Unlocking, Jailbreaking and Rooting: What's The Difference?

Several people don't have any idea about rooting or jailbreaking but certainly they may have come across one of these terms once. Although these mobile expressions are used interchangeably to mean bypassing the restrictions placed by the manufacturers and carriers, but there is indeed a difference between them. So here's a brief technical description to have the idea nailed down.

What's Unlocking?

A locked cell phone is one which come with a software code put by the manufacturer to ensure that the phone can't be used with any other operator's network till a different code (either provided by the carrier or obtained from another source) entered to get the phone unlocked. 

Those phones are essentially bought with a contract from the company which is the reason why it's locked. Handsets that are bought without a contract are not necessarily locked to any carrier at all. Once the contract is up, the carrier will have the phone unlocked which will allow you to use a different SIM card whether a local or international and thus switching to any other service provider.

What's Jailbreaking?

Apple has put software restrictions over iPhones, iPods and iPads that run its operating system. To fulfill a jailbreak, there should be a root access to the file system so as to remove those limitations. Once the iDevice is jailbroken, the user is able to install any third-party apps unavailable in the iOS App Store, get free in-app purchases, use various themes, wallpapers, system fonts, emulators and extensions that are not officially supported by Apple. Cydia, made by Jay freeman known as Saurik, is the best and the most popular source for apps along with AppCake. Jailbreaking your device does not affect nor distort the standard system functionality but it will void your warranty. You can unjailbreak your device by the same program you used for jailbreaking but some apps/tweaks could be left behind. The advisable way to unjailbreak it is either reinstall the current iOS or by upgrading it the latest iOS version. 

Additionally, Vshare, which may not properly run on all iDevices, is an alternative to jailbreaking which permits you to install non-App Store applications. All you have to do is to visit the site from you iDevice and hit the download button.

People often confuse between Jailbreaking and Rooting thinking that it is pretty much the same process but it actually is not the case. 

What's Rooting?

Android users have the option to install applications (unknown sources) outside of Google Play Store without the need to grant a root access to the device. They can download and install themes as well with the device still being unrooted. So, Android root is not just a matter of installing third party apps and themes like it's the case with iOS Devices, but it is much more than that knowing that it is an open source. Rooting your Android smartphone allows you not only to get a administrative privilege and access on your phone but also to change the whole operating system which is known as ROM; it's just like changing your computer's operating system from Windows 7 to Windows 10 or whatsoever.

Once you Android phone is rooted, you are granted a "Superuser" permissions to easily uninstall those annoying pre-installed apps, tweak the speed of the processor, upgrading to the latest Android version and even change the permissions of the system files and folder, a lot of crazy stuff. As long as Android is an open source OS, many custom ROMs appeared such as Cyanogenmod. 

While Google in favour of rooting the Android phones, Apple, on the other hand, is totally inflexible with jailbreaking your iOS devices and wants its users to be confined to App Store. 

You should bear in mind that inappropriate rooting can lead to brick your device especially the phones that come with a locked bootloader. 

I think you did understand by now and can cleverly tell the difference between rooting an Android vs Jailbreaking an iPhone. Whether your device is still unlocked, unrooted or unjailbroken, yet you know what it means and what to do; the choice is yours. Let the game begin.