You can find many excellent free Galaxy S9 themes in Samsung themes to meet your needs.
This Galaxy S9 guide explains everything you need to know about Galaxy S9 themes: What are they? How to get them? How to access them in Samsung themes? How to install and use them? How to manage or delete Galaxy S9 themes.
What are Galaxy S9 themes?
Galaxy S9 themes are “skins” for your Galaxy S9 and S9+.
You can use Galaxy S9 themes to customise the user interface of Galaxy S9 or S9+. The customisation usually includes:
- Colour scheme for the UI. The default white scheme in Galaxy S9 and S9 UI can be annoying when you are using the phone in darkness.
- Wallpapers for Galaxy S9 Home screen (including Galaxy S9 Apps screen), Galaxy S9 edge screen, and Galaxu S9 lock screen.
- App icon pack for pre-installed Samsung apps to replace the stock icon.
- Font, style and background settings for Settings, Phone, Messages, Internet, Contacts, Clock, My Files and a few (about 30 to 40) other Samsung system apps.
- Galaxy S9 always on display (AOD) themes.
Please note, Galaxy S9 themes work with the default launcher. If you are using a third-party launcher, Galaxy S9 themes unlikely will work as expected.
Besides, themes for other Galaxy phones (e.g., Galaxy S8/S8+) will NOT work on Galaxy S9/S9+.
Where to get Galaxy S9 themes?
As a security measure, you should get new themes for Galaxy S9 and S9+ ONLY from Samsung's Theme store, which is embedded in Galaxy Apps.
You probably should never get any themes from other sources.
How to access Galaxy S9 themes?
You can access Galaxy S9 themes from Galaxy S9 Home screen edit mode.
In Galaxy S9 home screen, you can enter the edit mode by:
- Pinch gesture.
- Long tap (tap and hold) on any blank area.
Once in the edit mode of the Galaxy S9 Home screen, as shown below, tap Themes to access Galaxy S9 themes.
In Galaxy S9 themes page, as shown in the screenshot above, tap Themes to enter themes tab.
Besides, you will get the notification about Galaxy S9 themes in the notification panel when you reboot the phone, if
- You first use Galaxy S9 or S9+.
- You use a Galaxy S9 LED cover.
- You use a Galaxy S9 clear view (S view) cover.
You can also follow the notification message to access Galaxy S9 themes page.
In some regions, a shortcut to Galaxy S9 themes (Galaxy themes) was added when you set up the new Galaxy S9 or S9+. You can also manually add the shortcut by yourself (read on)
How to browse and find new Galaxy S9 themes?
There are lots of themes for Galaxy S9 and S9+. Some are free. Some require a payment (Samsung will bill you with local currency).
At the same time, some Galaxy S9 themes are very nice. Some may be just rubbish (subjective).
Remember, many excellent themes are free. Some paid themes are not up to standard. So, do NOT judge Galaxy S9 themes based on the price tag (or even worse, based on the discount). Most people can find decent free themes for Galaxy S9 or S9+.
Unlike apps, Galaxy S9 themes ONLY work on Galaxy S9/S9+. You will not be able to use them on future (e.g., Galaxy S10 or Note 9) or past phones (e.g., Galaxy S8/S8+ or Note 8).
You can swipe upwards in Samsung themes page to hide my themes.
By default, the themes in this page are organized in 3 tabs: featured, top and new.
As shown below, you can switch to free themes by tapping the FREE button in Top or New tab.
You can also change the layout of the theme list by tapping the layout button as shown above.
You will then switch to a more compact view, as shown in the screenshot below.
In the compact view, there are more themes shown on one screen. The title or name of the theme is also hidden as shown below.
You can always switch back to the default view by tapping the layout button.
If you want to browse all Galaxy S9 themes, you can use the search button.
You can also check themes by categories. Tap the category button as shown below.
The categories are organised into two sub-categories:
- Colour Palette. If you prefer a specific colour for the Galaxy S9 themes, you may choose one from the 12 colours. The colour will match the main colour of the corresponding Galaxy S9 themes.
- Topics. There are 17 topic-based sub-categories as shown above.
Most owners are overwhelmed by the choices.
How to install new Galaxy S9 themes?
Once you find the desired theme for your Galaxy S9 or S9+, you can select it.
For example, you are interested in the Dark Slide theme.
As shown below, tap the thumbnail to see the details of the theme.
In the details page for the theme, you can check the screenshot of the following pages/apps:
- Galaxy S9 Home screen (with new app icons).
- Galaxy S9 lock screen.
- Galaxy S9 quick settings/Galaxy S9 notification panel.
- Phone app.
- Contacts app.
- Messages app.
- Always-on display (AOD) screen. Some Galaxy S9 themes may not include AOD.
You can tap the thumbnail to see it in full screen for each of them. Later, you can decide whether the theme is what you like.
If you want to try it, tap Download as shown above.
It should start to download the selected theme. You can check the download status as shown in the screenshot below.
Once you finish downloading the theme, you can tap the Apply button as shown above.
There will be a pop-out window asking you to confirm as shown above.
If the theme includes customisation for AOD screen, it will also alert you about the change to the AOD screen
Tap Apply to use the new Galaxy S9 theme on your phone.
You can see the progress of applying the new theme as shown below.
It should take about 1-2 minutes to apply the new theme.
Once the new Galaxy S9 theme is applied, you can check it immediately.
For example, on the home screen, you can find:
- The wallpaper was changed.
- Some app icons were changed. Most Galaxy S9 themes include an icon pack that replaces the stock icons for Samsung apps.
- The screen indicator icons were changed.
Some Galaxy S9 themes may apply some decorations to the other app icons.
In the following two screenshots, you can see the changes in My Files app and Galaxy S9 Settings page.
How to manage and delete Galaxy S9 themes?
You install multiple Galaxy S9 themes on Galaxy S9 and S9+ and try them one by one in My Themes section as shown below.
You can also delete any of the themes downloaded by you. You cannot delete the pre-installed theme.
In the list of downloaded themes, tap the theme to be deleted as shown below.
In the details page of the theme, you can find there are two buttons in the bottom: Delete and Apply.
Tap Delete as shown above to delete the theme from the phone after you confirm the operation.
If you want to delete a theme that is currently being used, you need to change the theme to others first. Then you can delete it. You cannot delete the currently used theme.
How to add Samsung themes to Galaxy S9 home screen and apps screen?
When you first Samsung themes, there is a reminder for you to add the shortcut to Galaxy S9 home screen (and apps screen).
If you dismissed the reminder, you can still manually add the Galaxy S9 themes shortcut to the home screen and apps screen at any time.
In Samsung themes, tap the menu key (3 vertical dots) on the top right, then tap Settings as shown below.
In the Settings page for Samsung themes, you can turn on “Samsung themes shortcut” as shown above.
Now, in Galaxy S9 Home screen and Apps screen, you can find the Samsung Themes icon.
You can directly access Samsung themes by tapping this icon. It is not necessary to enter Galaxy S9 home screen edit mode.
If you are using a Galaxy S9 LED wallet case, or a Galaxy S9 clear view (S View) cover for Galaxy S9 or S9+, you can turn on or turn off “Phone case themes notifications“.
Phone case themes notifications are shown in the notification panel when the case is detected.
So, you will get the notifications whenever:
- You use the case the first time.
- You reboot the phone (with the case on).
- You remove the case, then re-apply it.
Some owners may find the phone case notifications annoying. If this is the case, you can turn it off.
Can you use Galaxy S9 themes to customise the look and feel of Galaxy S9 and S9+ now?
If you have any questions on Galaxy S9 themes on Galaxy S9 and S9+, please let us know them in the comment box below.
The community will help you find the answer.
For the user guide for new features of Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+, please check Galaxy S9 new features guides page.
For using Galaxy S9 and S9+, please check Galaxy S9 how-to guides page.
For using Galaxy S9 camera, please check Galaxy S9 camera guides page.
For accessories for Galaxy S9 and S9+, please check Galaxy S9 accessories guides page.
For the official Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ user guides (in PDF format), please check Galaxy S9 user guides page.
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This post was last modified on October 16, 2018 1:35 pm