10 Features You No Longer Need to Root Your Android Phone For

I want to uninstall those shitty bloatware apps, not disable

I remember when Google introduced this amazing feature to delete apps that came with phones, so users had a choice. Unfortunately, it quickly morphed into "disable", and then they let vendors dim it completely.

I want a third mobile OS in the mainstream. This duopoly is junk.
- Careful. That’s how a Zune Phone could appear.
Shizuku and Canta are there for you.
- One thing to note. They still exist on your phone. But, are uninstalled for the primary user.
- Thats awesome, thank you!
- Wow this is amazing. Are there other cool things you can do with Shizuku?

Take Screenshots

Silly me, I thought this list would be relevant.

Some apps disable one from taking screenshot, with root, one can bypass those restriction.

Imagine if windows disable you from using the "Print Screen" button!
- It kinda does. In android and windows you have some apps/windows appear fully black in all screenshots and recordings. For windows this is some drm functionality which programs can call up. It also allows locking audio devices etc.

System-level ad-blocking is not on that list, so looks like I still need to root 🤷🏻‍♂️

Ever since Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, you’ve been able to disable (and sometimes even uninstall) many pre-installed apps without rooting.

That statement is just gaslighting. T-Mobile's first-party bloatware is un-removable and un-disableable without root. One of the unremovable bloatware app is just an app that installs / "recommends" more bloatware.

Using a DNS ad blocker has been as effective for me as root based AdAway
Private DNS really helps with that. Although it does rely on an external entity for your blocking
- Yeah, on my un-rootable work phone I have a wireguard connection just for DNS to my pihole, but I'd prefer the phone just not make those connections in the first place. There's a noticeable battery life improvement with hosts file based blocking since it doesn't have to make a network connection at all.

One thing that you do still need root for however is proper backups. The built-in backup system is tied to Google, and it's very limited in what it will back up, nowhere near what you can do with root backup software like Titanium Backup.

I used to use titanium but I haven't found it to be necessary with modem backups. What do you get that's not already included?
I used to use ADB backup to move from Android 6 to 8 to 10, but it refused to work from 10 to 12.

Not that it was fully comprehensive, but it was pretty dang close. Shame they never replaced it with something similar
Backups are fucked now. TiBu doesn't seem to work as well as it used to. I use SeedVault now and it only backs up a fraction of my installed apps.

All this list does is prove that the rooting community is indirectly contributing to the mainline distribution by innovating where Google and OEMs won't bother.

Also, stock Android still doesn't let me customize my hard/soft buttons, so I'll be sticking with LineageOS.

It's weird that they would tout "disabling" apps as a gained feature. Like yeah it's slightly better than bloatware being able to continue running with no recourse, but that ignores that the more original state of computers used to (and still do on x86 systems) do nothing to get in the way of the user being able to delete whatever the hell we want.

Even Linux is slowly moving to an immutable system like Android. It is simply the best approach for an OS that non-technically-inclined people use - it's much harder to screw up beyond repair by accident - and clearly the future of operating systems (well, future for Linux at least, mobile platforms and maybe macOS are already there).
- There's a world of difference between default, but optional, immutability, that can be freely augmented with admin privileges and a bit of learning; and a full on lockdown that's tantamount to DRM that requires a person to make unsupported and security-compromising modifications to their entire system to bypass.
  
  Also "the future of..." anything reeks of cult of inevitable progress. Things move and branch multidimensionally, and trying to shoehorn all systems into being the same is just pathological.

"Use VPN"

Mhm, but not for hotspot, unless you're rooted or use a custom ROM with such feature. Otherwise best you can do is one of those hotspot apps that uses legacy Wi-Fi direct group and runs a proxy server, but that's still not as good.

"Change font"

Depends on device. Can't do that on mine.

Me neither, but I assumed it was because i've always ignored samsung "confirm updated agreement" since I bought the phone, a.d thought thats why i've been locked out of the few OneUI aspects i'm forced to use.
What do you mean, is it not possible? I use VPN with USB tethering just fine. Is the same not true for wireless hotspot? I assumed they work similarly.
- But the connected device won't use your phone's VPN connection. It connects directly.

The most important one, changing your DPI, wasn't even mentioned in the article 🤦

I just want to make samsung/verizon stop auto installing shitty mobile games every time i update

Not buying a carrier locked device would be a start.

But man rooting adds more features I kinda want(eg install oses via android,adblocking/ internetl blocking a app without a vpn) I don't wanna do it rn because it will trip knox + my phone is under warranty.

The answer is Dont Root Your Phone.