How to Install Official Xposed Framework on Android Nougat

With Android maturing as an operating system over the years, the reasons to root your phone are becoming scarce. Being an ardent supporter of rooting myself, I’ve been living without a rooted primary device for a while now. Something I didn’t think I could ever do. I love the control over my phone rooting it gives. But that is mostly because until now, there was no official Xposed Framework release for Android Nougat. Sure there was this unofficial port but it wasn’t a full port. Some people still won’t find the availability of Xposed Framework reason enough to root their device now. But if you’ve been waiting for Xposed Framework to arrive for Android Nougat, you can now install it.

What took it so long?

It has been over a year now, the wait was pretty darn long but the official Xposed Framework for Android Nougat is finally here. New releases of Android often bring to the way ART works, which may require parts of Xposed to be reworked. For instance, with Android 7.0 Nougat, Google introduced a Just-in-Time compiler to help improve runtime performance of applications.

In the unofficial port of Xposed, developer abforce disabled many ART optimizations so that method hooking could work correctly. The implementation wasn’t obviously complete and not very stable. This is one of the primary reasons the developer of Xposed, rovo89, is hesitant to make his code open source and include more manpower. He prefers a better late than not safe approach.

And so now, he has come up with a way to keep all the ART optimizations, by recompiling a method’s caller using JIT and still having the method hooks in place. TL;DR this means you can still enjoy Xposed Framework as intended, without sacrificing performance by forcefully disabling ART optimizations.

That’s not all though. Since its inception, Xposed Framework was a way for people to enjoy custom ROM features on their stock ROMs. To oversimplify the process, it achieves this by allowing the modules to “hook” into the methods of other installed apps. The actual process is a lot more complicated and to make it work nearly universally on rooted devices, without needing a custom ROM, takes a lot of time.

Requirements

• As usual, you will need a rooted Android device.
• Your device also must have a custom recovery already installed.

Downloads

• Xposed Installer 3.1.2 APK
• Android 7.0 Nougat (sdk24) – Xposed Framework flashable zip
• Android 7.1 Nougat (sdk25) – Xposed Framework flashable zip

How to install Xposed Framework on Android Nougat

1. Download the Xposed Installer APK and the respective Xposed Framework flashable zip according to your Android version and device architecture.
   • arm – 32-bit devices
   • arm64 – 64-bit devices
   • x86 – devices with an Intel chip
2. Transfer the downloaded files to your Android device.
3. Boot your device into recovery mode. On many Android devices, this can be done by pressing and holding the Power button and Volume Down button together. But depending on the make and model of your device, the process can greatly differ.
4. Assuming that your device has the TWRP custom recovery like most others, it’d be a good idea to tap on the Backup button and create a NANDroid backup first.
5. To install Xposed, tap on the Install button and then select the downloaded flashable zip file.
6. Swipe at the bottom to flash the zip.
7. When the process is complete, you’ll see a Reboot system button at the bottom. Tap on it and your device should boot up normally.
8. Once it does, find the Xposed Installer APK you downloaded using a file explorer of your choice. Tap on the APK to install it. Though highly unlikely, if you haven’t enabled Unknown sources in Settings > Security you will have to do so before you can install the APK.
9. You’re now ready to launch Xposed Installer and download your favorite modules.

The lead developer of the Xposed Framework, rovo89 had been constantly updating users about the development but for some the wait was unbearable. I too was among those who had moved on to a life without Xposed. Are you ready to go back to the Xposed life? Or would you rather not?

source: xda