How to Make Galaxy S6 Look Like Stock Android

This guide will show users a few easy steps, apps and downloads they can use to make their Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge look and feel like a stock Android device, similar to a Nexus 5 or Nexus 6 running pure Android 5.1. Lollipop.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are excellent smartphones running Google’s latest Android Lollipop, but they’re heavily customized and look very different from the stock Android you’d see on a Moto X or Google’s Nexus smartphones. This is because of Samsung’s TouchWiz “user experience” layer. However, we can easily remove most traces of Samsung software and give the device a clean stock Android look.

While there are tons of options or fancy features and plenty of customization that make TouchWiz great, not to mention that the Galaxy S6 is the most toned down version of Samsung software ever, many users still want the original Android Lollipop look. Thanks to a few apps in the Play Store and Samsung’s new Theme Engine, we can quickly turn the Galaxy S6 into a stock Android-like device.

What we’re going to show you below are a few easy ways to make the Galaxy S6 look and feel like a stock Android device running Google’s beautiful Android 5.0 Lollipop software with a material design interface.

Of course, owners can always hack and modify the Galaxy S6 to look much different than it does out of the box. This can be achieved by rooting the phone (Jailbreak version of Android) and flashing custom software or ROMs, themes, icon packs and more. However, this is very technical and voids the warranty among other things, so we’re going to take a much easier approach that’s as easy as anyone can do.

Google Assistant Launcher

Launchers or “home screen replacement apps” are nothing new in the Android world and are one of the many ways to change the look and feel of a device. The NOVA launcher is a popular highly customized option that gives a stock Android look to any device, but we’ll be using Google’s own Now Launcher that works on all Nexus smartphones and tablets.

Most smartphone owners spend most of their time on the home screen, in the app tray, or inside apps like the browser. This means that replacing the home screen and app tray with a launcher is the easiest way to change the look and feel of a phone.

Above is how my Galaxy S6 looks and feels with the Google Now Launcher available in the Google Play Store. It has the stock Android look, changes the icons a bit and even lets me swipe from left to right and go to Google Assistant. The folders look like stock Android and the app tray looks just like it would on a Nexus device.

Installing the Google Now Launcher also places a persistent Google Search widget at the top of all home screens and returns easy “OK, Google” custom word functionality to instantly open apps, search the web, request weather updates, and more. . Google search.

This is one of the first and easiest ways to give the impression that you are running stock Android on the Galaxy S6 or Galaxy S6 Edge. It’s not very customizable, but it’s extremely fast, looks clean and works like a charm. Now Launcher does not support 3rd party icons, so the following theme does not change the icons in Now Launcher to stock Android. To make it look like 100% stock, users need to download NOVA and use the stock icons with the following theme.

Themes

The next step that owners will want to do is to change the theme on the Galaxy S6. It was big news when Samsung announced its new phone, but the overall implementation of the “Theme Store” was extremely disappointing. Samsung has promised users an easy way to switch from TouchWiz to an entirely new look and feel, but the theme options have been lame so far, to say the least.

To launch the Samsung Theme Store, go to Settings > Personal > Themes and browse through the few options available.

Themes allow users to change the entire look and feel of every aspect of the phone, but until this week Samsung’s Theme store was full of scary, cheesy, colorful and cartoony-looking themes.

A brand new theme you see above actually debuted It’s on the Samsung Theme Store today, June 25th. This material theme changes the entire look and feel of the Galaxy S6 to reflect stock Android and even uses Google’s own icon packs. The icons, the entire settings menu, the notification pop-up bar, and even the quick settings all look more like stock Android.

This is the best theme we’ve seen for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. So good that Samsung is officially letting it be in the Theme Store. It’s a free download for anyone interested and works like a charm. It takes a few seconds to apply and your phone’s notification bar, settings, dialer app and more will look like pure Android.

Few other XDA Developers created The beautiful stock Android 5.1 Lollipop was inspired by the “Material Theme” designs for Galaxy S6 and should finally be more and more available on the theme store. Both light and dark Material Theme are reportedly making their way to the theme store, but they are yet to be released. Once they do, we’ll be sure to update with more details, screenshots and download links.

Download Stock Apps

Another option, thanks to the power of Android, is to replace all the stock apps with Google’s own options. Things like the Internet browser can be replaced by Google Chrome, Google Keyboard, Google Camera (Samsung’s Camera app is more powerful), and even the Google Calendar or Clock app. Personally, I only use Chrome, Photos, Keyboard and the old Android 4.4 Calendar.

Almost everything comes pre-installed. Like YouTube, Google Maps, and a few other popular apps made by Google that can be used with stock Android.

While this isn’t enough to completely remove Samsung’s entire TouchWiz interface, it’s a pretty good start, plus it gives stock Android for the things you use the most.

Hide Samsung Apps

Last but certainly not least, users can hide and disable almost all Samsung apps that come pre-installed on the Galaxy S6 and cannot be uninstalled. The same goes for any carrier bloatware apps that most owners never use. Things like Galaxy Apps, Samsung Milk Music, AT&T apps, Verizon Navigator, Sprint ID Zone, T-Mobile TV and much more.

These cannot be removed, but they can be disabled in settings. This avoids running and wasting battery and removes them from the app tray. It gives you a cleaner looking device with less Samsung or carrier material and more stock Android look and feel.

Go to Settings > Device > Apps > Application Manager > tap the app you want to hide and select “Disable”. You’ll get a warning, so only disable things you know can be disabled or things you never use, that’s all.

Apps made by Samsung and all those carrier apps that are useless for some users will be disabled and hidden from the app tray.

Combining Google Now Launcher with a Material Design theme, then clearing some of these Samsung and carrier apps will give you a very smooth, fast, stable and stock Android looking Galaxy S6. This may sound like a lot, but it can all be done in about 10 minutes. This route is much easier and safer than flashing special software available on the Internet.

Owners can always root the Galaxy S6 and try some custom firmware or ROM, but the steps above are the ones we recommend. Give them a try today, then check out these 65 Galaxy S6 Tips and Tricks.