Theming your phone can be a complicated but deeply rewarding project. Even with in-depth instructions and a tutorial video, a frequent response to some of the incredible themes assembled by our own Ara Wagoner is asking why there isn't a one-button solution that applies the theme automatically. Last year we started to see that exact feature roll out in various forms from Samsung, HTC, LG, and Cyanogen. Each system presented their own unique set of problems, but Samsung's has shown the most growth and improvement from the early days. Here's what you need to know about Samsung themes on the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge.

At first glance, Samsung's theme system doesn't appear to have changed much. All of the buttons are in the same place, which means you can access themes from the home screen or the settings panel, and once you're there you can set a launcher icon if you really want it. The UI for the theme engine itself is still designed to let you browse and install anything published to the store by Samsung's partners, with a smaller section for themes you've already downloaded should you be the kind of person who wants a selection of themes to quickly switch to. There's still no search button, but there are way more curated collections to search through and a new color-based theme browser if you know what aesthetic you're going for from the beginning. Verizon is offering the Pixel 4a for just $10/mo on new Unlimited lines The most significant change you'll see at first is the volume of themes, and how different they are from what was available on the Galaxy S6 a year ago. Last year there was an overwhelming amount of sponsored themes from Samsung's partners to get people interested in the store, but it's clear that is neither necessary nor a priority anymore. Gone are the Avengers themes from Samsung's partnership with Marvel, and instead there are pages and pages of hand-drawn wallpapers and custom icon packs to match them. There's still plenty of fairly tacky themes, in fact the top installed themes according to the store are metallic gold and silver offerings, but the sheer volume of options is impressive. You'll even find a couple of "Material Design" themes, though like last year they're not exactly what you'd think by the descriptions.