While I was kind of excited this week to see that it’s possible to unlock the bootloader and root the latest Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet, that’s because the Fire tablet lineup is unusual: they’re dirt cheap, Android-based tablets that run a highly customized version of Android that’s not to everyone’s tastes. Hacking them to make them act more like normal Android devices seems like a worthwhile endeavor.

Hacking devices that run closer-to-stock Android? I’ve kind of lost interest in doing that in recent years. Or maybe I just don’t have as much free time on my hands as I used to.

Some folks argue that some of the things we used to root our devices for are now baked into Android, like improved multitasking. But I still think Titanium Backup is a super-useful tool for power users that want to make sure they never lose any data. I just haven’t installed it on my phone in years. And of course, it’s easier to implement system-wide ad blocking on a rooted device.

All of which is to say, one of the coolest things you can do on a rooted phone is install the Xposed Framework, which allows you to install and uninstall modules that change the behavior of your phone almost as easily as you’d install apps.

But every time there’s a new version of Android, it takes a bit of work to port Xposed to run on it. There’s still no official build of Xposed for Android 9 Pie… but there is now an unofficial version built using the open source components of previous versions of Xposed. Try it if you dare… and have time to kill.

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One reply on “Lilbits 347: Xposed Framework for Android Pie (unofficial)”

  1. The coolest thing about titanium is easy access to past app versions. If something breaks in a current version or even is removed, you’re not at the mercy of the developer. You can roll back and let them take however long they want to iron it out. If you have the misfortune of finding some redeeming quality in a game made by, say, E.A., for example, this can be very handy.

    But also if you’re using old gear with waning support, apps will eventually stop testing compatibility with the version of android you’re running and your hardware. Titanium means not having to give up a service if you can roll back to the last functioning version and just carry on. On a particularly old handset I had an update of amazon kindle refuse to launch, which was very sad, since I read on that device a lot. Rolled it back and kept on using it for years thereafter.

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