[No Root] Install Custom Themes On Android 8.0 Oreo

Here, in this post, we will walk through a step by step guide how to install custom themes on Android 8.0 Oreo, change the themes and disable or remove them completely. Thanks to XDA-Developers and the team Substratum we can now easily get new themes on our devices without the need to root them.

Below you’re going to find a simple guide so even if you’re an average user and don’t have deep knowledge about Android, still you will be able to do it. The best part is that you don’t even need root access to install custom themes on Android 8.0 Oreo.

This article will show everything in detail how you can set up and install Substratum on your phone and use theme engine to install custom themes on Android 8.0 Oreo. So without further ado let’s proceed further.

Requirements

• Android device running Android 8.0 Oreo
• Access to a computer, Windows, Linux, Mac.

To install custom themes on Android 8.0 Oreo without root you need to download and install two application from Play Store.

The first one is Substratum theme manager app. It is free on Play Store and you need it to manage different themes on your device.

The second app is Andromeda add-on. It is a paid application and you can find it on Play Store as well. It costs just $1.99.

Finally, download the Andromeda desktop client. It is available for every operating system, Windows, Mac, Linux. Download it from this XDA forum thread. Download in on your computer and extract the .zip file.

Save the content of the file somewhere on your PC where you can access easily later. If you are a Mac user, there is a .dmg file. Leave it as it is.

How to manage custom themes on Android 8.0 Oreo

To download and install custom themes on Android 8.0 Oreo devices you should follow the steps below carefully. The whole tutorial consists of two parts. The first step to install Andromeda and the second to install custom themes. You are going to find also how to disable and remove the installed themes.

Step 1 – How to install Andromeda

• Enable Developer Options and then USB Debugging. If you don’t know how to do it, here is a tutorial.
• Take your Android device with the Andromeda application installed. Open the app. The “Connection Status” should be “Disconnected”

• Now connect your phone to computer via an original USB cable.
• Run the Andromeda client on your computer, the app you downloaded from the link above.

Here is how to do it:

1. Windows: Open the start_Andromeda.bat file. It may ask you for “administrator” rights. Once you grant them a command prompt will open and after pressing Enter, you will see a bunch of ADB commands be sent.

These commands will set up the Andromeda add-on so it can run independently on the computer.

1. Mac. Click on AndromedaClient.app. It may ask you to select the “disk image of the mounted Andromeda client”. Just hit continue and when the file browser pops up, look up for “Andromeda” under the devices list. Select and continue further.
2. Linux. Click on the start_andromeda.sh script file. You should see a terminal window open up and a few commands running. It looks pretty much the same as the adb commands on Windows.

Once you have run the Andromeda desktop client above, you will immediately see the Substratum application open up on your device. It means the script has worked successfully and now Substratum is installed on your smartphone. You can easily manage custom themes without root and without needing to be tethered to your PC.

To make sure the script worked, open the Andromeda app again and now the connection status must be green and show “Connected”.

If it’s green and connected you’re good to go. The Andromeda service is up and running fine on your smartphone.There is a small issue with this;

There is a small issue with this: every time you reboot the phone, the service is killed and you need to run the desktop client again. The custom theme you have already set up won’t be removed so it’s okay to reboot the time.

Only if you want to change the theme you need to run the desktop client again.

Step 2 – How to install Custom Themes on Android 8.0 Oreo

First, go to Play Store and look for “Substratum”. Also, check this list with some themes for Android 8.0 Oreo. Look carefully for themes that mention support for Substratum or OMS because they are most likely to work on your device. The other themes that mention “legacy” or “RRO” won’t work on your device.

Here is how to download and install a theme

• Download your favourite theme on Play Store.
• Open the Substratum application.
• Look on the list for the theme you downloaded and select it.
• There are two different ways to install this theme, either to tap the toggle near the top that says “select to toggle all overlays” or you can pick each overlay one-by-one.
• Have a look at the options listed underneath some of the apps. There are some options you can choose to customize the theme.
• Once you have picked the apps you want to theme, tap on the paint roller floating button in the bottom right.
• Tap on “Build & Enable” and you will see a screen telling you which themes are being compiled and installed.

After a couple of time, the new theme will compile, installed and will be applied.

Enjoy it!

Step 3 – How to uninstall custom themes on Android 8.0 Oreo

In case you want to change the theme you have installed or simply want to disable it, go back to the main Substratum page and open up “Recovery” in the sidebar menu.

Click on restore theme. Select either Disable all enabled overlays or Uninstall all installed overlays. The disable option will leave the themes compiled and installed but simply they won’t be applied anymore.

The Uninstall option will remove completely the themes from your device. You can choose upon your needs to either disable or remove a theme.