Samsung is planning on introducing a rather bizarre change to its policies with regard to the Theme Store on its phones starting with the Android Pie upgrade. Free themes installed via the Theme Store will now be automatically reverted back to Samsung's default after 14 days of use.
The company claims the move, which is almost certainly not going to sit well with its customers, is designed to ensure that the makers of themes for its phone software are properly paid. The company's solution to achieving this aim is to basically force all themes to be paid if a user is planning on using it for a long period of time. Otherwise, after the 14-day period, the free theme will be reverted, and the user will be unable to install it again.
The move is certainly a strange one, as it may force theme designers who wish to provide their content for free to have to make their themes paid just to make it possible for Samsung phone owners to use them for more than 2 weeks. On the other hand, these changes will, of course, increase theme downloads on Samsung's store, not to mention that the company will likely also rake in more revenue from the sales of more paid themes.
A day and ten minutes before the theme is removed, Samsung will provide users with a notification of the impending change, and also provide suggestions for other themes they may install instead. Thankfully, the Android Pie upgrade will be at least a few months away for most Samsung phones so users will be able to enjoy free themes to their heart's content for a while longer.
The Android Pie update will not be all doom and gloom for Samsung customers, though. Alongside the various new features and optimisations the latest version of Android is slated to bring, Samsung will also be introducing a refreshed UI skin dubbed One UI with the update.
Source: PhoneArena
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