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?
I purchased my first Android phone at 13, the Motorola Droid. In less than a month, it was rooted running a custom rom. I rom hopped weekly, tried all sorts of hacks and modifications, and eventually started releasing my own (very crappy) custom roms. I did this all the way through until I had the G6.
I eventually started getting phones where I can unlock the bootloader, and for a bit I would root such as my Essential phone or my Pixel 3a or 4a 5G but since the Pixel 6 I haven’t had any reason for perpetual root. I unlock my bootloader, and I root when needed and remove magisk when no longer needed. The cat and mouse game of trying to bypass detection alone makes it a pain when I have banking, work apps, etc that all validate hardware attestation.