Free themes are going away?

[StephaneM60]

Warning : there may be a translation issue. I'm french and the notification in French is not exactly the same.

To be perfectly clear, the title of the notification and the content are stating two different things...

From the title : it says that it's the "free period" that is changing. And for me it concerns the paid theme : you are able to download and test them today for a few minutes, so it could possibly mean that now you'll ba able to install them and test them for 14 days.

But in the body it does state the "free themes" : so it means that indeed the free themes will be only applied for 14 days, but then nowheres it says that you have to pay the free themes (only that you will be presented with options)

So IMO we'll have to wait to see what's really happening...

 

[anon(3641385)]

I'm wondering if samsung's own free default themes fit into the category of being removed after 14 days.

 

[anon(3641385)]

Warning : there may be a translation issue. I'm french and the notification in French is not exactly the same.

To be perfectly clear, the title of the notification and the content are stating two different things...

From the title : it says that it's the "free period" that is changing. And for me it concerns the paid theme : you are able to download and test them today for a few minutes, so it could possibly mean that now you'll ba able to install them and test them for 14 days.

But in the body it does state the "free themes" : so it means that indeed the free themes will be only applied for 14 days, but then nowheres it says that you have to pay the free themes (only that you will be presented with options)

So IMO we'll have to wait to see what's really happening...

Yes, I see your point. Though reading the last paragraph I consider that Samsung is saying that the free theme will be removed after 14 days, and not just that the trial period is 14 days.

 

[gendo667]

I can't believe some people around here threaten to jump ship to another OEM over something as stupid as the loss of free themes.

What doesn't matter to you may be significant to others.

 

[BlackZeppelin]

What doesn't matter to you may be significant to others.

I can think a ton of reasons to jump OEM ship. But loss of free themes?

I do say this using a free one myself. But you know, I'll fork out a dollar or two to keep this one if I have to. Only because I spent heaps of time finding this particular one. Not necessarily because it's free, just because I liked it and it wasn't resource heavy.

 

[gendo667]

I can think a ton of reasons to jump OEM ship. But loss of free themes?

I do say this using a free one myself. But you know, I'll fork out a dollar or two to keep this one if I have to. Only because I spent heaps of time finding this particular one. Not necessarily because it's free, just because I liked it and it wasn't resource heavy.

We're already paying a steep markup on these phones. I've been able (for free) to change my nav buttons since the Oreo beta last year. I think it's reasonable to be a little irritated if it's no longer a free option.

I'll admit to overreacting a little yesterday. And I even came back and said, nowhere in the statement did it say we would have to pay for free themes.

Also, I know NavStar is coming to Good Lock, but from what I've seen a lot of those options look silly. But I haven't been able to check it out for myself.

 

[BlackZeppelin]

We're already paying a steep markup on these phones. I've been able (for free) to change my nav buttons since the Oreo beta last year. I think it's reasonable to be a little irritated if it's no longer a free option.

I'll admit to overreacting a little yesterday. And I even came back and said, nowhere in the statement did it say we would have to pay for free themes.

Also, I know NavStar is coming to Good Lock, but from what I've seen a lot of those options look silly. But I haven't been able to check it out for myself.

I've just played around with navstar myself and it's really cool. For e.g., I used to have the softkey edge panel because I don't like having to press the power button always to turn the screen off. That is the only reason I had softkey. Now with navstar, I have an off button on my far left next to my recents key.

Awesome. And on my far right next to my back button is a screen capture key.

 

[justafew]

It also doesn't state you can't reuse the same theme? I wonder if you can apply a new theme and then reapply the free one you had previously for another 14 days? Would be an inconvenience, but only every two weeks. Personally I paid for a Cameron Bunch theme a long time ago and have stuck with it so this doesn't impact me.

 

[frederickdawg]

Which theme do you use that is currently free that you think will be affected?

My comment was in jest, hence the JK letters at the end and the smilies. I currently use a black wallpaper and a Samsung dark icon pack. No themes used.

 

[freddyttt]

buzz launcher has themes that are 100 times better!

and free...

 

[gendo667]

buzz launcher has themes that are 100 times better!

and free...

Launcher themes are not the same. We're talking system wide. Settings, dialer app. Things of that nature.

 

[Velenoso]

Big %*&# that themes will not longer be free I never use them or touchwiz, I just screenshot pix and use them a wall paper instead of a theme and use free icons.

Samsung is on this path of user pay the biggest problem with that is, most of their software and alike blows.

S9+

 

[gendo667]

Big %*&# that themes will not longer be free I never use them or touchwiz, I just screenshot pix and use them a wall paper instead of a theme and use free icons.

You should read the entire thread. Nobody's discussing wallpaper or icon packs. System wide themes. That's the concern.

 

[gregg6942]

I'm using free and paid items from the theme store, not sure which is which, but guess I'll be finding out, LoL

 

[BlackZeppelin]

Lol, now I'm paranoid. I just downloaded a couple of free themes. Kind of stock piling up. Samsung will have to take these away from my dead, cold hands. That'll show em.












Or it'll just disappear with Android P.

 

[pizza_pablo]

This seems bogus to me.
Didn't "TouchWiz" die a while back and now they call it Samsung Experience and with Android 9 it will be called One UI or such?
Why would Samsung use the term touchwiz?

 

[pool_shark]

The problem I have with forcing people to pay for themes is that I've purchased many themes, but after OS upgrades some of them are no longer available, which means my money has been wasted on themes I can no longer use.

That's why i stopped buying themes.

 

[ladiinay]

So is that the themes only or the icons too? Because my theme is paid for I believe but some of the icon packs I use are not.

 

[StephaneM60]

@pool_shark yeah it happened to me too, but I thought it was because I upgraded my phone that I lost the themes.

So it's even worse if a simple OS update does remove a paid theme... I don't know how many I lost, but for sure the one I liked the most is no more on my phone, neither on the theme store (and I can't remember the name of the creator... great !)

 

[wbogacz]

I think Themes are an abomination. If you need to cover up the default look or actions of your device to make it pretty or useful, and then charge on top of the original outrageous price the device came with, you're doing it WRONG.