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How to know if your Android phone supports custom themes

We like to customize our phones with widgets, covers, wallpapers, fonts and all kinds of other elements, although the Holy Grail of customization is still themes. However, not all Android phones support custom themes.

Does your Android mobile support Android themes? The answer to that question is, as in many cases on Android, complicated. From the outset, Android does not support themes natively, although they are relatively common to find on mobile phones of certain brands.

Android does not support “out of the box” themes

Topics

There is no strict definition of what a theme is, since different mobiles interpret it differently. Generally, it is a customization package that changes several elements at a stroke, such as the wallpaper, interface colors, icons and sometimes the look of the lock screen.

The bad news is that Android does not support themes natively, so it depends on the manufacturer of each mobile if they want to add the functionality of themes in any way. Thus, you will find them on mobiles with different layers -which we will see later- but not on mobiles with Android close to stock or Android One.

If you have Android 12, you have something similar to themes

Matyu

Remember when we said that Android doesn’t support themes natively? Well, it’s complicated and depends on what you mean by topic. If for you a theme is to be able to modify the colors of the interface, then in a certain way you will have it with Android 12 and Material You.

Material You is the latest evolution of Google’s design philosophy, with new shapes, animations, and a greater emphasis on color and emotion. Part of Material You are dynamic colors, whereby the mobile interface adopts a palette inspired by the colors of the wallpaper used on the mobile. In a way, it fulfills the function of a theme in that you can customize various elements, even manually, such as the colors, the wallpaper, and the shapes of the icons.

Of course, on Android we rarely have a clear answer to any question. Android 12 dynamic colors are still optional, so having Android 12 does not guarantee that the colors of the interface will change with the wallpaper, being optional. Of course, until now most manufacturers have chosen to incorporate it to a lesser or greater extent in their layers.

Mobile brands that support themes

Themez

The best way to know if a mobile supports themes is look what android layer they use. Some layers include theme support, while others don’t, so you’re relegated to customization options with root, third-party apps, or settling for a minor level of customization to the look and feel of the interface.

  • Xiaomi, Redmi, POCO and BlackShark mobiles with MIUI and derived layers, support themes that can be downloaded and installed directly from the application Topicsas well as from the personalization settings.
  • samsung phones With One UI, they can use and download themes from the Galaxy Themes app, as well as from the phone’s personalization settings.
  • Huawei phones with EMUI or HarmonyOS can download and install themes from the Themes app, which can be accessed from the Android personalization settings. The same applies to Honor mobiles that launched with EMUI.
  • Honor mobiles with Magic OS they support themes in a similar way to Huawei mobiles, being able to install themes from the pre-installed Themes app on the mobile and in the settings.
  • OPPO, OnePlus, Vivo and Realme phones with ColorOS or derived layers (OxygenOS, Realme UI, Funtouch OS) support themes through the app theme store pre-installed, also from the screen personalization settings.
  • ASUS Mobiles with Zenfone UI you can use themes through the pre-installed ASUS Themes app.
  • TCL mobiles with TCL UI you can use themes from the settings, in the personalization settings of the home screen.

The rest of the Android mobile brands (Google, Nokia, Sony and Motorola) opt for an almost stock version of Android, which does not include themes. In this table you have a summary of the state of the themes on Android mobiles today, according to the brand.

mobile brand Layer Does it support themes?
Samsung One UI Yes
huawei EMUI Yes
Xiaomi MIUI Yes
redmi MIUI Yes
LITTLE BIT MIUI for POCO Yes
blackshark JOYUI Yes
Honor Magic OS Yes
OPPO Color OS Yes
one plus OxygenOS Yes
Realme Realme UI Yes
Live Funtouch OS Yes
ASUS ZenUI Yes
TCL TCL UI Yes
Alcatel Nope
Google PixelExperience Nope
nokia Nope
Motorola My UX Nope
Sony Xperia UI Nope

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