How to personalize android

9 Ways to Customize Your Android Device

How to customize your Android lock screen, wallpaper, apps, and more

There are many ways to make an Android smartphone or tablet your own, from transferring contacts and apps to installing widgets and downloading fun wallpaper. Once you dig in, you’ll be surprised at the ways that you can customize your Android device, even without rooting it. After you transfer your data, wipe the old phone and sell your old device or donate or repurpose it. Here are nine ways to make your Android device all about you.

The directions below should apply no matter who made your Android phone: Samsung, Google, Huawei, Xiaomi, or other manufacturers.

Need more help with your Android? Check out our list of helpful Android tips.

Transfer Your Contacts, Apps, and Other Data

When you get a new Android, transfer the data from a previous device by syncing with your Google account or by making a manual backup and restoring it to your new phone. If you have your old phone, this is a painless way to go. There are other apps you can use to back up data on one device and transfer that data to another device.

If you’re coming from iOS, you can transfer most of your data to an Android.

1. Download the Google Drive app on your iPhone.
2. Launch the app and sign in.
3. Go to Menu >Settings >Backup.
4. Tap Start Backup to choose what to back up or back up everything.
5. Sign in to your Android device using the same Google account.

Turn off iMessage on your iPhone to avoid issues with text messages getting to your new Android. Tap Settings > Messages and then turn off the iMessage toggle switch.

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How to personalize your Android smartphone

Don’t you like the background image preset on your smartphone? Do you want other app icons or a different user interface? All of this is easily possible with Android smartphones. Your smartphone can be completely personalized except for a few details.

Android wallpapers with and without animation

The first and most obvious change approach is the background image. Either you take a nice photo and select it in the gallery as a background or you download one of the many backgrounds to be found on the net. Alternatively, there are also animated live backgrounds . They cost you a few minutes of battery life, but give you vivid pictures on the home screen.

• Free wallpapers: The best smartphone wallpapers for Android

There are even live wallpapers with swimming fish. / © AndroidPIT

A completely new look with an alternative launcher

The next big hit in smartphone personalization is swapping out the launcher. The launcher is the area that you see after switching on the device or after pressing the home button. It manages your app selection and is the logistic center for all your app activities.

There are now countless different variants to choose from. From complex launchers with countless customization options to minimalist variants with special controls and gestures. Definitely try different launcher, because they can make it easier for you to use. Some smartphones are even a little faster with alternative launchers.

Some launcher turns your smartphone into an iPhone clone. / © AndroidPIT

New icon packs

Some alternative launcher allow you to set up and use icon packs. This puts an end to the annoying problem that the various icons on the homescreen and in the app drawer do not have a uniform appearance. Icon packs are therefore extremely important for ambitious changes to the user interface. The Play Store has free and paid ones. Here are some inspirations:

Some manufacturers such as Huawei, Honor or OnePlus have already integrated the option in their own operating system to select other icons for the start screen. Here there is even the option to make the entire surface look different with so-called themes.

New sounds for Android

Of course, your own ringtone should not be missing. With Android, switching to your favorite song or a downloaded sound is relatively easy:

• Copies an audio file ( list of compatible formats ) from the PC in ring tones, notifications or alarms .
• Then go to Settings> Sounds (alternatively: Sound and Notifications ) > Advanced and select the downloaded file as a ringtone or standard notification sound .

Your personal ringtone is ready. You can find more detailed instructions here:

• How to choose MP3s as ringtone

An attractive ringtone ensures less simplicity. / © AndroidPIT

Two of the most popular apps and good sources of free ringtones for your Android smartphone are:

Zedge is also available as an app and is financed through full-screen advertising videos. The app therefore preferably opens in the WLAN. In Zedge you also get wallpapers and icons.ZEDGE ™ ringtones, backgrounds, symbols

Improve handling: optimize notifications and lockscreen

Do you get a lot of emails, push messages and other notifications? Do you want your smartphone to be on the table but want to take a quick look at incoming messages? Naturally! Many manufacturers have now integrated always-on features or those with names such as At a Glance , inactivity display or ambient display .

Notific: Lockscreen notifications

If your smartphone does not offer this feature, the Notific app will help you. And this is how it works: Notific shows you incoming messages, even when the display is switched off. This immediately gives you a look at the message received. Of course you can filter which apps you want to be informed about.

Notific / © Screenshots: AndroidPIT

Start lock screen

The Start Lock Screen is a bit reminiscent of the popular Microsoft’s Next Lock Screen, which is set by Microsoft. The aim of the app is to provide you with as much information as possible via the lockscreen so that you don’t even have to unlock the phone. There is web search, various password locks, widgets, tools, news, weather, app shortcuts and more.

For hobbyists: adapt smartphones with and without root

A new launcher can be installed quickly, and a wallpaper can be set up just as quickly. You can already customize a lot with these means, but you still can’t get at some functions and design aspects of your smartphone. For example the notification bar. If you want to make adjustments here, you have to be willing to install more than just a simple app if the manufacturer does not voluntarily grant this option.

Substratum: The theme engine for Android

For smartphones with Android Oreo there is, for example, the theme engine Substratum, which you can install without root. But it takes several steps to set up substrate. Especially without root you have to face a multi-stage process. First you install the Theme Engine from the Play Store and the optional plugin, which ensures that Rootatum works without root – the latter costs a one-time fee of EUR 1.99.substratum theme engineandromeda ★ substratum stock rootless backend 8.0+ (Unreleased)

But that alone is not enough. You must now activate USB debugging in the developer settings and install the substratum client on your Windows PC, Mac or Linux computer. Now starts the substratum app. Connects smartphone and PC and follows the instructions on your smartphone. You have to repeat the activation of substratum via PC after each restart of your smartphone, which is either annoying or impractical. Root users have nothing to do with activation via PC.

Now you can start with substratum. But how! You can find themes in the Play Store and download them via the app. substratum makes it possible to adapt all aspects of the UI so that complete mods are possible. Would you prefer your smartphone to see black?Swift Black Substratum Theme + Oreo & Samsung theme

Or should your homescreen background shine through every app?Material Glass Substratum [Legacy]

There are now a lot of themes for substratum in the Play Store and you can be sure that hardly any other user has this design on their smartphone.

Xposed: Nothing works without root

Large changes to Android are possible with the help of Xposed. This framework requires root so that you can install it at all. So first root your Android smartphone . After rooting, you install a custom recovery and can then install modifications at the system level. And this also includes the Xposed framework. We will present this to you together with a handful of other root apps in a separate article.

Most modules only change small aspects of the Android interface. Occasionally they only close functional gaps or even fix bugs . In the case of GravityBox, however, it goes much further and allows you to completely rebuild your surface. The module is only recommended if you have an Android that is close to the floor; Samsung Experience or Huawei EMUI are likely to crash with GravityBox.

Custom ROM

The complete firmware (also called ROM ) can be replaced on some devices . Third-party providers are often dedicated hobby programmers who either developed their own ROM close to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code or who compiled and tested LineageOS for your smartphone. If they are mentioned as a release in this list, they are considered stable and are a useful replacement for the pre-installed firmware. We have prepared a custom ROM type consultation in a separate article.

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Best Android apps for personalizing and customizing your phone

One of the advantages of owning an Android phone is that it is customizable. You may have the same phone as other people but you may have different launchers, SMS apps, ringtones, and so on. Advanced Android developers tend to customize their phones by making their own custom ROM. They enhance existing software, add some apps, tweak its performance, and provide an edge that stock ROMs fails to offer.

You might like: Best Android Launchers

But, for a newbie Android phone user, you won’t need to study developer stuff and take note of confusing developer jargon just to customize your Android phone. You can easily customize your phone by installing apps from the Google Play Store. There is a vast selection of apps that allow you to customize your smartphone. Below are some of the best Android apps that allow you to customize and personalize your Android phone.

ADW.Launcher

Each Android phone has its own skin. You may be using the simple Samsung TouchWiz or the rich and vibrant colors of HTC Sense. If you want to try out a new Android skin on your phone, you can do so by installing launchers such as ADW.Launcher on your mobile phone.

This launcher looks like the pure Gingerbread skin. There is also a dock below where you can access your call logs, app drawer, and browser. You can always adjust the number of docks and customize the shortcuts sitting on them. The launcher also includes options that will allow you to customize your home screen. You can hide the notification bar on top to widen your home screen, adjust the columns and rows, adjust scrolling speed, customize screen transition, and much more.

Aside from adjusting the home screen, you can also customize your phone’s app drawers. What I liked best is the option to change the background color of your app drawer and adjust its transparency. I also liked the the feature that allows you to scroll the app drawer vertically or horizontally. The launcher can also support landscape orientation.

You can use the ADW.Launcher to enjoy the features that you cannot find with your phone’s stock Android skin. To fully customize the launcher, you can also download and install themes. What’s more is that you can enjoy this launcher absolutely free from the Google Play Store.

Customize your Android phone’s skin with the ADW.Launcher.

Launcher 7

One of the advantages of owning an Android phone is that it can be customized to the point that you can transform your Android phone into another phone. The Launcher 7 app brings the Windows Phone 7 skin to your Android phone. If you want to try something new on your Android phone, try Launcher 7 from the Google Play Store.

Launching the app for the first time will require you to identify an app for a specific tile. You will be required to identify an app for the phone, messages, contacts, browser, video player, app market, and music tiles. Once you have selected the apps, you will be directed to your Windows 7 home screen. The main home screen consists of tiles. Tapping a tile will bring you to the app you have associated with it. To access your app drawer, tap the arrow icon at the upper-right portion of the screen.

You can also customize the launcher by going to the settings menu. There you can change the animations, add your personal background, change your status bar into a Windows 7 stock status bar, and much more. You can also swipe the settings menu left and right to view more options. You will also be amazed at the magazine-like interface of the launcher’s settings menu.

To fully enjoy this launcher, I suggest downloading the paid version. The free version lets you use the launcher with ads, which you most likely will find annoying.

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