[Xposed Framework Modules] gebxda:
TL,DR: the possibility to control permissions in apps are one of the most important advantages of rooting (in my opinion).

Seeing that App Settings is somewhat being underestimated, let’s talk about the powerful permission manager that it has.

I think that permission management alone is one of the most important things of rooting. The possibility to control what permissions grant to apps, besides what Google wants you to be able to control in Android, is absolutely critical for a power user.

Let’s see some examples. Right now everything is “free” because telemetry and you being “the product” for companies... You can be OK with that if you want to. But where did you accept that EVERYTHING in your cell phone should have ads? I don’t remember accepting that... Well, thanks to rooting + AdAway + some browsers and user permission management, you can have a ad-free cell phone (really) and with more battery life, less background internet usage and faster because you can stop every app for syncing constantly because of ads...

There was a time when almost the only app that could do effectively permissions management for rooted cellphones was Stericson’s “Permissions Denied”. The problem was that you needed to restart your Android System everytime you changed permissions, and in later Android and the app versions it was being less stable and effective.

With the great xPosed everything changed. Now you have some modules that took over that advantage. Some of them are: xPrivacy, Permissions Master, and App Settings.

In my humble opinion, xPrivacy works as a some sort of “permissions firewall”. It has deep control of some aspects, but at the cost of too many things to pay attention to, and resources of the system.

The approach of Permissions Denied / Permissions Master and App Settings is that them work similar of controlling permissions as if you control some Internet connections in Windows systems with the “hosts file”.

You can select from available permissions and, for example, control and deny Internet access completely to an app. Android permissions management won’t allow you to stop an app from connecting to Internet altogether, because of ads.

If some “ruler app” for example, claims that is “free” and “ad free”, whatever reason... Why should it connect to Internet, have access to your contacts, etc.? Let’s imagine that you still want to use that app, but you don’t want it to connect to Internet. Solution? App Settings!!!

And the advantage of App Settings is that it works in real time. If you change some permission for an app and it stop working, you can reverse that, and it works almost instantly. Permissions Master is similar, but some changes won’t stick denying permissions to apps.

I simply can’t believe that the rooting community, with XDA being one of the greatest forums about Android tuning, is letting App Settings fade away.

So, consider this just a reminder that being able to control fast, and effectively ALL the permissions that apps use in your Android System is one big advantage that deserves to not disappear, if we still care for rooting and user controlling what the apps in your system are doing.

One last thing, another example of permissions to control in your Android are: what apps should start after booting, what apps should keep working in the background, which ones should access your contacts... etc.

With App Settings you can control all that and more, in a fast, effective and easy way. I love Firefox, but I don’t want it to start while Android boots, or be able to access my camera (I don’t use Firefox for any camera related thing), etc.

You can’t do that at the same level with Android permissions management. It just let you control stuff that won’t go against ad industry. It’s understandable, but Google won’t be harmed by the minority of us that just want to be able to control which apps should connect to Internet and which ones shouldn’t...

I would love to contribute to Apps Settings development, but sadly coding isn't one of my capabilities. This thread wasn't intended to explain to the great and brilliant community of XDA what App Settings do (you already know), it just a general description for everyone and try to keep the user permissions management in spotlight.

If you reached here, thank you for reading!

Sorry for my english, it’s not my native language.