Themer will make your Android phone look amazing

One of the benefits of Android is its customisability, but that process isn't always easy for average users. An app called Themer is trying to change all that.

Themer allows users to switch between different homescreens with one click, browsing through a user-generated database of themes to find the one that best suits their needs. What's impressive, however, is the level of quality on offer.

Many Android themes aren't too elegant, particularly those included by default on many handsets. Themer, however, manages to surface the best with a voting system, allowing its members to favourite themes they particularly like. The result is that the most innovative, interesting and intelligent rise to the top.

What's particularly clever is how Themer deals with the wide range of apps used by Android users. Instead of including icons for Pandora, Spotify, Google Play Music and so on, theme-creators instead just include a music icon. The first time you press that, it'll ask you which of the music apps installed you'd like to use. From then on, whichever theme you install will open that app.

It's not perfect. Some of the included functionality -- the RSS reader in particular -- is basic and unfriendly. Some of the widgets, weather for example, don't let you pick your preferred app to use. Plus, many of the default app shortcuts are highly tailored to the United States.

But that doesn't detract from the fact that Themer makes it exceptionally easy to make your phone both attractive and  functional, leveraging Android's greatest strength - its openness. If you don't like what it does, it's simple to restore your previous homescreen from before you installed it.

Right now Themer is in private beta, and while you're free to download the app you'll need to request a code to make it work. Happily those codes, at the time of writing, don't take too long to arrive, and you can check your place in the queue by entering your email address into the app at any time.
Grab Themer from the Android Play Store, and give it a try