Xposed Framework is a way to install special apps on your Android device called modules, which can be customized to your liking to modify your phone in many ways.

Basically, you install an app called Xposed Installer that lets you download other apps that are the actual programs that do all the modifying.

All the apps below should be available for any Android phone, including those manufactured by Samsung, Google, Huawei, Xiaomi, etc.

Below are some of my picks for the best modules to use with the Xposed Installer app:

I try to link to the download pages below the best I can, but if a link isn't provided, search for it through the Xposed Installer app (from the Download menu) or try the developer's website.

YouTube AdAway will (can you guess?) remove advertisements in the official YouTube app as well as the YouTube TV and Kids apps.

This module disables some other things, too, like video suggestions and information card teasers.

Remember to enable a module after installing it. To do this, go to the main menu in Xposed Installer and access the Modules section. Tap the box next to whatever you want enabled and then restart the device.

Saving your own Snapchat videos is easy to do, but to auto-save pictures and videos from people who are messaging you, you'll need something like the Snapprefs Xposed module.

A number of other features are included, too, like various paint tools to extend what you can do before sending a message, such as a blur tool; weather, speed, and location spoofing; the option to disable Discover so that you're not using unnecessary data; the ability to take screenshots secretly without alerting the recipient; and more.

GravityBox is an arsenal full of Android tweaks. Included are lock screen tweaks, status bar tweaks, power tweaks, display tweaks, media tweaks, navigation key tweaks, and others.

You can do all sorts of things with these tweaks, like adjust the battery indicator style; center the clock, hide it altogether, or show the date, too; display a real-time traffic monitor in the status bar; enable a screen recorder and screenshot tool in the power menu; enable a non-intrusive incoming call feature that pushes the call to the background instead of interrupting what you're doing; make the volume keys skip tracks when music is playing while the phone is locked; and much more.

You have to download the correct version of GravityBox that works with your Android OS.

Sometimes, when you open a link on your phone that should go directly to another app, like Google Play or YouTube, the link opens in a browser window within the app that you opened the link from.

CrappaLinks fixes this so that you can open those links directly in those apps, just like you want.

XBlast Tools lets you customize a ton of different things on your Android, all of which are categorized into sections like Status Bar, Navigation Bar, Multi-Tasking, Quiet Hours, Driving Mode, Phone Tweaks, Carrier Label, Gradient Settings, Volume Button Tweaks, and several others.

For example, in the Visual Tweaks section, in the Keyboard area, you can choose a custom background color, a color for the keys and/or key text, as well as disable the fullscreen keyboard.

Use XPrivacyLua to stop certain apps from accessing certain information. It's as easy as choosing a category to block and then tapping each app that should be restricted from finding that information, or finding an app and choosing all the areas that it cannot have access to.

For example, you can go into the Location category and then put a check next to Facebook and your internet browser to make sure that those apps cannot find your true location. The same can be done for blocking access to the clipboard, contacts, email, sensors, phone, shell commands, internet, media, messages, storage, and others.

Even when you're not using XPrivacyLua, it will prompt you for confirmation when an app tries to get access to these areas, and you can terminate it or allow it.

If you don't end up liking this module, try Protect My Privacy (PMP).

While XPrivacyLua can be used to fake your phone's GPS location, it doesn't let you set a custom location, nor is it easy to quickly apply the location faker to every single app...but Fake My GPS does.

With this location-faking module, just set where you want the location to be and then exit the app. Now, any app that requests your location will get the fake one, including maps within web browsers, dedicated location finding apps, and anything else that uses location services.

You can customize the Android power menu with APM+. Changes are reflected when you access the menu that normally lets you reboot or turn off the device.

You can reorder, add, and remove items, including the stock ones like the reboot option. You can also adjust visibility (e.g., show an item only when the phone is unlocked, only when it's locked, or all the time), remove/enable confirmation prompts, and set a password to use any of the power menu item.

Some of the power menu functions you can add include the ability to take a screenshot, toggle mobile data or Wi-Fi on and off, record the screen, bring up a flashlight, and even quick dial a preset phone number.

Development and support for this module has been discontinued, but it's still available here:

Deep Sleep Battery Saver gives you fine control over when sleeping apps should be woken up to check for notifications.

For example, you can choose the AGGRESSIVE option to put apps into a deep sleep when the phone is locked, and only have them wake up every two hours for just one minute, after which they'll shut down again.

Some other options include GENTLE to wake up the apps every 30 minutes, and SLUMBERER to keep the apps in a sleeping state when the screen is locked, and not to wake them even for a bit.

There's also an option to make your own set of instructions if you don't like any of these pre-made ones, to immediately optimize the device to shut down various running apps that are using battery, and to set up a schedule.

Rooted devices have the advantage of forcing processor cores into a sleep state, and Xposed users can toggle GPS, Airplane mode, and other settings.

BootManager is useful if you want to stop certain apps from launching automatically each time the device starts up. Doing this can drastically improve start time and battery life if you find that several heavy apps are loading each time the phone is turned on.

It's easy to use: select the apps from the list that should not be started, and then exit BootManager.

XuiMod is an extremely easy way to modify how different areas of the device look.

There are system UI modifications you can make to the clock, battery bar, and notifications. There are also modding options for animations, the lock screen, and scrolling, among others.

Some examples seen with the clock option is to enable seconds, add HTML, change the AM/PM letter case, and adjust the overall size of the clock.

When customizing how scrolling works on your Android, you can make changes to the animation when moving through lists, the over scroll distance, and color, scroll friction and velocity, and a number of other areas.

Instagram doesn't provide the ability to zoom in on photos, which is where Zoom for Instagram comes in handy.

After installing it, you'll get a zoom button next to photos and videos that will open the media in full screen. From there, you can rotate it, save it to your device, share it, or open it in a browser.

However, there is a professional feature included, too, that lets you zoom directly from the image without having to open it in a full-screen version first. That feature expires after seven days, though.

Another Instagram tip to try that's similar to Zoom for Instagram, is this one that lets you download images from the app, but it doesn't include the zoom feature.

If you don't want the zooming option and would rather just have the ability to save Instagram videos and images, try Instagram Downloader instead.

Block in-app ads on Android with the MinMinGuard module.

The main difference between this ad blocker and similar ones is that instead of just terminating the advertisement but keeping the ad frame (which leaves an empty or colored space in place of the ads), MinMinGuard actually deletes the entire space in the app where the ad would be.

You can block advertisements for specific apps only, or enable automatic adblocking on everything. You can also enable URL filtering for apps if the regular ad-blocking function isn't working.

At any time, you can scroll through MinMinGuard to see how many ads are being blocked for every application that's enabled.

If you've ever accidentally cleared a notification that you didn't want to read or take care of until later, you'll want to install PinNotif so that it doesn't happen again.

With this Xposed module, just tap-and-hold on any notification that should remain there. Do the same to unpin it and let it be cleared like normal.

This one isn't compatible with Android 6.x and newer.

Use NeverSleep to prevent your device from sleeping on a per-app basis. In other words, instead of changing the system-wide setting that stops the whole phone from sleeping all the time, you can enable the no-sleep option just for specific apps.

For example, consider the effect of enabling NeverSleep for the YouTube app...

Normally, without it and with auto-lock turned on, your phone would lock and shut off the display after its preconfigured time. With this module enabled for YouTube, the phone would not lock if the YouTube app is open and in focus.

If you have WhatsApp installed, several extensions, compiled into this one module, let you do a lot more than what the stock app allows.

Chat reminders, per-contact custom wallpapers, and highlighted chats are just a few of the options, plus the ability to hide read receipts, hide when you were last seen online, and hide the camera button from being used, among others.

RootCloak attempts to hide from other apps the fact that your phone is rooted.

Just select from your apps which ones you want to have the root status hidden from, and you can avoid problems with apps not updating or working properly because your phone is rooted.

Amplify is used to save battery life. By default, once it's installed and opened the first time, the program automatically tweaks a few things to give you instant battery savings, by setting up some system components to only turn on every so often and not be on all the time.

You can jump into the more advanced settings if you want to, but most users probably won't recognize what's safe to toggle on and off. Fortunately, Amplify is set up in a way where the "Safe to limit" section shows which things are safe to enable; that is, which ones you should set up to only turn on every so-many seconds.

It's easy to see which services, alarms, and wakelocks are using up the most battery because they are red or orange and marked with a higher number than the others, which are varying shades of green.

Unfortunately, only the Network Location Provider battery killers can be adjusted for free; the others are customizable only if you pay for the professional version.