What are Android Custom ROM's?

If you are a proud owner of an Android smartphone then you will surely have heard by now about custom ROM's. If you find yourself lost when it comes to installing aftermarket ROM's, upgrading your phone software or you are not really sure why you need it - then it's time for you to make acquaintance with  the wonderful world of custom ROM's.  But, is it safe, should i do it? Hopefully, i will manage to clear things up for you in this post. 

Custom ROM's Logo

Let's get started by explaining what all of these mambo-jambo geeky abbreviations stand for:

• stock ROM is the phone's operating system that comes with your smartphone when you buy it.
• custom ROM is a standalone working version of Android with custom code modifications to make the OS (operating system) run smoother, faster and better on a device 

Now a few words about how Android ecosystem really works. Google, the original developer of Android, offers a  so called vanilla version of Android to smartphone manufacturers all over the world. But, being an open software project, means that Google makes the Android source code available for anyone to use,  free of charge of course. Software connoisseurs and digital gurus from all over the word take this precious code and alter it in any way their heart desires it, whether to add useful extra-features and tweaks or to completely reskin the entire ROM. They will do pretty much what their mental agility and technical skills allow them to do.

Paranoid Android Custom ROM

Many of these Android software experts join forces over the internet and form ROM release groups. Their ultimate goal is to build the fastest and most feature rich custom ROM out there.  Some of  the most successful ROM's are the ones released by CyanogenMod, but we will talk about them in another post.

Everything more clear now? Great, let's move on folks! Enumerated bellow you will find the most important advantages that you can gain over stock ROM's if you are going the Custom Rom way, the right way:

Custom ROM for LG smartphones

1. Better performance and efficiency: it is a known fact that custom ROM's use less memory, run more faster and efficient and are battery friendly in the same time 
2. Regular updates and releases: having a custom ROM installed on your smartphone means that you will get more frequent updates, bug fixes and also get new features
3. Faster switch to the latest Android version: if your desire is to always be on the very cutting edge of what Android can provide than you are oblige to install a custom ROM. Freelance developer tend to offer the latest and greatest version of Android and this is in straight contrast with  the update policies of big smartphone manufacturers who rarely update their software. 
4. You can install apps to the SD card: believe it or not, some of the biggest players in smartphone industry don't offer this simple but yet very useful option. This feature can come in handy when we dealing with large data quantities that some applications require like games, for instance.
5. Rom shuffle: once you have rooted and installed a custom ROM, you can try various custom ROM's. If you want to, you can even revert to your stock manufacturer software that your phone originally came with.

And there you have it, all the motives why you should root and install custom ROM's on your Android smartphone. With this post, i hope that i have managed to convince you to take the big step and cross over to custom ROM side. 

Have you installed any custom ROM's on your smartphone? If so, what is opinion? Share your thoughts in the comments section bellow!

By Aleman Adrian