This week, Samsung rolled out a new update to one of its popular Good Lock modules, Theme Park. The update introduced features like the emboss effect, theme bookmarking, and monochrome icons. I first tried the emboss effect, and it worked flawlessly. It gave all my app icons a 3D depth effect that genuinely looked amazing on my home screen.
After a while, when I opened X (formerly Twitter), my entire feed was filled with Galaxy users showing off their new home screen setups with monochrome icons paired with the emboss effect. All of them looked absolutely insane, and I had to try it out right away. You can see some of my favorite home screen setups that I picked from X.
However, the hype suddenly flattened as soon as I noticed the real issue with Samsung’s new monochrome icon style, something not many social media users were talking about. After creating a new icon pack with a circular shape, emboss effect, and monochrome icons, I applied the icon pack.
At first glance, my home screen looked exactly as I expected. But as soon as I opened the app drawer, it was a total disappointment. Some apps adopted a monochrome look, while others barely changed, making the entire setup feel unfinished. For me, the inconsistency in app design was impossible to ignore. In the end, I had to stick with just the emboss effect.
I found a workaround
An X user (@smasithick) shared a workaround that can somewhat make app icons look more consistent on your Galaxy phone. It’s not perfect, and you will also have to ditch the emboss effect.
Anyway, here’s how it works: go to the Effects page, under the Basic section, select an icon color that matches your monochrome color, and save the icon pack. Here’s what the final result looks like.
Why are icons inconsistent?
The primary reason for the inconsistency is that each app developer needs to create and include a dedicated monochromatic icon asset for dynamic theming to work properly. Many third-party app developers have not done this yet.
That said, starting with Android 16 QPR2, Google is introducing Auto-themed icons, which use algorithms to forcefully theme all icons even if the developer has not provided a specific asset. It’s possible that Samsung could implement a similar approach in One UI in the future to make monochrome icons consistent across the system. Fingers crossed.
