Samsung will only allow the use of free themes for 14 days starting from Android 9 Pie update.

Samsung is moving towards a controversial change that impacts customers who like to personalize their Galaxy smartphones with third-party themes. The company has begun to send a notification to users who warn from Android 9 Pie, that Samsung plans to launch in January, allowing the use of free themes only during 14 days. After that, the phone will automatically return to Samsung's stock theme. The edge confirmed the first-hand notification, after Droid Life and SamMobile reported on it.

Users will receive two pop-up notifications before their free theme is removed. the first will be posted 24 hours before the expiry of the 14 days. The second will strike 10 minutes before the cut. Samsung says it will offer "suggested themes with notifications to help you change themes easily." Presumably, these suggestions will relate to higher paying themes; Samsung gets a share of these transactions on its Galaxy Store, while the company does nothing from free themes.

Samsung's reasoning for this change is questionable, to say the least. "We ask for your understanding, as we have changed the policy to help our designers continue to create high quality products and provide you with stable and satisfying services."

For the latest generations of Galaxy phones, the themes have been a way to change and customize the look of the devices and move away from the company's Touchwiz style. (Some of these free themes have allowed users to adopt a pixel-like theme, for example.)

Last week, Samsung unveiled a redesign of its software design called One UI. The new visual style is designed to facilitate the use of large smartphones. A user interface will debut alongside the Android Pie update, which coincides when this new restriction takes effect. Limiting arbitrarily free themes is certainly a way to keep users of One UI; the number of people who pay for a custom smartphone theme must be quite small.

But there are still unknowns about this policy. Once a free theme expires, is it permanently unavailable from that moment? Or can anyone just reapply and restart the 14-day stopwatch? Do those who publish free themes have a say? If stability is the concern, why not look at the themes with greater thoroughness or simply eliminate the free themes altogether? Temporarily allowing them does not make much sense. We asked Samsung for clarification on what is happening here and, hopefully, for a better explanation.