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Brad Ward
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The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are great phones, possibly some of the best Samsung has put out yet. We’ve got coverage for just about every aspect of the smartphone. We’ve got almost everything there is, whether you’re looking to find out how to operate the Always On display or even disable the Edge features on the Galaxy S7 Edge. There’s plenty more to it still, but what thing many don’t know or think about is the plenty of customization options the smartphone has.
You can customize your phone with your favorite launchers, icon packs, wallpapers, and so on, but one thing you may not know is that Samsung has a custom theme engine to theme your smartphone to your liking. And we’re going to show you how to do just that: customize your Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge with Samsung’s theme engine. We’ve got the full guide on how to do that below, as well as some pros and cons of using it.
How to use Themes
Using the Samsung theme engine is very straightforward. To access the theme store, you head into Settings > Personal > Themes.
From there, you’ll see your default theme enabled, but right next to it you’ll see an option to find more themes. Select that. That will take you into the Samsung Theme Store, where you can choose from a bunch of different user submitted themes for your smartphone.
Some of these themes cost money, but many of them are free. Once you find one you like, select it, and select “Download.” This will require you to have a Samsung account. Once downloaded, it’s as simple as pressing the “Apply” button. Once pressed, it could take up to a couple of minutes to finalize.
Setting up themes is as simple as that, but there’s definitely a few cons as well as some pros to look out for.
Downside of themes
Here’s the big downside with themes: content. Almost everybody can submit a theme to the Samsung Theme Store, and that’s okay, but it also means there’s a lot of junk. This is primarily a problem because there’s no real way to see all of the popular and quality themes up front. It’s truly something you have to stumble upon, and even more so because all of the good themes have been overshadowed by all the bad.
The single thing that makes this problem even worse is the lack of any sort of search function in the Themes app. That’s right, the only way to find themes is by going through a bunch of different categories. Most of the time you’re not going to be able to find what you’re looking for because of this.
Even though many are allowed to submit themes, there really isn’t a whole lot of good on there. Much of it seems half baked compared to something you would download off the Play Store, say the Nova Launcher paired with a nice icon pack and detailed wallpaper. Samsung did have some nice themes available, particularly during their partnership with Marvel. Unfortunately, those have since been pulled from the store, leaving us with many lackluster options.
Will Samsung’s Themes flourish?
On the positive side of things, there is some potential with Samsung’s Theme Engine. It’s still in its early stages, only launching alongside the Galaxy S6 last year. But, if Samsung is able to update it over the next couple of weeks with features that would reward developers instead of hiding their work, it’s highly possible that the Theme Store could flourish.
Unfortunately, Samsung has includes a lot of different ventures inside of their smartphone, but none of them have ever really seen much success. I hate to say it, but the Themes features will probably meet the same fate. After all, it’s much easier to download something like Nova Launcher and find a favorite icon pack on the Play Store. A Theme Engine isn’t a bad idea, but it’s nowhere near to the point where it’s better than downloading a custom icon pack and favorite wallpaper.
As I mentioned earlier, Samsung used to have some good themes available, but many of them were pulled after the partnership with Marvel came to an end. Now, there’s just lackluster content, but Samsung could easily change that if they decided it was profitable.
Closing
So, is it worth using the Samsung Theme Engine? Well, that one is up to you. If you find something you like in the Theme Store, go right ahead and use it. But in most cases, you’ll find that pairing the Nova Launcher up with a custom icon pack and wallpaper will be your best option.
The Theme Engine would be much better if there was some sort of organizational structure to it. You can spend hours looking for a theme you want, and still get nowhere. Again, using the Theme Engine is entirely up to you, but I found that my time was much more well spent by heading into the Play Store, downloading Nova Launcher and an icon pack that I liked. Not only that, but that option gives you a lot more customization as well.
The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge has a lot of high points, but the whole Theme Engine needs a lot of work. Maybe we’ll see an update down the line, and we hopefully will, but at this point, we’re not expecting Samsung to do much more with it.
Have you used Samsung’s Theme Engine? What did you think? Let us know in the comments section below!
Come comment on this article: How to use Themes on the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge
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