How to personalize your Android phone with themes, launchers, and more!

What's in a theme?

There are many types of themes within Android, but the kinds we're going to refer to throughout this article are home screen themes or launcher themes. A theme is the visual styling of your home screen, achieved through the choice and use of launchers, wallpapers, widgets, icon packs, sounds, and other elements.
When many users think of themes, they imagine complex elements and high-maintenance setups. For most of us, though, a theme does not mean changing the way your phone is set up, only how that setup looks.
Even if you're not interested in making your home screen look pretty, there are some other uses for launcher themes and customization that you may be interested in:

• Hiding apps: Most launchers have the option of hiding an app from the app drawer, but for apps that you want easily accessible but away from prying eyes, many launchers also allow you to rename apps and give them icons less likely to draw the eye. Or make them invisible altogether.
• Transferring themes and setups: Your mother just got a new phone, but she wants everything where it was on her old one. Well, with theme backups, you can make all her Android devices look like her old one.
• Efficiency: The less time you spend fumbling around your app drawer looking for the app you need, the quicker you can get back to doing something with your life besides staring at your phone. Some launchers will re-order your apps based on how frequently you use them, and through the use of your launcher's folders, you can cut down on the clutter, both in your app drawer and on your home screen.
• Choice: Don't like the way your app drawer is alphabetized? Don't like only having a 5x5 grid on your home screen and not being able to resize your widgets? A third-party launcher can let you choose just about everything about your launcher experience.

Launchers and how to use them

All phones come with a launcher, which is the interface through which users interact with their phone's apps and customize their home screens. Samsung phones come with the "Samsung Experience" launcher, HTC phones come with Sense Home, LG simply calls its launcher the Home launcher, and Pixel phones use the Pixel Launcher, and so on.
Both Samsung Themes and Sense allow custom system themes, with theme galleries for users to select from, themes that reach the notification shade and system apps like Settings and the dialer. Even if you're looking into getting a third-party launcher, if your phone has these themes, you might want to browse through them.
If you're ready to jump into the wonderful world of third-party launchers, there's a lot out there to choose from, but here are three launchers that should help you get your feet wet.

• Nova Launcher is one of the most popular launchers on the market. While being highly customizable, it's still a launcher that is easy for most beginners to ease into. Nova is also has a free version for you to cut your teeth on before you invest in Nova Prime.
• Evie Launcher is a cunningly simple launcher with quick reaction time and blissful freedom in its features. Capitalizing on recent launcher trends in gestures and layouts, Evie feels cutting edge without feeling like a beta product, giving users a clean and stable launcher that's quick as a whip.
• Smart Launcher 5 is a launcher that aims to be as smart as it is beautiful, combining some elegant theming prowess with a smartly-sorted categorical app drawer. This launcher is quick to setup, quick to customize, and it's worth a look if you don't want to take much time to get your launcher set the way you want it.

If you're looking for more launchers to try, see our favorite launchers!

Wallpapers: the most basic and pivotal personalization

No matter what launcher you use, you need something to put up behind your widgets and apps. Wallpapers come from all corners of the internet and beyond. If you're not using a picture of your kids or your dog or that lovely little cabin up in Denver that you're going to own as soon as you win the lottery, you may want to consider replacing the wallpaper that came on your phone with pictures from one of these sources:

• Muzei: If you're looking for beautiful wallpapers that will rotate out on a regular basis, Muzei and its many, many extensions are here for you. Muzei is a live wallpaper, meaning it's a program rather than a single static image. Muzei will pull pictures from one or more gallery sources and set a new one as your wallpaper every few hours, even every few minutes if you want.
• Android Central's Wallpaper Weekly roundups: We've gathered wallpapers for a wide variety of styles and topics for your wallpaper pleasure. From holiday wallpapers to puppies and dragons and landscapes of all kinds, we've got at least one wallpaper here you're bound to love.
• Zedge: Zedge is kind of like the Walmart of wallpapers, ringtones, and other theme elements. Zedge hosts tens of thousands of wallpapers for you to download and apply, from dozens of categories.
• DeviantArt: If you're looking for some more artistic fare for your wall? Go to the venue tens of millions of artists use to share their art with the world. DeviantArt has it all, from nouveau tableaus to digital renderings to classic paintings.
• Icon Packs: If you intend to use an icon pack, many packs come with wallpapers to compliment the icons they've worked so hard on.

Read more: How to find the best wallpapers for Android

Widgets: the forgotten home screen element

Widgets are miniature apps that run on your homescreen. There are several types of widgets, from toggle widgets to control your Hue Lights to forecast widgets for your local weather to playback widgets to control your music. Most of your apps probably came with some sort of widget, and there are third party widgets you can download if you don't like those.
Widgets can serve as shortcuts into apps, or better yet into specific functions of an app. The Google Keep widget lets me access my most recent notes or start a new one without keeping the icon in my dock. The Netflix widget can take me to the next episode of my current shows. My weather widget can take me to current conditions or one of my forecasts, depending on what I click.