Over the weekend a friend of
mine was speaking to me about
switching over from an iPhone to
Android, and was asking me
about some of the benefits of
doing so. One of the pros I mentioned to him in regards to having an Android
device is having the ability to root the phone. What's the difference between rooting and
jailbreaking? / © ANDROIDPIT After asking me a few questions about it, his
response was "ok yeah, but I can also jailbreak my
iPhone, so no big difference there“. Lots of users,
both Android and IOS alike, actually don't know that
there is a very big difference between the IOS
jailbreak and Android root access. You can't actually "jailbreak" Android or "root" IOS, and I thought I would write this article to explain a few of the
differences between rooting Android and IOS
jailbreak. Rooting your Android is not the same as
jailbreaking. / © AndroidPIT Jailbreaking iOS Lets start with the iPhone. Some iPhone users like to
"jailbreak“ their device after purchasing it, as it
allows you do perform certain things on the iPhone
that you can't do when it's not jailbroke. So what is
jailbreaking? Jailbreaking is actually the process of
removing certain restrictions and limitations put into place by Apple on devices that run the iOS operating
system. To accomplish a jailbreak, a custom kernel is used to
grant root access to the device. Once an iOS user has
jailbroke his device, he is then able to download
apps that aren't in the App Store, use themes, and
extenstions that Apple doesn't support. Users do still
have access to the App Store and iTunes when a device is jailbroken, and it doesn't affect standard
functionality. Some iPhone owners like to jailbreak their phones. /
© ANDROIDPIT Basically, jailbreaking allows you to use software
that Apple doesn't authorize. Now while iOS users
might consider jailbreaking their iPhone the same
thing as Android users rooting their Android phones,
there is a huge difference. In fact, you can't even
compare jailbreaking to rooting, and here's why. Android Root Apple's operating system is not an open source
system, meaning that you cannot make changes to
the actual source code. Android however, is an open
source operating system, and allows you to do much
more than just install 3rd party apps. Android out of the box allows users to install third-
party apps (also known as sideloading), already
allows you to install themes, and even allows you to
install applications directly from your SD card or
internal memory of your device. Everything that iOS
users hope to accomplish with jailbreaking their device is already included as basic functionality
within Android. Want more Android power? Try rooting. / ©
ANDROIDPIT So what exactly does root accomplish for Android?
Well, not only does it allow you to gain privileged
control of your device, overcome limitations that
carriers and OEMs put on devices (skins, ect), but
also allows you to completely remove and replace
the entire operating system of the device. This is achievable due to the fact that Android itself was
built on a Linux kernel, and allows a user to access
administrative permissions on their phone or tablet. So on an Android device, rooting basically gives you access to more or less the entire operating system.
You can completely remove the OS and replace it
with user made operating systems that contain
tweaks and enhancements (known as ROMS), and you can even access and adjust settings such as
your processor speeds. With the help of a custom kernel, iOS devices can be
jailbroken to run custom apps. With the help of a
custom kernel on Android, you can overclock or
underclock your actual processor speed. Pretty big
difference right? Rooting a phone requires patience. / © ANDROIDPIT Additionally, root users can access the flash memory
chip on their device, which is not possible with iOS
devices. Rooting an Android phone grants the user
what's known as "Superuser“ permissions, which
allows specific applications to have root rights. The
process itself normally includes exploiting a security weakness in firmware shipped from the factory. Google in many cases will encourage rooting
(shipping many devices with unlocked bootloaders
to make the process very simple) while warning you
that it can cause damage to the device. Apple on the
other hand is dead set against jailbreaking, as they
only want users using apps distributed from their App Store. Easiest explanation to Explain root vs
jailbreaking Think of it like the Matrix: jailbreaking is comparable
to what Morpheus could do. He could bend the rules
of the system to overcome certain restrictions, but
was still bound to its rules. Rooting is what Neo could
do. Not only could he bend the rules, he could
completely break them (my God that was a slick analogy). So root vs jailbreaking...what's the deal? / ©
ANDROIDPIT So there you are. That's a very brief and not overly
technical way to describe the difference between
jailbreaking and rooting. So next time you hear an
iOS user saying that he can jailbreak his device the
same way you root your Android device, he might
actually be interested to know that there is indeed a very big difference.

God bless you

Very informative, thanks for sharing.

Great explanation and analogy you have there.
Apple just churns out overpriced pieces of metal as mobile devices (I know iPhone lovers will have my head for this)

THIS IS THE GOSPEL TRUTH..

Op be rest assured that iPhone fans are coming for you.
Don't say i didn't tell you.

I have always wondered the difference on a technical level. This is a job well done.