Basic definitions
ClockworkMod recovery (CWM) is a modified unofficial recovery that is released for most Android devices. It has much more features than native recovery. On some devices it is installed instead of native recovery, on other devices it is installed in parallel. Allows you to install unofficial firmware, easily install patches and patches in the form of zip files, create a backup of the firmware and user data, reset to factory settings (wipe data / factory reset), clear the cache (cache), dalwick cache (Dalvik-cache ), battery statistics (battery stats), formatting and partitioning on a memory card and much more.
Google applications (GAPPS, Google applications) - This is the generic name of all Google applications that are included in the firmware. GAPPS includes: gmail, youtube; Google: talk, play market, calendar and more. In some firmware, in particular Asian, there may be no Google applications at all, in unofficial firmware the number of Google applications may be reduced. To install Google applications, installation zip files for non-native recovery are released.
Recovery (recovery) - bootloader mode in Android devices. The list of features and ways to boot into the recovery mode specify in the thread on the firmware of your device. Native recovery is used in most cases to do wipe data / factory reset (reset to factory settings). Also, native recovery has a function for installing zip-files, but it allows you to install only archives signed by the manufacturer. Basically, in the form of zip installers for a native recovery, all updates over the air are installed. For many devices, there are third-party recovery with advanced features such as clockworkmod, TWRP, safestrap, openrecovery, and others. On some modern devices, such as Sony, there is no recovery.
Root - superuser rights (are analogous to an administrator account in Windows). They allow you to get full access to the operating system: changing system files, running some third-party applications, backing up the system. Making root means getting superuser rights, more precisely, adding the ability to issue superuser rights to applications in the firmware. At the file system level, getting Root rights is getting the ability to edit the system partition containing the operating system files, and everything else is a consequence. Superuser (superuser) - this is a program that gives other applications superuser rights, there are others. Most often, the installation of the superuser application occurs along with obtaining superuser rights. The terms superuser and root are often confused, root is the superuser rights, and superuser is the application.
Wipe - This is a complete reset of settings and data (similar to Hard reset in Windows Mobile). Most often, when they talk about wipe, they mean resetting data to factory settings (ie, wipe data / factory reset - reset to factory settings). This clears the / data and / cache partitions in the device’s internal memory and clears the system folder .android_secure on the memory card, i.e. all installed applications are deleted, all system settings are reset. Data on the memory card remains. If you changed the system data (the contents of the system section), i.e. something was replaced in the operating system (for example, they installed the driver, got the superuser rights), or deleted the system files, such data will not be restored.
