Superuser’s Toolkit: The Best Android Apps That Need Root

Debates about whether root access is necessary on Android have been ongoing for years. Having superuser rights comes with responsibility, can reduce data security, often voids your warranty, and on some devices (like Samsung) can permanently block some original apps. All this can scare off many users. But in return, you get access to a ton of cool features and customization options.

Convenient Device Management

Root access can greatly enhance, speed up, and make navigation on your device more convenient. For example, Francisco Barroso managed to make the new gesture system from MIUI 10 available for almost any smartphone, complete with all animations and gestures. To use it, just install Fluid Navigation Gestures. The app is highly customizable: you can change actions, sensitivity, gesture area sizes, and actions for each gesture. Root is not required, but without it, functionality is limited.

Tilt Scroll is another handy app for device control. It lets you scroll the screen by tilting your device, which is useful if your hands are dirty. The app offers many settings: position calibration, shake-to-enable, and more.

You can also scroll lists without touching the screen using Fingerprint Gestures. This app lets you assign actions to fingerprint sensor touches, and with root, enables list scrolling.

Scrolling with the volume keys is possible with the Xposed module XUpDown.

Finally, Overscan is an app for one-handed smartphone use. It uses a small Android hack to shift the screen image downward. Due to physical limitations and the nature of the hack, there’s no side compression, and some apps (usually launchers) may not work properly in Overscan mode.

Internet and Ad Blocking

One of the biggest issues for smartphone users is internet restrictions and dealing with ads.

AFWall+ is a firewall. You can block any software, including system processes like adb, drm, and ota update. This way, you can allow internet access only to specific apps (like Opera Mini) or block it for apps that only use it for ads or data collection.

If you can’t block internet access entirely but still want to remove ads, AdAway is your friend. It works by modifying the /system/etc/hosts file, mapping ad domains to 127.0.0.1, so ad requests are sent to your own device and ignored. AdAway has many advantages over VPN-based blockers like AdBlock and Blokada: it doesn’t occupy your VPN slot, uses no resources after setup, and doesn’t disconnect when switching networks.

AdAway can’t block YouTube ads. For that, use the Xposed module YouTube AdAway.

Another useful app is RouterNet, a Wi-Fi repeater. Using Wi-Fi Direct, it creates a Wi-Fi network that gets internet from another Wi-Fi network (like WISP mode on routers), helping cover “dead zones.” Only WPA2 is supported.

Battery Management

It’s well known that keeping a lithium battery near its maximum or minimum charge shortens its lifespan. Keeping your device between, say, 20% and 80% charge (except in emergencies) can slow down battery capacity loss over time.

Battery Charge Limit stops charging your phone once it reaches a set percentage. For example, if your device is always plugged in, set the limit to 40% to preserve battery health.

Charging at high current or voltage (like fast charging) can also reduce battery life. Charging Current Max changes the maximum charging current by editing the constant_charge_current_max file in /sys/class/power_supply/battery/. You can increase the max current (if your hardware supports it but the manufacturer blocked it) or prolong battery life by disabling fast charging or setting a low current (like 0.5A). The value is set in microamps (1A = 1,000,000 μA), but the app lets you enter milliamps and converts automatically. Note: the app is experimental and may not work on all devices.

App Management

Android’s built-in tools offer some app management features, but they have limitations and can’t touch system apps. Third-party root apps remove these restrictions.

Link2SD is one of the best for managing installed software. It can freeze or remove any app or system service, shows full paths to apk, dex, lib, and data files, integrates app updates into the system, and moves apps to the system partition or SD card (even those that normally forbid it).

Task killers are generally useless, as Android manages tasks better on its own. However, apps that limit background activity can be helpful. Greenify can significantly extend battery life by “hibernating” apps that like to wake your phone. After the first launch, Greenify suggests candidates for hibernation, but it’s best to search using Wakelock Detector.

App permission management has existed since Android 6, but it still has flaws: not all permissions can be denied (like network access or boot startup), permission requests are too broad, and the system doesn’t affect apps built for Android 5.1.1 or below. AppOpsX solves this by letting you finely control any app’s permissions. However, since the app doesn’t get notified when permissions are denied, it may crash or stop working, so use with caution.

For even more control, Xposed modules XPrivacyLua (Android 6+) and XPrivacy (Android 5.1.1 and below) are available, though they’re complex even with English support.

Unlike desktop OSes, Android doesn’t let you tweak app graphics drivers by default. GLTools is an alternative OpenGL driver with customization options. You can boost FPS on weak devices or improve graphics on powerful ones, enable anti-aliasing, show on-screen FPS counters, and more.

Storage and Files

Root access gives apps more freedom to interact with the file system and peripherals, including recovering deleted files and turning your phone into a USB drive.

Undeleter recovers deleted files and app data (call logs, SMS, WhatsApp, Viber), and can wipe memory cells to prevent file recovery.

DriveDroid turns your phone into a bootable USB drive. It can connect as an external CD-ROM (not on all devices), a rewritable USB drive, or a read-only USB drive. You can use ISO or IMG images stored on your phone as the emulated disk.

Screen and Fonts

The best root app in this category is CF.lumen, a blue light filter that lowers your screen’s color temperature at night, making it yellowish and reducing eye strain and sleep disruption. Unlike built-in blue light filters, CF.lumen offers many settings, including manual color adjustment and automatic sunrise/sunset timing based on your location.

Fontster lets you change your system font in one click, with a catalog of over 100 fonts.

If you want to change the size of screen elements, use Easy DPI Changer. It includes a handy DPI calculator: enter your screen size in inches and resolution in pixels, and it will calculate your DPI and screen type.

Customizing the Kernel

Kernel Adiutor is probably the best tool for tweaking system parameters. Its most interesting features include:

• CPU core frequency: set max/min frequencies, disable cores, and more
• Fine-tune the CPU scheduler
• Change GPU frequency and scheduler
• Select and configure I/O schedulers
• Adjust Low Memory Killer settings
• Enable and configure Z-RAM and RAM
• Change the TCP data transfer algorithm
• Edit build.prop for easy system file changes
• Calibrate screen color and gamma (if supported by your kernel)

Exploring Cellular Networks

Network Signal Guru is a powerful (and expensive) app for testing, maintaining, and troubleshooting mobile networks, as well as checking their quality. Fortunately, there’s a functional free version. Most features work only on Qualcomm-based phones.

With the free version, you can:

• See which frequency bands your phone supports (useful for imported devices that can’t connect to your carrier)
• Disable certain bands so your phone doesn’t waste time and energy searching for unavailable networks, or force it to use only 2G or 4G for better battery life
• View which cell towers your phone has connected to (requires the app to run in the background)

For LTE, you can see the current band, bandwidth, channel number (EARFCN), signal strength (RSSI), timing advance, number of antennas used for transmission and reception, and more. The app also shows available base stations from your carrier that your phone isn’t connected to, along with their parameters: band, EARFCN, PCI, RSRP, and RSRQ. Good signal quality is indicated by green or yellow-green RSRP and RSRQ values.

For WCDMA, you can view various parameters (band, RRC State, etc.), mostly useful for professionals.

According to the developers, Network Signal Guru supports monitoring almost all existing cellular networks: GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, CDMA2000, EVDO, LTE (FDD & TDD). This lets you see many network parameters usually hidden from users as you move between towers.

Other Useful Tools

• WiFiKeyShare: Android doesn’t let you view saved Wi-Fi passwords by default, but with root, you can. They’re stored in /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf. WiFiKeyShare not only displays them but also lets you share them via QR code or NFC.
• Power Off Schedule: Schedule your device to power off daily, weekly, once, or when the battery reaches a certain level. You can set the shutdown time for the first three options.
• WiFi ADB: Lets you connect to your phone via ADB over Wi-Fi. The app is simple, ad-free, and easy to use. Just launch it, grant root, and tap the switch or ladybug icon. Then, on your computer, enter adb connect XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:YYYY.
• Camera Restarter: On some phones (especially Chinese models), an app can lock up the camera, making it unusable for other apps. Instead of rebooting, use Camera Restarter.
• Play Music Exporter: Export music from Google Play Music to MP3, preserving album art, artist names, and other data.
• BlueputDroid: Use your phone as a keyboard, mouse, or joystick for other devices, including PlayStation 3. Note: the app hasn’t been updated in a while and may not work on modern devices.

Conclusion

A rooted smartphone opens up new possibilities unavailable to non-rooted devices. By using root apps, reading and editing system files, and performing other actions forbidden on stock systems, you gain radically different control over your device and its apps.