blocking so not bothered about rooting anymore.

jgbyr

Adguard does a good job without root.

donspeekinglesh

jgbyr wrote: »

Adguard does a good job without root.

Does that work with Chrome?

jgbyr

donspeekinglesh wrote: »

Does that work with Chrome?

Yep, I've found it working fine with everything I use. The free version works on websites, paid will cover apps also.

The high horse brigade

I go beyond rooting, I run Xposed so I've no interest in moving to Nougat yet. For years all I wanted was the latest version with the latest features, now I'm happy to sit a version behind.

I run Xposed for YouTube adblock, gravity box tweaks, boot manager, greenify (saves battery life) and min min guard adblock (blocks in app ads)

The high horse brigade

The high horse brigade wrote: »

I go beyond rooting, I run Xposed so I've no interest in moving to Nougat yet. For years all I wanted was the latest version with the latest features, now I'm happy to sit a version behind.

I run Xposed for YouTube adblock, gravity box tweaks, boot manager, greenify (saves battery life) and min min guard adblock (blocks in app ads)

This is why I'll find it hard to leave HTC. Very lucky to have decent devs that allow us to have an abundance of tweaks running Nougat. The general android dev community has become so dependent on one dev putting out Xposed.

ThunbergsAreGo

sentient_6 wrote: »

I use Brave browser for ad blocking so not bothered about rooting anymore.

Plus 2, great app

cormie

Is this the adguard app you guys are referring to above: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adguard.android.contentblocker&hl=en

? Does it stop ads coming up on youtube too? I don't see anything about a paid version to stop ads in aps, how much is the paid version? I think I'd happily pay a few € than to spend ages rooting a phone to block ads, if it works


Also, what is Google's answer to cerberus mentioned in the OP? Where do I find it and what features do they not have that cerberus has?

jgbyr

cormie wrote: »

Is this the adguard app you guys are referring to above: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adguard.android.contentblocker&hl=en

No, this must be another product they provide. Just Google it & you'll find it.

cormie

Oh, so it's not on the play store? I'm a little wary about installing apps if not from the playstore from a Google search, if someone could please link to the right one, that would be great, or PM if it's not possible to post

Cynortas

Anyone know a good android adblock for the youtube app?

DopeTech

cormie wrote: »

Oh, so it's not on the play store? I'm a little wary about installing apps if not from the playstore from a Google search, if someone could please link to the right one, that would be great, or PM if it's not possible to post

https://adguard.com/en/adguard-android/overview.html#overview

DopeTech

Cynortas wrote: »

Anyone know a good android adblock for the youtube app?

If you are rooted then I would recommend the xposed module "YouTube Adaway". Works perfectly.

cormie

FrostyJim wrote: »

https://adguard.com/en/adguard-android/overview.html#overview

Thanks a lot! Will have a look later. With others asking for adblockers for youtube, I'm guessing this doesn't work..

DopeTech

cormie wrote: »

Thanks a lot! Will have a look later. With others asking for adblockers for youtube, I'm guessing this doesn't work..

No it can't block YouTube ads. Need Xposed for that.

wheresmybeaver

I used to have root on my nexus 7 tablet for ad blocking but don't need it now on my most recent devices since I paid for an Adguard licence. It blocks ads in apps aswell, even https traffic (YouTube) if you install their certificate.

Its very easy to use and highly recommended. The only real negative is that it slightly distorts the battery stats built in to Android (looks like it's using loads of battery when it definitely is not, because traffic is being routed through the app), and you need to put it up with a little key icon in your status bar.

Root was a prerequisite for many over the years but in fairness manufacturers have upped their game with regards some customisation options, such as hiding status bar icons, changing display options etc

cormie

So you need root to use xposed, right?

but then, you can block youtube ads with a certificate using adguard? Where do you get the youtube cert?

donspeekinglesh

Been thinking about this and I could probably manage without root. I'm using Brave browser and it's impressively fast.
I really only used Titanium Backup for switching ROMs, but I'm sticking to stick these days.

Only thing I'd really miss is the Xposed mod that limits how frequently an app can make a notification sound. Wonder if I can do something for that in Tasker.