App: Themer
By: MyColorScreen
Platform: Android
Price: FREE
Category: Personalisation
“I feel pretty / oh so pretty / I feel pretty and witty and bright!” That is what your phone will be singing when you download the Themer app. Themer allows you to change your homescreen theme at the tap of a touchscreen. We have looked at the best fan themes Themer has to offer but how does the app fair when put through the paces of a everyday Android user? Armed with a Samsung Galaxy S3 supporting Android version 4.1.2 (Themer needs 4.1 and up to work its magic), Geekybit test whether Themer is as easy to use as MyColorScreen claims.
Life begins on Themer by entering a code – try MSTRCD – to become a not so exclusive user of Themer Beta. You are welcomed with Themer’s intentions for your phone, “Themer lets you transform your homescreen, making it more beautiful, functional, and personal.” – lovely.
After signing in with an account (Gmail most likely), start browsing through the said “beautiful themes”. A lot of tastes are catered for here with designs that are sci-fi, simple, fan, elegant, retro, iOS look-a-like, Windows look-a-like, notepad-like, natural, and sporty. All the windows of each theme can be viewed by selecting the theme and swiping right. Once happy with a theme to grace your screen, select ‘Apply’ and the theme downloads and applies within seconds. This makes alternating between themes quick and easy too.
MyColorScreen says you can dramatically transform, “the look and feel of your Android phone effortlessly.” The theme is pretty much ready to go as soon as it is applied. Your app preferences, for example your primary email address, can be altered so when the, say, email symbol is selected in any theme it will always take you to your primary email inbox. However, this is where Themer doesn’t make things so easy. What if you want to quickly access more than one email inbox off your homescreen or more than one messaging app like Whatsapp and Facebook Chat? Sure, every app is still accessed in the apps draw but that is two taps and swipes too many for an inpatient Android user.
There is a way around this. In true Android style, widgets and apps can be added to the homesceen. Plus, Themer has added more widgets to choose from. But this turns a once stunning theme into a bomb site of apps and widgets. As the screenshot shows, there are bugs with the widgets not quite fitting. Although you can resize widgets, the same cannot be done with apps leaving them too small on this particular theme Diagonal Tiles.
The same problem of ruining a theme comes when changing the wallpaper. What makes some of the function buttons look so sharp is actually the wallpaper design sitting behind the button. The screenshots below show what happened when changing the background to a dog who is one with the scatter cushions. Rather than one smooth continuous image to scroll through several windows, you set one image per window. Getting the image to run smoothly yourself is a bit fiddly. With time and effort, there is room to customise themes. But that is not what this app really is about.
Customising a theme too much ruins the theme, which shows Themer’s themes were not designed to be messed with.
After more than a week of Themer testing, changing themes and admiring their design became the app’s main use. Good job one of its many effortless functions is returning to the original homescreen, which will be just as you left it by clicking Menu > Settings > Themer > Restore Old Homescreen. This is where the mix match of apps and widgets look the best.
Verdict
3 out of 5
MyColorScreen set out to make homescreens pretty. With that it succeeds. Although the tools are there for further customisation, designs will lose their aesthetic appeal thus leaving your smartphone with a limited function homescreen.
Geekybit 