I’ve written this blog post about moving from rooted Samsung to a Pixel running GrapheneOS. It’s a list of every root tool that I used, with a note on whether I’ll miss it. I wrote it as a checklist for myself initially, and decided to add links and more comments and publish it. Turns out I don’t really need root, which truly surprised me.
Do you have any apps or tools that hold you back from leaving root?
Main thing keeping me away is banking. Unless if I just carry two phones. Quite trendy these days.
That’s one of the biggest topics surrounding android customization, and I somehow completely dodged it. My bank app does not care about anything unless I try to hook it with LSPosed modules. No integrity checking, no root checking, no scanning for installed apps, nothing.
This must be a European problem perhaps? I can’t understand why this is the deal breaker for so many.
Banks have web sites. I don’t know why anyone would ever allow their financial institutions access to their phone’s plethora of sensors and the available telemetry on what they are doing on their mobile device 24/7. That links confirmed ID + “trusted platform” + biometrics + transactions + location + all the metadata every other app hoovers up in one convenient place. The very same people across the pond are worried about having to verify ID to look at porn, but are cool with their bank knowing the position of their accelerometer while they’re taking a dump.
In my local bank you can choose between 2 ways of 2fa: in their app or sms. Sms is less secure and slower, as you have to wait a bit for the sms to arrive. And you have to use 2fa for each online purchase, and login to the website. But my bank’s app works perfectly fine on rooted phones.
However Revolut stopped working, and I gave up reading about workarounds. I have an old unrooted broken phone always at home, I use it for that only. Revolut’s website is limited, you can only see your balance and disable your cards if they were stolen, nothing else, you have to use the app for everything.
Not sure what kind of apps you are into that know when you’re taking a shit but my banking apps have notification permissions and that is about it (camera when needed but yank it straight after). Most bank and broker websites are limited compared to the app. I have 8 finance related apps and it was constant musical chairs with which one will break after an update requiring hours of workaround research, if one is even available. Any version of Interactive Broker straight up refused to work on rooted device. You may personally be OK with giving up that functionality on your phone but not everyone is in the same boat as you.
My bank apps work on Graphene with the exploit protection compatibility mode enabled, even the ones that require Play Integreity API.
what about their websites?