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Substratum developers launch Change.org petition
July 25, 2025
Yesterday, we revealed that theAndroid Pdevelopers preview launched at the beginning of the weekprevents the use of themes and overlays. This means popular theming appSubstratum(and its sister appAndromeda) will not work on Android P. Even withroot access, the future version of Android, as it is right now, will only allow overlays from the system itself.
Substratum is a popular app, with nearly a million users and over 500,000 installs from theGoogle Play Store. Since theCM Theme Engine is gone, Substratum is the app of choice for Android enthusiasts to customize the look of their devices.
WithGoogletaking away the ability for Substratum to function, users are getting pretty upset. In the Facebook comments ofour own article on the topic, some heated words were thrown around, with some users saying they willswitch to iOSif Substratum isn’t supported in Android.
We now have word from Substratum itself on the topic. As one would expect, the team is quite upset about Android P prohibiting its work.Christopher Kardas, the PR and Community Connections Manager for Substratum, says, “[Google blocking Substratum] changed everything for the hundreds of thousands of people that want to install custom themes from the Play Store without rooting their device. That means no more rootless Substratum. No more custom themes. It’s all gone.”
In response to Google, Substratum launcheda Change.org petition. As of this writing, it already has nearly 1,800 signatures, which isn’t bad for 24 hours. It certainly can’t hurt to let Google know how much theming Android means to the community.
If you feel inclined to do so, throw your signature onthe Change.org petition here. You can also let Google know how you feel by starringthe Google Issue Tracker here.
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