Should apps and games prevent users from customizing their smartphones?

One of the best things about Android is that it gives power users plenty of options to customize their devices. Users can easily root their phones to install custom ROMs and custom kernels, use powerful automation tools like Tasker, and do much more. However, rooting or modifying an Android phone does have a few downsides. For instance, some apps and games simply refuse to work on modded devices. This brings us to our discussion topic for today.

PUBG Mobile developer Krafton Inc. recently released a modern version of the original battle royale title called PUBG: New State. The new game doesn’t work on devices with Developer Options enabled and redirects users to the following webpage:

Krafton’s release notes for the game lists this as a known issue and states:

“Certain devices may have USB debugging enabled even if Developer Options have been disabled. Please make sure that you disable both USB Debugging and Developer Options.”

So, you’re forced to disable both USB debugging and Developer Options if you want to play the game. PUBG: New State isn’t the only Android app that poses such restrictions on its users. Pokémon GO is another popular game known for blocking rooted devices and ones with developer options enabled. Many banking and finance apps also refuse to work on rooted devices or devices running a custom ROM. While a few workarounds let you access these apps despite the restrictions, they’re not guaranteed to work on all phones. This makes life difficult for many power users.

Although developers behind these apps argue that they’ve implemented such restrictions to mitigate security risks, do you think apps and games should be allowed to block users for doing something as simple as enabling developer options? Since the XDA community is chock full of power users who mod their devices extensively, we’d love to hear your opinion on this issue.

The post Should apps and games prevent users from customizing their smartphones? appeared first on xda-developers.

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