What is Towelroot?
Towelroot is an app developed for Android devices that allows users to easily root their device with a single tap. Rooting gives users administrative privileges over their device's operating system, allowing advanced customization, access to blocked features, ability to uninstall bloatware, improved performance and battery life.
The app was created in 2014 by Geohot, a well known hacker. It exploits vulnerabilities at the kernel level of Android to gain root access. The major advantage of Towelroot was its simplicity - users simply had to open the app and tap a button to root their device. It supported a wide range of Samsung, HTC, Sony and other devices running Android versions from 4.4 to 5.1.
However, as device manufacturers and Google patched the vulnerabilities Towelroot relied on, its success rate in rooting devices declined. Most modern Android devices running newer operating system versions can no longer be rooted with Towelroot. The app is no longer maintained or updated. While it created waves during launch and helped many users root their phones easily, Towelroot has diminishing utility for recent Android versions.