Xposed Installer

Most times when you take your smartphone out of your bag, pocket, or purse, you probably know exactly what you're going to do with it. Make a call, send a text, take a selfie, browse viral videos on YouTube, or one of the other many things a smartphone can do nowadays. But fi ...more

We got a fairly extensive look at the newest version of Android at Google I/O yesterday. The "L" version, which we're betting stands for "Lollipop", brings Google's new design philosophy to Android, and one of the main aspects of that design are new "heads up" notifications. A ...more

While their merger with Microsoft has lead to a seemingly complete halt of new device development, some Nokia employees are still hard at work to bring new software to the table. Nokia's latest project, Z Launcher, is a home screen launcher that aims to give you what you need ...more

Multitasking has traditionally been one of Android's strengths. As the first mobile operating system to introduce true multi-process management, it even took things a step further after version 4.0 by dedicating a button to your recently-used apps. With the release of Windows ...more

Aside from the newer HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5, the Nexus 5 still has one of the fastest processors on the market today. However, despite its superpowers, some graphically intensive games can still have a bit of lag to them during gameplay. This lag is mostly due to in ...more

Just about every softMod requires some kind of reboot. Whether it's because something in the System UI was changed, or because a ZIP needs to be flashed in custom recovery. Booting into your custom recovery is not an enjoyable experience, to say the least. You have to go thro ...more

You can do many things on your Nexus 7 to make life easier, like auto-categorize photos and perform on-the-fly calculations, but one thing that you should really have is more swipe gestures. By adding custom swipe gestures, you'll be able to navigate your device better, skip m ...more

Out of the box, your Android device can be customized in many different ways, and a ton more with root access, but adjusting the actual interface of the system is a little bit more challenging. Changing the status bar size, icon width/length, and positioning of toast notificat ...more

Samsung's TouchWiz skin gets a lot of flak for its appearance, namely the garish colors on the quick settings toggles. The bright green on dark blue scheme is definitely an eyesore compared to the ones in stock Android, and even other manufacturer skins like HTC's Sense. It a ...more

I've been on a customizing kick over the past few weeks, showing you sweet mods for your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 like interactive live wallpapers, app and settings backgrounds, status bar tweaks, and more. But, I'm not done yet. There's still plenty to softMod on your Note 2, an ...more

Surely you've heard of the wildly-popular custom ROM CyanogenMod, right? As the longest-tenured third-party firmware for Android devices, CM has been able to maintain its popularity by supporting a wide array of devices and offering many customization options. One such custom ...more

One of Android's biggest strengths is its ability to interact with other operating systems. When you plug your phone into your Windows PC, you instantly see all of the files it holds—and all it takes is a simple syncing app to do the same with Mac. To top that off, apps like P ...more

The new Google Now Launcher has hotword detection and one-swipe access to Google Now, but personally, it's not enough to convert me away from other launchers like Apex or Nova. Just because it's Google's official launcher for stock Android doesn't make it better than all the r ...more

Changing an app's name on your home screen is not something you can do on stock Android or TouchWiz, but it should be. If you think of it merely from a customization angle, sure, it's not a big deal, but having the ability to alter an app shortcut's name can do wonders for cle ...more

When you're actively using your phone, a certain amount of battery drain is to be expected. But, if your device is just sitting in your pocket draining its battery, that's when you need to take action. Among the biggest screen-off battery draws are the various connections tha ...more

Paranoid Android has always been one of the most popular custom ROMs because of the inventive features its developers add to Android. Two of the biggest draws in particular have to be the "Halo" notification bubble, and the "Pie" navigation buttons, which can both fundamentall ...more

A few months ago, LlabTooFeR leaked a full system dump from Google's then-unreleased Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. That may not seem like a big deal at first glance, but the system dump contained all of the preinstalled apps and services from Google's new flagships—including ...more

When it comes to theming your Android device, it's the little touches that count the most. That's why developer SArnab created the Android Theme Engine, an Xposed Module to theme those hard-to-reach corners of the Android System that often go untouched with other themes. So, ...more

Resflux is an Xposed mod developed by Julian Paolo Dayag, aka WisdomSky, that provides users with a straightforward and functional way to customize and theme almost every aspect of the packages (apps and system components) installed on their Android device. From within an eas ...more

Back in August, Google introduced Android Device Manager. This new service allowed you to locate, lock, or wipe a lost or stolen Android device from either a companion app or a web interface. Effectively, this is the "kill switch" that legislators are clamoring for. So, as ow ...more

LG's arsenal of screen-off and screen-on tap gestures recently expanded into lock screen territory. Dubbed "Knock Code", this feature allows owners of various LG phones, like the G2 and upcoming G3 to unlock their phone with a series of taps on the screen. The most impressive ...more

As softModders, the first thing we do after updating to the newest version of Android is to root, install a custom recovery, and install a superuser app. By doing this you open up your HTC One to a vast quantity of new apps and tweaks you can use to truly make your phone One o ...more

Probably one of the most sought after features of the LG G2 is its "Knock Knock" capabilities. Rather than dealing with that pesky power button, you simply double-tap portions of the screen to either sleep or wake your device. The G2 is the Nexus 5's bigger brother of sorts, ...more

It just keeps getting harder to enjoy all of the benefits of root without sacrificing features. Thanks to SafetyNet, we've lost the ability to use Android Pay, Pokémon GO, and even Snapchat to an extent. But the most recent news on this front is perhaps worst of all: Netflix h ...more

No matter how far technology advances, battery life continues to be an issue. Powerful new hardware is introduced each year, but smartphone batteries only get a few extra milliamp-hours to compensate. There are several power-saving Android apps that aim to help with this issu ...more

When you misplace your Android device, finding it with the Android Device Manager, or even better, Whistle Me, can help you find it no problem. But what about when your phone is not just hiding under the couch cushions? Your worst nightmare just came true. It's officially gone ...more

While the preview images for Android's upcoming "L" release just came out yesterday, the new firmware has already been rooted, as is standard with its openness. So if you were feeling reluctant to try Android L because it didn't support existing root methods, then you might wa ...more

Google recently updated the camera software for the Nexus 5, and in doing so, made the app available to all devices running Android KitKat. This means that not only do we get a nice new camera interface on our phones, but we also get the benefit of an expanded development comm ...more

As with most OEMs, HTC would like you to think that you can do virtually anything with your new HTC One M8, but as a softModder, you know that isn't true. To actually unleash the full potential of that device, you need access to the whole system, not just the parts that HTC de ...more

When Google introduced their new launcher alongside the Nexus 5, one of the most innovative features was the "always listening" voice search, meaning that at any time you were on your home screen, triggering a Google search was as simple as saying "Okay, Google." Combined wit ...more

Starting with the release of Android Lollipop, the process of installing the Xposed Framework got a bit more complicated. Not only are there separate installers for each Android version, but now, you also need to know exactly what type of processor is in your device to make su ...more

Gotta catch 'em all, right? That's easier said than done, considering that Pokémon GO has region-specific characters that you may never get a chance to see. Sure, you can spoof your GPS location to make the augmented reality game think you're at a different spot on the map, bu ...more

Rooting. As an Android user, I'm sure you've heard the word once or twice. According to Kaspersky, 7.6% of all Android users root — but for the 92.4% who don't, we wanted to talk to you. Rooting allows you to remove barriers and open Android to a level of unprecedented contro ...more

One of the most frustrating things about full touchscreen phones, especially for those coming from one with a physical keyboard, is typing and editing text. Whether it's a quick text message, or Swyping out a full e-mail, it sucks realizing you've messed up a few words and hav ...more

When Google released Android 4.2, a new feature was introduced for tablets that allowed for multiple accounts to be used on a single device. In order to create a unique experience for each user, apps and personal data were kept separate, and switching between users became as s ...more

The new preview build of Android is out, and it looks good. But if you're not quite ready to install Android L on your phone, there's still another way to enjoy some of these new visual elements on your Nexus device. Developer Adhithya Rajagopal has created an Xposed module t ...more

Ever since the early days of their existence, cell phones have been reducing the common wristwatch to nothing more than a fashion accessory. I'm not exactly a watch aficionado, but I do own a few that I wear on a daily basis. Since I have family in different parts of the world ...more

Most hardcore Android fans loathe carrier or manufacturer additions to the Android operating system. Whether it's bloatware or changes to the user interface, many enthusiasts prefer the clean look of stock Android. However, you have to admit that some of these additions are a ...more

One of the things I hate most about Android's alarm clock is that you get the alarm icon in your status bar way ahead of time. Regardless of whether the alarm is in five minutes, five hours, or five days, that icon just sits in your status bar. If you have a recurring alarm t ...more

Stadia is a lot like an Xbox or PS4, except there's no console — the games just stream from Google's servers to your phone, computer, or TV. But Stadia is limited to Pixel phones for right now, and when Google does expand support, it will still only be for select phones. Thank ...more

If you want to try out some of the new features in Android L, but can't run the developer preview on your Nexus—or simply don't want to—there's still hope. You don't actually need to be running Android L to try out some of the new improvements. We've already shown you how to ...more

Over the years, YouTube ads have become more and more integrated with the videos themselves, which means traditional Android ad blockers can no longer block the ads without blocking the videos. It's gotten to the point where the only ways to get rid of the ads are to either su ...more

The switch from Dalvik runtime to ART in Android Lollipop has rendered the Xposed Framework useless until a new version is released, but Xposed isn't the only way to mod a phone. Before the days of Xposed, system mods were installed by flashing them in a custom recovery. It's ...more

With over 20 million songs, Spotify has become my go-to source for music. I can stream tunes to my desktop or phone, without ever having to worry about storage space being eaten up. One key difference between the desktop and mobile version that really bugs me is the lack of o ...more

Normally, it's good to automatically update your apps to the latest version, but sometimes those updates take away features that you've grown to love. Google Maps used to track your bus route and alert you to whenever your stop was approaching, but not anymore. Every Snapchat ...more

The Google Chrome browser for Android is packed with many great features, but it definitely has a bad rep for being slow and laggy on low-end or midrange devices. Without a top-notch processor, you'll likely notice some stutter with choppy scrolling, and pages can take too lon ...more

If you enjoy modding your Android device with root utilities, custom ROMs, and Xposed modules, then there's a good chance you've had to factory reset your phone when something went awry. Plus, when you're switching ROMs, it's always recommended that you wipe all data, so us mo ...more

If you're looking to customize your Android beyond its stock options, things can get confusing quickly. One of the best places to get into developer mode is the XDA forums. XDA is home to hundreds of independent Android developers, all eager to showcase their wares. Everythin ...more

When you buy a Mac, you accept that you're giving up the customization found on Windows or Linux systems for a more fluid and secure machine. This is great for most consumers, but for those of us who'd rather opt for a tailor-made experience, there are always developers that c ...more

Yes, I know. Nexus owners aren't exactly the biggest Apple fans out there. That "Pure Android" experience was one of the main reasons we bought our Nexus devices. But give the other side some credit—the iPhone's operating system has come along way, and is still the champ when ...more

The @DesignGears guys have been busy today, leaking an unofficial KitKat build (Android version 4.4.2) for the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The latest is a peek into what the international variants are beginning to see, although this build is far from official. Still, if you wa ...more

When you were younger, you probably had your parents bugging you not to have your cassette player headphones up too loud. For all you younger readers out there, it was probably a CD player. The even younger readers likely had an iPod or other MP3 player. Either way, your paren ...more

Twitter's video-sharing app, Vine, had some very stiff competition once Instagram added video sharing to its repertoire. Recent figures show Instagram at 130 million followers compared to Vine's 40 million. Many think that Vine is on its way out, but on the contrary, I think i ...more

Samsung's quick settings toggles are insanely useful for accessing settings that you would normally need to dig into menus for. Definitely a case of function over form, though. TouchWiz's bright green on dark blue has to be one of the fugliest color combinations I have ever se ...more

For new Android users, rooting an Android phone can often be an intimidating process, especially since there are so many different ways to gain root access, depending on your model and firmware version. I've previously covered a way of doing it for the AT&T version of the Sam ...more

If you're a self-described multitasker, Samsung has a feature that's perfect for you called Multi-Window, which lets you display two apps on your Galaxy S4's screen simultaneously. You can browse the day's news while doing a sudoku, take notes while watching a YouTube video, ...more

My first encounter with a phablet was late last year with the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, having never touched or even seen its highly-acclaimed and pioneering predecessor. Initially, I was a bit overwhelmed by the enormous screen and taken aback by the dated st ...more

Google's Pixel phones claimed the top spot in our ranking of the best phones for rooting, but they do have one drawback from a modder's perspective: Because of their A/B partition layout for seamless updates, the devices don't have official support for Magisk. Thankfully, thou ...more

Update: June 19, 2014 Android 4.4.4 has been released, fixing a small security bug in 4.4.3. The factory images have already been made available to all current-generation Nexus devices, and I've linked them out below. This does not affect the process depicted, you can still u ...more

Multiple methods can be used to update OnePlus phones, but if you're rooted with TWRP installed, you might want to try this one out for yourself. The update method outlined in this guide works like a charm while maintaining your root status after an OTA update. One of the best ...more