Android M is the latest Android's operating system and is much better than other OS in the previous versions. Now it got even better.
Theme engines have become all the rage recently this year and for the coming years for sure. Well, basically themes contributes to general appearance of the device and users find it mesmerizing and fun to change themes in different moods. Like HTC launched its own Themes app on the One M9 and also Samsung is doing exactly the same with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, however it appears that Google will just incorporate themes into the stock version of Android. Android users are finding out that they can apply themes in the Android M Developer Preview, which was something Google did not mention in its keynote at Google I/O, it's kind of surprise.
Primarily, theme engines allow you to customize the look of your Android phone or tablet’s user interface which basically includes the colors of the stock apps such as the Dialer and Contacts, as well as the shapes and colors of all the app icons along with the wallpapers and homescreen.
Theme engines have become all the rage recently this year and for the coming years for sure. Well, basically themes contributes to general appearance of the device and users find it mesmerizing and fun to change themes in different moods. Like HTC launched its own Themes app on the One M9 and also Samsung is doing exactly the same with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, however it appears that Google will just incorporate themes into the stock version of Android. Android users are finding out that they can apply themes in the Android M Developer Preview, which was something Google did not mention in its keynote at Google I/O, it's kind of surprise.
Primarily, theme engines allow you to customize the look of your Android phone or tablet’s user interface which basically includes the colors of the stock apps such as the Dialer and Contacts, as well as the shapes and colors of all the app icons along with the wallpapers and homescreen.
Android M is basically using the Sony’s RRO (Runtime Resource Overlay) theme engine, which was added to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) a year ago. Without getting too complicated, the RRO allows you to change the general look of an app without actually changing the code of the app itself. It’s what also Sony used as its themes engine on Xperia phones and tablets.
Up to this point there was no easy way to theme your phone if there wasn’t a built-in themes engine on the device, so that's why at some point users needed to root their device and install a custom ROM, which isn’t for the faint of heart. Unfortunately, the Android M Developer Preview still requires root, meaning you still have to undergo Android rooting inorder to make things even easier, but we are hopeful that will change when it’s officially launched in ant time soon. The big difference here is that a custom ROM is not basically required and that users can simply install the Layers Manager to get started and then it’s just a matter of finding various themes to download from Google Play.
It’s still possible that Google won’t offer the themes engine beyond rooted Android when Android M moves out of preview. One theory is that Google is doing this to make it easier for manufacturers to simply implement their own built-in theme engines on the stock Android on their devices. That might be the case, who really knows, but it still shouldn’t stop Google from making it easily accessible to those using a stock Android device such as a Nexus 6. Google knows that Android users typically like to customize their devices which they know some even root their device to customize almost everything about their Android, more than iPhone users, so it wouldn’t surprise us if this is something it’s prepping for the official release of Android M.
Up to this point there was no easy way to theme your phone if there wasn’t a built-in themes engine on the device, so that's why at some point users needed to root their device and install a custom ROM, which isn’t for the faint of heart. Unfortunately, the Android M Developer Preview still requires root, meaning you still have to undergo Android rooting inorder to make things even easier, but we are hopeful that will change when it’s officially launched in ant time soon. The big difference here is that a custom ROM is not basically required and that users can simply install the Layers Manager to get started and then it’s just a matter of finding various themes to download from Google Play.
It’s still possible that Google won’t offer the themes engine beyond rooted Android when Android M moves out of preview. One theory is that Google is doing this to make it easier for manufacturers to simply implement their own built-in theme engines on the stock Android on their devices. That might be the case, who really knows, but it still shouldn’t stop Google from making it easily accessible to those using a stock Android device such as a Nexus 6. Google knows that Android users typically like to customize their devices which they know some even root their device to customize almost everything about their Android, more than iPhone users, so it wouldn’t surprise us if this is something it’s prepping for the official release of Android M.