One of the most common questions asked after a person first roots their Android device is what now? At first, the options can be slightly overwhelming – ROMs, kernels, themes, mods, root only apps… you get the picture. With so much to do on your Android device before rooting, how are you supposed to keep track of everything after? Allow me to introduce a new DroidDog weekly series: Root Review. Every Monday, I’ll be taking a look at apps and extras that require a rooted Android device. Just check the Root Reviews tag or the Root Reviews category for all of the posts in the series. From the novice to advanced user, everyone should find something they like. So without further ado, let’s jump right into this.

SuperUser

SuperUser? How fitting, right? Before you go thinking all SuperUser does is allow root only apps to run (by giving them permission to access various aspects of your system), you should know it’s more than that. As far as managing your root only apps, it’s the only tool you should need.

Apps

When you initially jump into the SuperUser app, you start off on the first of three tabs located near the top of the screen: Apps. This tab is where you manage SuperUser permissions. The way it works is rather simple. There’s two lists, Allow, and Deny. As you may well already know, when you first run an app that needs root privileges, SuperUser asks you to allow or deny SuperUser access. Depending on what you choose, said app will end up in either list on the Apps tab in SuperUser. From either list, you can select an individual app and view several details about the app (Package name, Requested UID, Command, Status, date Created, Last Accessed), change the decision originally made regarding access, or you can make SuperUser forget a decision was ever made. If you want to keep track of changes made in the Apps tab, that’s what the next tab is for.

Log

The Log tab is very simple, but useful nonetheless. The only thing you’ll find here is a log of plain text listing when apps use SuperUser access, any changes made in permissions, and when access was originally granted. If you want to make any changes in the Log tab, you can do so in the Settings tab.

Settings

The third tab in the SuperUser app is dedicated to Settings. Among being able to change the tap action or status icon for items in the Apps tab, and options for the date format in the Log tab, you’ll find the ability enable/disable notifications and change the notification type for when an app is granted SuperUser permissions. Finally, just below the settings for Apps, Log, and Notifications, you’ll find SuperUser information – Which version of SuperUser you’re using, and your binary version where you can tap to check for updates.

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So there you have it folks. Should you have any questions, I’ll try my best to answer them from the comments, or you can contact me directly via Twitter: @du57in. And as for my final verdict on SuperUser.apk, this is one app that most definitely will be whitelisted.