Install Custom Themes on Android Oreo Without Root Access
Edited by Jay, Maria Quinney, Visihow Admin
Android has always offered more in the area of customization when compared to iOS. Rooted devices have the potential for a massive variety of tweaks and hacks, everything from overclocking, right through to theme and layout appearance. Not having root access, however, has its limitations, when it comes to personalization, especially in the theme department. That is of course, until recently. With the anticipated release of the Andromeda add-on for Substratum, rootless devices can have fully customized theme support.
Substratum, which is a theme engine that uses the Overlay Management Service or OMS, was only useful to rooted devices. Since the Andromeda add-on, however, not having access to root is no longer an issue for most devices running Android 8. The great thing about using Substratum along with the Andromeda add-on is that you don't have to worry about running command line prompts or any code.
The focus of this tutorial is getting both Substratum and the Andromeda add-on up and running on a device (Google Pixel) running Android Oreo. Although the Andromeda desktop client is available on Mac and Linux, we'll be using a Windows machine for this tutorial. We'll provide links to the Mac and Linux desktop clients, so if you're not a Windows user, don't fret.
**Please Note**
Substratum is a free application, but the Andromeda add-on cost $1.99 (USD). We'd also like to mention that Andromeda is an unreleased app and it may be unstable, but it has been reported to work with; Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Google Pixel and Pixel XL. If you're running Android Oreo, your device should work fine.'
Install Substratum
Install Andromeda Add-on (Rootless backend)
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- 2When the search results populate, tap the "andromeda ★ substratum stock rootless backend" link.From inside the Play Store, type; "andromeda substratum" into the search box.
- 3On the Andromeda app info page, tap the green button with the price ($2.39 for us as we purchased from Canada). If you have an active payment method in place, tap the green "BUY" button to continue. If you haven't purchased from the Play Store before, check out our article on adding and editing payments methods for Google Play.
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Download the Andromeda Desktop Client (Windows)
- 1Visit the following link and click on green download button. If you're not running a Windows machine, download one of the other available clients, from the links below.
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Enable USB Debugging
You'll need to have both Developer Options, and USB Debugging enabled to use Substratum.
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Setup the Andromeda Desktop Client
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Congratulations! You can now run custom themes on a rootless device with the Substratum theme engine. For a more detailed guide to using Substratum, please check out our usage tutorial.
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.