Don’t like the default background image on your smartphone? Do you want different app icons or a different user interface? All of this can easily be done with Android smartphones. Apart from a few details, your smartphone can be completely personalized.
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Wallpapers for Android with and without animation
The first and most obvious change approach is the background image. Either you take a nice photo and choose it as your background in the gallery, or you download one of the many backgrounds you can find on the web. Alternatively, there are also animated live wallpapers. They cost you a few minutes of battery life, but give you vivid images on the home screen.
There are even live wallpapers with swimming fish. / © NextPit
A completely new look with an alternative launcher
The next big hit in smartphone personalization is launcher swapping. The launcher is the area you see after turning on the device or after pressing the home button. It manages your app selection and is considered the logistical center for all your app activities.
There are now countless different variants to choose from. From complex launchers with countless customization options to minimalist variants with special controls and gestures. Be sure to try different launchers, because they can make things easier for you. Some smartphones even get a little faster with alternative launchers.
Some launchers turn your smartphone into an iPhone clone. / © NextPit
New icon packs
Some alternative launchers allow you to setup and use icon packs. This puts an end to the annoying problem that the various icons on the home screen and in the app drawer do not have a uniform look. Icon packs are therefore extremely important for an ambitious change in the interface. There are free and paid ones on the Play Store. Here you can find some inspiration:
Some manufacturers such as Huawei, Honor or OnePlus have already integrated the option of selecting other icons for the start screen into their own operating system. There is even the option with so-called themes to make the entire surface look different.
New tones for Android
Of course, your own ringtone should not be missing. With Android, switching to your favorite song or a downloaded sound is relatively easy:
- Copies an audio file (list of compatible formats) from the PC to Ringtones, Notifications or Alarms.
- Then go to Settings > Sounds (alternatively: Sound and notifications) > Advanced and select the downloaded file as ringtone or default notification sound.
Your personal ringtone is ready. A more detailed guide can be found here:
An appealing ringtone makes for less naivety. / © NextPit
Two of the most popular apps and good sources for free ringtones for your Android smartphone are:
Zedge is also available as an app and is funded by full-screen promotional videos. So preferably open the app in the WLAN. In Zedge you also get background images and icons.
ZEDGE™ Ringtones, Backgrounds, Icons
Improve handling: Optimize notifications and lockscreen
Do you receive a lot of emails, push messages and other notifications? Do you want to have your smartphone on the table, but want to quickly take a look at incoming messages? Naturally! Many manufacturers have now integrated always-on features or features with names like At a Glance, inactivity display or ambient display.
Notific : Lockscreen Notifications
If your smartphone does not offer this feature, the Notific app will help you. And it works like this: Notific shows you incoming messages, even if the display is switched off. This gives you an immediate view of the incoming message. Of course you can filter which apps you want to be informed about.
Notific / © Screenshots: AndroidPIT Notific : Lockscreen Notifications
Start lock screen
The Start Lock Screen is a bit reminiscent of Microsoft’s popular but discontinued Next Lock Screen. The aim of the app is to provide you with as much information as possible via the lock screen so that you don’t have to unlock the phone in the first place. There is web search, various password locks, widgets, tools, news, weather, app shortcuts and more.
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For hobbyists: Customize your smartphone with and without root
A new launcher is installed quickly, and a wallpaper is set up just as quickly. You can customize a few things with these tools, but you can’t get to some of the functions and design aspects of your smartphone that way. For example the notification bar. If you want to make adjustments here, you have to be willing to install more than just a simple app if the manufacturer doesn’t give you this option yourself.
Substratum: The theme engine for Android
For smartphones with Android Oreo, for example, there is the theme engine Substratum, which you can also install without root. But it takes several steps to set up Substratum. Especially without root, you have to face a multi-stage process. First you install the Theme Engine from the Play Store and the optional plugin, which ensures root-free functioning of Substratum – the latter costs a one-time fee of 1.99 euros.
substratum theme engine
andromeda ★ substratum stock rootless backend 8.0+ (Unreleased)
But that alone is not enough. You must now activate USB debugging in the developer settings and install the substratum client on your Windows PC, Mac or Linux computer. Now start the substratum app. Connect smartphone and PC and follow the instructions on your smartphone. You have to activate substratum via PC every time you restart your smartphone, which is either annoying or impractical. Root users have nothing to do with activation via PC.
Only now can you get started with substratum. But how! You can find themes in the Play Store and download them via the app. substratum allows to customize all aspects of the UI, so full mods are possible. Would you prefer your smartphone to see black?
Swift Black Substratum Theme +Oreo & Samsung theme
Or should your home screen background shine through every app?
Material Glass Substratum [Legacy]
There are now a lot of themes for substratum in the Play Store and you can be sure that hardly any other user has this design on their smartphone.
Xposed: Nothing works without root
Large-scale changes to Android are possible with the help of Xposed. This framework requires root so that you can even install it. So first root your Android smartphone. After rooting, you install a custom recovery and can then install system-level modifications. And this also includes the Xposed framework. We present this to you together with a handful of other root apps in a separate article.
Most modules only change small aspects of the Android interface. Occasionally they just close functional gaps or even fix bugs. In the case of GravityBox, however, it goes much further and allows you to completely redesign your interface. However, the module is only recommended if you have a fairly stock Android; Samsung Experience or Huawei EMUI will likely crash with GravityBox.
Custom ROM
On some devices, the complete firmware (also called ROM) can also be exchanged. Third-party providers are often dedicated hobby programmers who have either developed their own ROM close to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code, or who have compiled and tested LineageOS for your smartphone. If they are mentioned as a release in this list, they are considered stable and are a viable replacement for the preinstalled firmware. We have prepared a custom ROM type advice in a separate article.
What do you use to customize your smartphone to your liking?
These tips and tricks will be updated regularly. Existing comments could therefore refer to previous variants of the article and appear out of context.
