Install Substratum Themes on the Samsung Galaxy S9

The Substratum theme engine has evolved over the years and is now able to install themes on Oreo devices without needing root access. This feature continues to work on the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+ as long as we install the Andromeda add-on app as well.

The Substratum theme engine has brought a lot of happy news to Samsung smartphone owners ever since they released their Sungstratum add-on application. This allowed you to install a theme on your Samsung device by actually installing a themed version of the application on top of your current one. This was nice for a while but has been outdone by the newer Andromeda method thanks to Samsung devices being updated to Android 8.0 Oreo.

We still don’t need root access but we’re switching from using Sungstratum to Andromeda.

This come with some positives and negatives. Andromeda is a paid add-on application that you need to purchase in the Play Store. When using Andromeda you will also need to download a desktop client to your computer since the service needs some permissions entered manually. You could actually type these commands in manually with ADB tools if you want, but the batch script makes things much, much easier. The positive change here though is that not only can we theme individual applications (which is what Sungstratum was limited to), but we can also theme the Android system itself.

This is all done without root access too and this guide will walk you through the entire process.

Install Substratum Themes on the Galaxy S9 Tutorial

1. Connect the Galaxy S9 to the PC with a USB cable
2. Install the Substratum application on the Galaxy S9
3. Install the Andromeda application on the Galaxy S9
4. Download and extract the Andromeda desktop client to your PC
5. Download a Substratum theme on the Galaxy S9 that supports Samsung devices
6. Open the Substratum application
7. Grant permissions and bypass any text boxes
8. Tap the Settings button at the bottom right
9. Scroll down and disable the Sungstromeda Mode
10. Wait for Substratum to close and open again
11. Tap the Check Status button at the new splash screen
12. Double click the Start_Andromeda BAT script file on the PC
13. Press any key to continue as instructed
14. Wait for the Connection Status message on the Galaxy S9 to switch from Red to Green
15. Now go back into the Substratum application and pick a theme you want to start with
16. Tap the drop down menu in the middle of the screen and choose the Samsung option
17. Scroll through the list of overlays the theme supports
18. Then tap the checkbox to the right of the overlay you want to install
19. Tap the FAB button in the bottom right of the screen
20. Choose the Build & Enable option
21. Wait for the overlay to be installed
22. Then reboot the Galaxy S9 or Galaxy S9+
23. You should then see your application has been theme and/or your overlay has been installed

Explanation

As with most of the in-depth tutorials I write here about Android, you will notice that this guide has a lot of steps involved but that most of them are actually part of the setup process. Not only that, but I pride myself in being able to break down each of the required steps in a way that makes the overall tutorial easy to follow. You also have the ability to watch and follow along with me for this entire process thanks to the embedded video above. This way you know when something has been done right and what step is coming up next.

So to start, we need to set up things like ADB and Fastboot tools, install the Substratum and Andromeda applications, download and extract the Andromeda desktop client from the developers over on XDA, and then grab a Substratum theme from the Play Store that supports Oreo and Samsung devices. With that done, we can then proceed with the real steps of this guide and that starts with opening up the Substratum application and granting the proper storage permission access.

You’ll also want to bypass any text boxes that appear so we can dive into the Settings area of the Substratum application. Here you will see an option called Sunstromeda Mode that should be enabled by default but we want to make sure this is disabled. Upon disabling, you will see the application close and then open back up and into the proper mode (Andromeda Mode). When in Andromeda mode you will see the initial Substratum screen blurred out and you’ll want to tap the Check Status button here.

This will show you a red status message and this is where you need to double click the Start Andromeda batch script file from the Andromeda desktop client. It will start ADB, grant the required permissions and that will make the red status message turn green. Now we are given full access to the Substratum application and the themes we have installed. In the demo video I show how it works when theming the Settings application and how you will need to reboot the Galaxy S9 before the application is actually themed. This is thanks to a recent change that was implemented in an Android security update (so you won’t actually need to worry about this if you’re on an old version of the Android 8.0 Oreo firmware).

Be careful with what overlays you install and make sure the themes you download support Samsung devices.