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Google hires John Wu, the creator of Magisk, for Android security team

If you’ve rooted an Android phone in the past few years, you’ve probably heard of the tool “Magisk” from John Wu. Today, Wu has announced that he’ll be joining the Android Platform Security team at Google.

Magisk was created in 2016 by Wu as a tool for rooted Android users to keep using their devices as normal despite the ever-increasing use of Google’s SafetyNet. With Magisk, a rooted user can still access those secured apps such as Google Pay without giving up the extra features and flexibility that comes with rooting an Android phone. The tool works by leaving the system partition alone but providing root through the boot partition. Magisk just hit version 23 last week with several updates.

Today, Wu announced a new job. He’ll be joining the Android Platform Security team at Google. It’s unclear what his exact position will be within the team, but his experience from “the other side” will surely prove valuable. He previously worked as an intern at Apple.

What does this mean for the future of Magisk? That’s not entirely clear. It sounds like Wu may still be able to work on the project based on a previous tweet, but there’s an obvious conflict given the nature of the new position at Google. We’ll update this article as that situation develops.

More on Android:

Update: The article has been revised as Wu’s tweet about maintaining Magisk was removed.

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