Towelroot Android

How to root your Android with just one tap

How to root a phone? That's the question that many Android users that want to acquire superuser permissions on their devices ask themselves. It used to be quite a tedious process but now it has become much easier thanks to apps of the likes of Towelroot, a tool that allows us to carry out this operation with just one screen tap.

How does Towelroot work?

Well, there isn't much mystery to it: just download and install the APK and you'll only have to run the application. Just press the make it rain button, without even having to connect the phone to your computer, reboot it or anything similar. If the application isn't compatible with your phone, it will warn by via a message. As you can see, it's a very easy way of getting useful superuser permissions.

OK, so why would I want to be a root user? What is rooting a phone? What are its pros and cons? Well, to start off, you should know that root is the access to the root directory of the operating system, in this case, Android. Also known as SU or superuser, this means that it's similar to having admin permissions on Windows. All in all, by rooting our Android smartphone or tablet, we can gain control over any file on our device.

These are the main advantages of being the root user:

• More applications can be downloaded as some require SU permissions and offer us the possibility to carry out more advanced operations on our device.
• Greater customization possibilities that cover aspects such as animations during the boot process or system sounds.
• Allows us to access different processes to close them and release RAM memory, improving the device's performance.
• Optimizes the battery and control the CPU's energy.
• Lets us carry out complete backups.

But what about the disadvantages? Well, there are also a few, therefore, we don't recommend you to root your phone unless you really know what you're doing if you don't want to end up with a bricked device:

• Applications gain access to the entire operating system, which means that we'll lose certain privacy (not a good idea in the case of malicious apps).
• There aren't so many apps that require this kind of permission.
• There can be update problems on certain handsets.
• We can lose our phone's warranty.

Geohot, the brain behind this app

This is the guy behind Towelroot, capable of breaking the Sony PlayStation 3 security and jailbreaking an iPhone, and who now belongs to Google's Project Zero, helping them find security problems in different kinds of online services and software.