After calling UI designers to work with them on themes for the Galaxy S6 and the S6 edge, Samsung has revealed more details about its Theme Service on its official blog for developers.
Samsung says the Theme Service is a combination of three things – the device framework for theme customization, a theme editor, and a global store where these themes will be listed. These themes will only be compatible with the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge, and other upcoming devices. Chinese variants of the Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy A5, Galaxy A7, Galaxy G7200 and the Galaxy S5 (after the Lollipop update) will also be supported.
According to Samsung, the new theme editor is an easy to use tool, and doesn't require any prior experience in software development. It supports drag-and-drop functionality, and then developers can instantly preview key screens to check how their theme would look when it is applied to a device. The tool also provides information about the size of images and suggests developers to use optimised files to make themes lighter and more efficient. The final APK file of the completely developed theme can be uploaded to the Theme Store directly from the tool for free or with a certain fee.
The new theme editor supports modification of the following things:
- 1. Lock screen
- 2. Home screen background
- 3. Application icons
- 4. Notification pop-ups
- 5. Backgrounds and elements for 14 pre-installed basic applications – Phone, Contacts, Messages, Email, Music, Video, Calculator, Alarm/Clock, S Planner, Smart Manager, Settings, Memo, My files, and Voice recorder
- 6. Sounds – screen touch sound, dial keypad tone, keyboard sound, hardware key sound, and cancel button sound.
- 7. Fonts – number font and clock font
Note: Sounds for ringtone, alarm, and notification will be supported in the future.
Samsung has also explained the process to interested parties in order to participate in the development and distribution of themes. With support for more devices coming in, it looks like a good opportunity for designers and developers to make themes for supported Galaxy devices.
