Installing Xposed Framework on Android devices

Background

Android as you know is very flexible and developer friendly. It runs a Linux kernel underneath with some modifications needed to operate handheld devices with relatively less memory. You can root your device to further boost its potential application. You can do stuff with root access now. You can even take it a step further - Unlock boot-loader and install customer recovery like ClockworkMod or TWRP (We are going to work with TWRP in this post). Custom recovery software's let you install custom mods or even full ROMs that can drastically improve user experience.

Xposed is a framework that can alter the the way your applications work, give you more control over it without actually flashing any custom ROMs or MODs or even tampering any of the apks. It uses root privileges to access androids core resources and use it to change the androids behavior .It's potential power is unlimited. We will see how to install and use it in a while.

NOTE : Xposed uses root privileges i.e device needs to be rooted.

Xposed is a framework once installed you can create and install various modules to alter apps/android behavior. Best part about this is that the modules are held in memory. So to get back the system to original state all you need to do is uninstall the module and reboot the device.

NOTE : Works on Android 4.0.3 (ICS) and above only.

Xposed framework is brought to us by XDA Recognized Developer rovo89.

Warning : This required rooting your device and changing some androids base resources. Follow this guide on your own risk. We are not liable if you phone gets bricked or damaged in the process.

 Installation and Setup

Make sure your device is recognized by adb (connect your device to your laptop having android SDK using a USB) -

NOTE : If you adb is not able to detect or recognize your device then you may refer to link in the Related Section at the end of this post.

Before you start Xposed has two parts to it -

1. Xposed Framework : Lays down all the groundwork for the framework
2. Xposed Installer app : Apk use to manage Xposed modules.

Download the framework from -

• http://dl-xda.xposed.info/framework/

Choose based on your the sdk version you have on your android device.

You can download the latest xposed installer from  -

• http://repo.xposed.info/module/de.robv.android.xposed.installer

First we are going to flash custom recovery image - TWRP on our Android device. So first reboot in bootloader mode using following command -

• adb reboot bootloader

You device should reboot now and you should see following screen -

Once you reach above screen adb will not work. You need to use fastboot instead. You can type following command to make sure your device is still connected -

• fastboot devices

 Now lets flash our recovery image. Use following commands to do so -

• fastboot flash recovery /Users/athakur/Desktop/xposed/twrp-3.0.2-0-hammerhead.ndif

 You can download the image from here. Above command obviously has path to the image from my local machine. You need to replace it accordingly.

Once done navigate to Recovery mode by navigating using vol up/down button. Once on Recovery mode press power button to enter it.

Now go to install and install the Xposed framework - the zip file we downloaded earlier and then reboot.

On reboot install the Xposed installed apk. On install open it -

Here your Xposed  setup and installation is complete. You can create and install modules going in Modules section of installer as shown in screenshots above. We will see how to create modules in upcoming post. So stay tuned!

Good to Know 

What is Fastboot? : Fastboot is a protocol that can be used to re-flash partitions on your android device (update the flash file system in your Android devices). It comes with the Android SDK (Software Developer Kit) and can be user as an alternative to the Recovery Mode for doing installations and updates.

What is Android recovery image? : A bootable program on an Android flash memory partition (/recovery) that is used to perform a factory reset or restore the original OS version. You can also install a different OS version (a different ROM). For that the stock recovery image must be replaced with a custom version such as ClockworkMod Recovery or TWRP (as we are doing).

Related Links

• Android Partitions and Kernel Explained(OSFG) 
• What is Android Debug Bridge (adb)? (OSFG)
• Installing Google Nexus 5 USB Drivers (for ADB)(OSFG)
• Troubleshooting steps when Android device is detected but not recognized by Eclipse ADT.(OSFG)
• Troubleshooting steps when Eclipse ADT does not recognize your Android device. (OSFG)