If you’re trying to use Android Pay on your rooted smartphone, try again. Google recently patched the work around many have used to enable the mobile payment system on rooted devices. Reddit users discovered Monday that the work around, created by Android developer Chainfire, no longer works.
The Android Pay root allowed users not only to root their devices and still do things like install over the air updates; it also bypassed Google’s SafetyNet root detection mechanism, which is found within applications like Android Pay.
Chainfire expected the root wouldn’t be functional for long when he released it in late October. It took Google about three months to catch on. However, this just means developers will likely be back to work created a new workaround to enable Android Pay on rooted devices.
Google isn’t the only company who's put up safeguards against rooting on its payment services.
The Samsung Pay system works in conjunction with the Samsung Knox security suite, which has its own anti-rooting mechanism within the system. Developers are frequently creating work arounds to bypass Samsung Knox, which includes a tripping feature that records when a devices has been rooted, thus voiding their warranty. Rooting a Samsung device will render Samsung Pay non-functional.
AT&T and Verizon models of the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ in particular have mechanisms that will make it so the handsets won’t boot up at all after being rooted, iDigitalTimes reported last August. Currently, it appears this rooting safeguard is still in place.
