Install Custom Themes On Your Android 8.0 Device Using Substratum

After a lot of teasing, Team Substratum and XDA-Developers are proud to announce the release of the Andromeda add-on for Substratum which brings full custom theme support for any Android 8.0 Oreo device without root. We realize that many people are excited by this project, but there are many people who feel that this news has been overwhelming for them in the amount of technical details we’ve been relaying. For those people, we want to reassure you that the end product is simple enough to use for your average user, and that it does not require you to understand how to use complex scripts or ADB commands. This tutorial is aimed at showing you how to set up and install the new rootless Substratum, and then use the theme engine to install custom themes.

Prerequisites

• ADB and Fastboot Installed
• Substratum App from Playstore (Price: Free)
• Andromeda Add-On App from Playstore (Price: $1.99 or 720.00 Naira)
• Finally, download the Andromeda desktop client (available on Windows, Mac, and Linux) for your particular operating system from this XDA forum thread. Extract the .zip file if you are on Windows/Linux, and save the contents of the archive to any folder on your PC. For the Mac .dmg file, leave it as is.

Step One: Install ADB

Head over to this guide on how to setup ADB on your computer here

Step Two: Install Substratum 

Pretty basic one tap install from Playstore or here

Step Three: Andromeda On Your Phone

Install it from Playstore here, then follow the guide below.

After installing the Andromeda app;

• Open up Developer Options and "Enable" USB Debugging. Follow the guide here.
• Open up the Andromeda App on your phone. It should say "Disconnected" under "Connection Status"
• Connect your Phone to a PC using a supported USB Cable.
• Run the Andromeda client on your PC that you downloaded earlier........Windows Users Over on your PC, open up the start_andromeda.bat file. It may ask you for “administrator” rights. If so then grant it, and you will see a command prompt open up. After pressing enter, you’ll see a bunch of ADB commands be sent. These commands are setting up the Andromeda add-on so it can run independently of your PC.............MAC Users: Click on AndromedaClient.app. It will ask you to select the “disk image of the mounted Andromeda client.” Press continue, then when your file browser pops up, look for “Andromeda” under the “Devices” list. Select it and click continue............Linux: Click on the start_andromeda.sh script file. You should see a terminal window open up and a few commands running, much like the Windows version as shown above.
• Once you have run the Andromeda desktop client above, you will immediately see the Substratum application open up on your phone. If it did, then the script worked successfully, and Substratum can now manage themes without root and without needing to be tethered to your PC! To verify that the script worked, open up the Andromeda app again, and the connection status should now show a green “Connected.”

Now the Andromeda service is up and running on your phone! This service is killed whenever you reboot your phone, so if you want to change any themes in the future, you will have to simply plug in your phone and run the desktop client again. Don’t worry, though, as any custom themes that you set up won’t need to be re-enabled if you reboot your phone.

How to Install Custom Themes

First, you’ll need to find a custom theme for your phone. Look for “Substratum” in the Google Play Store or check out some of the ones listed in this thread. Look for themes that mention support for Substratum or “OMS” as these are ones that are likely to work on your device. Themes that mention “legacy” or “RRO” won’t work on your device.

Once you’ve got a theme of your choice installed, follow these steps to install it:

• Open up the Substratum application.
• Look for the theme downloaded in the list. Select it.
• There are two ways to install this theme. You can either tap the toggle near the top that says “select to toggle all overlays” which will check every overlay in the list, or you can pick each overlay one-by-one. Note: the themer currently recommends that you do not select the “System UI QS Tile Icons” or “System UI Status Bar Icons” overlay in the list, until he is able to fix them. Always check the Play Store description of any theme you install for theme-specific instructions!
• Pay attention to some of the options listed underneath some of the apps. For example, under “Android system” there are 3 dropdown menus for the accent, primary, and background colors of the Android framework. If you expand the dropdown menu, you can pick from a number of options to customize the theme.
• Once you’ve picked the app(s) that you want themed, tap on the paint roller floating button in the bottom right.
• Tap on “Build & Enable.” You will see a screen telling you which themes are being compiled and installed. After a short time, it should complete without error.

After a few seconds, the theme will compile, install, and immediately be applied. Enjoy your new theme!

How to Uninstall Themes

1. In case you notice something that looks weird, or you want to disable the theme to try another one out, then go back to the main Substratum page and open up “Recovery” in the sidebar menu.
2. Tap on Restore Theme.
3. Select either Disable all enabled overlays or Uninstall all installed overlays. Choosing the disable option will leave your themes compiled and installed, but they won’t be applied anymore. Choosing the uninstall option completely removes them from your device. Either option is fine if you want to fix a broken theme!

Thats all folks. If you would like to see a video tutorial, let us know in the comments section down below.

Image Credit: Android Police