I've been rooted since the early days of my Nexus 4. It's just been a way of life for me. Why change it? Well, I got to wondering. Maybe all the things I'm doing to my phone don't really need to be done. Do you know how many bugs, crashes, and headaches have resulted from my tinkering? A lot. And now that I've had the opportunity to start fresh again thanks to my new Nexus 6P, I'm going to try the stock route. No root. No ROMs. Locked bootloader. But how will I survive without the root apps I've come to love?

First issue was battery life. I used apps like Greenify to help my battery in previous phones, but thankfully, Marshmallow already has me covered there. Although Greenify does indeed make Marshmallow's Doze feature better, you don't need root to use it! (You can find my post about that here.) Doze and app standby introduced in Marshmallow do many of the things root apps tried to do in Lollipop.

Second, I missed some features from my custom ROM days. Namely, the ability to skip tracks using the volume keys while the display is off. This is super handy when I'm driving or when I don't want to pull it out of my pocket just to change the song. I spent all day looking for solutions. There were many solutions for rooted devices, for sure. Many threads ending with "just flash a custom ROM!" Thank God for app developers, because as they say, there's an app for that. The app Pocket Skip Track does exactly what I was looking for. Sure, it requires root to have the "hold-down" method of changing songs, but you can still activate it with a single press or double press, which is good enough for me.

As for customization? Marshmallow has more of that than ever before. Sure, there are still a bunch of things you can't customize without root, but there sure is a lot you can do. If you hold down the settings icon under your quick settings, you'll see it begins to spin. Hold it down long enough and you'll unlock the "secret" System UI Tuner. This allows you to rearrange your quick settings, show a battery percentage, and disable status bar icons. Features included in many custom ROMs. That and a nice launcher like Nova is good enough for me.

Lastly, Tasker. I wrongly placed Tasker in my best root apps list. There are some functions that require root, but most of them don't. I honestly never knew this until after I tried to use it rootless. Many of my profiles could just be transferred over! No worries. Awesome profiles like having my phone go silent at school, automatically connect to bluetooth, enable auto-rotate in certain apps, and go silent when face down make Tasker one of the most powerful non-root apps. Period.

Point is, there's a lot you can do without root that you wouldn't expect. It just takes a little more work. Whether I'll stay on the rootless side depends. There are many things you can't achieve without root. Many things to miss out on. But I'll try to stick with it, if only to prove a point.

Rooting your device can have a lot of upsides, including some amazing apps that aren't possible to use without root access. If you're curious about what rooting your device means, I've put up an Intro to Root post to introduce you to what it means to root. Click the name of any of the apps to be taken to their Google Play page or other place to download them. Some of these apps are paid, so if you're low on money, check out my latest tip about getting free Google Play credit.

AdAway

AdAway is a simple ad blocking app which modifies your device's host file. The host file decides what connections to let through and which to block. AdAway adds many popular ad hosting sites to this list, causing your device to not let the connection through. It's simple, effective, automatically updating, and easy.

CF.lumen

CF.lumen is an app made by the creator of SuperSU, Chainfire. If you've heard of f.lux on PC, this is a similar variant for Android. (Although I'd argue it has even more features and customization.) CF.lumen allows you to apply a reddish tint to your screen at certain times of the day, namely at night. This is useful because research shows that exposure to blue light before you try to go to sleep keeps you awake. Adding the red hue leads to better sleeping patterns. While there are many apps that have similar functionality, CF.lumen is the only f.lux-like app I've run across that allows you to take screenshots without also capturing the red hue. (Some drivers only.) CF.lumen is also Tasker compatible.

Tasker

I've talked extensively about Tasker in a previous post, but here's a quick rundown. Tasker allows you to fully automate most aspects of your device. It allows you to basically program new function into your device through a simple interface, and frankly, I couldn't live without it.

Greenify

Greenify aims to provide better battery life by hibernating apps in the background when you aren't using them. If an app such as Facebook causes your device to run slow or keeps your device awake, you can have Greenify automatically hibernate it, causing it to use much less battery life until you open it again.

Titanium Backup

Titanium Backup's interface may be a little outdated, but it still functions perfectly. The goal of Titanium Backup is to backup both your apps and your app's data, allowing you to restore them across ROM installs or resets. It has automatic backups to the cloud, certain tools for clearing app data and disconnecting/connecting apps to the Google Play store, and more.

Xposed Framework

The Xposed Framework doesn't provide any functionality on its own. It's a framework which allows other apps to do things otherwise impossible for them without it. It requires some pretty complicated installation on Android 5.0 and above, so read up if your device is compatible before you install. It opens the door to any of the apps below on this list. Apps below require Xposed to work or function fully.

[Xposed] Amplify

Amplify is a battery saving app similar to Greenify, except it works on a different scale. While Greenify hibernates specific apps, Amplify limits certain wakelocks. Apps cause wakelocks when they want to wake your device up from sleep to complete an action. Sometimes, wakelocks can go out of control, preventing your device from entering sleep and drastically lowering battery life. Amplify makes it so these wakelocks are limited or stopped completely.

[Xposed] GravityBox

GravityBox is a simple app which aims to tweak aspects of stock AOSP. If you have anything other than stock Android, it most likely will not work. GravityBox is famous for providing many of the same features of custom ROMs without the need to install a new ROM.

If you're a root user, Tasker is definitely one of the apps you should be taking advantage of. Tasker is an app that in simple terms, tells your phone to automate certain things. This is extremely useful with infinite possibilities. Currently, I have Tasker profiles to turn my notifications off if my phone is in proximity to school WiFi, make notifications priority mode when my phone is face-down, turn auto-rotate on when in certain apps like YouTube or Gallery, auto-connect my VPN, and more.

Tasker is currently $2.99 on the Play Store, but it's quite a deal for what it does.

So you can see why Tasker is such a big deal for a phone of mine. It's gotten to the point where I'd consider it one of the best reasons to root your device. With Tasker, you can tell your device if "this" happens, then do "that."

I'm going to explain how to make your device silent when in proximity to a certain WiFi network. Once you open Tasker, hit the + button on the bottom-right corner. Select "State" > "Net" > "WiFi Near." You should be met with a screen to edit this state. This is the "this" action, meaning that Tasker is waiting for this to happen before it preforms the next action. In the text field called SSID, put the exact name of the WiFi network you wish to be silent around. If you want to put multiple WiFi networks, separate them with a forward-slash. ("School WiFi/Work WiFi") Once you're done with that, hit the back button. A screen should pop up with a "New Task" option. The task is the "that" action, meaning once "this" happens, the task will happen. Tap New Task, then name it "Mute." Click the + on the bottom, go to "Audio" > "Notification Volume" and set the level to zero. Go back, and do the same for alarm volume or media volume if you wish. Finally, if you're on Android 5.0 or above, add "Interrupt Mode" and change it to either "None" or "Priority" depending on how many notifications you want to get through. If you're on Lollipop you should be familiar with these settings. Lastly, go back to the profiles screen and hold down on the profile you made. Press the settings icon at the top and make sure the "Restore Settings" option is checked. This causes the changes you've made through the task to be reversed if you are no longer near that WiFi.

And you're done! Now that you've made one Tasker profile, it should be fairly easy to create more. Explore all the options for profiles and tasks and think about some things you do every day that could be automated. It takes a bit to set up and understand how to use it, but in the end it saves a lot of time and hassle.

If you're an Android user who has never heard of "rooting" your device, you're most likely in the majority. Jailbreaking is a much more famous term, referring to the similar process on iOS. Rooting your device is the act of gaining root privileges, or admin access. This allows you to change quite literally any part of your phone's OS. Why isn't this enabled by default? Well, because you can change anything, it's also possible to break your OS by tampering with the wrong thing. Because of this, many manufacturers also make the act of rooting your device void your warranty, so proceed with caution.

There are a number of reasons why you might want to root your Android device. Firstly, many phone companies and carriers add what's called "bloatware" to your phone, or apps you'll never use that simply take up space. Rooting allows you to remove these apps. Customization is also a major feature, from being able to change minute parts of the OS using things like the Xposed Framework, to completely installing a new one. Rooting can even let you gain better battery life through apps like Greenify, automate processes using Tasker, and even block ads.

Depending on your device, there are different methods for rooting out there. I'll get into how to root in a later post. First I'll introduce you to some common terminology you'll need so you won't be completely lost.

• Rooting - The act of gaining administrator access on your device.
• SuperSU - An app that manages which apps on your device have access to root privileges.
• Bootloader - The piece of software inside your phone that decides which OS to boot into.
• Knox - Samsung's security software that makes rooting more difficult.
• Flashing - The act of installing software outside of the OS.
• Sideloading - Installing apps without using the Google Play Store. (via USB, ADB, or APK.)
• ADB - Android Debug Bridge. Lets you control your phone by plugging it into your computer.
• Recovery - Booted outside of the OS from the bootloader, lets you flash, backup, etc. without connecting to a computer.
• ROM -  Custom variant of Android that can be installed instead of the stock version.
• Kernel - Software that communicates from your hardware to your OS. (CPU/GPU calibrations, battery enhancements, etc.)

This is a lot to remember when you're first getting into rooting, but it's all very important. There are multiple methods to root, but if you have a device where it is possible to root using ADB, I recommend that completely. ADB is a simple command-line interface, and while it may not be the easiest to do, it will help you gain an understanding of what you're doing so you know how to fix your device should things go wrong. Use those one-click root options as a last resort, or if you're already aware of how rooting works.

Like I said, I'll get into how to root in a later post, but hopefully this post will help you understand whether you want to root as well as some common terms used.