Chainfire is ending involvement with SuperSU two years after its sale

Ben Schoon | Oct 4 2017 - 8:02 am PT

Rooting an Android device isn’t something that’s done today as much as it was in the past, but it’s still important to the Android community. For many, the first time they rooted a device was thanks to the SuperSU app, built by well-known developer Chainfire. Recently, Chainfire announced his departure from the app over 5 years after he first launched it.

In case you’ve been out of the loop for a bit, SuperSU was sold by Chainfire to CMTT about 2 years ago. While users were nervous about the new management, things haven’t changed much since that deal with regular updates ongoing to this day. Through the past two years, though, Chainfire has remained actively involved in the app, including full code reviews to ensure everything works correctly.

Now that those contractual two years are over, Chainfire will no longer be actively involved in the app’s development, but he feels confident that CMTT is up to the challenge. He will, however, be in touch with the company in an advisory role through late-February 2018.

Retirement from SuperSU

A little over two years ago I announced SuperSU‘s impending transfer to CCMT and my eventual leaving the project. Now, at the 10 year anniversary of my first mobile app release (see https://plus.google.com/+Chainfire/posts/8JmUc2EKSsc for a recap of those 10 years), just after SuperSU both turned 5-and-a-half and hit 100 million users on Google Play, the time has come for me to officially announce that retirement.

Formally my contract with CCMT runs until February 24, but from now on I will serve in an advisory capacity only, a few hours here and there. I might still wrap-up the release of a couple of features I have been working on and are close to finished, but I’m not making any promises.

Though it has spanned multiple platforms, I’ve done a lot of the same type of work these past 10 years, probably too much. Letting go of this will free up the time (and mental resources) to allow me to pursue some other interests again; learn some new skills, gain some new knowledge, find some new projects that excite again.

Future of SuperSU

CCMT will continue SuperSU‘s development, and I am confident that will turn out just fine; the people I have worked with over there have all had their hearts in the right place. I feel the two year transitional period (including full code review by yours truly) we have provided has been ample for the naysayers to find other solutions.

What’s next?

This does not immediately affect any of my other apps, though as several are root-related in time it obviously might.

While I do intend to shift my focus, this does not necessarily mean I will be leaving mobile app development. Who knows what projects will come my way, I have no shortage of app, feature and service ideas (some good and some undoubtedly bad), and there’s always the quest for knowledge and experience. Just like firmware.mobi was mostly a useful excuse for me to play around with Python, both Kotlin and Swift have been on my play-time wishlist for some time, and both are known to be used for app development.

Unfortunately I’ve had to pass up on a number of interesting projects over the past two years. Now my contract with CCMT is ending, this again allows me to take up other contract work, join new ventures, or even take a job somewhere. If you have a project I might find interesting on a technical level (does not have to be mobile related) or has a positive impact on the world (or smaller areas) don’t hesitate to get in touch ( web201604@chainfire.eu ).

Fin

Thanks again to everyone who has supported me (and SuperSU) over the years, it has meant a lot to me.