Photo themes for Android

1. What are Photo themes?
2. How to design a theme
• Resizing and repositioning your photo
• Adjusting background brightness
• Toggling key borders
• Toggling symbols on keyboard
3. How to delete your theme
4. FAQs
• Permissions
• Backup & Sync
• Additional customisation options

 

1 - What are Photo themes?

We introduced Photo themes as we believe you should be able to express your style in more than just words.

The feature allows you to design your own keyboard theme by picking any of your photos as the background. Personalise your theme further by resizing the photo, choose background darkness, plus toggle key borders and symbols.

 

2 - Designing a Photo theme

Here we'll guide you through all of the steps necessary to design your own Photo theme(s):

 

• Tap the 'Themes' icon on your Toolbar
• Select the 'Custom' tab

Or

• Open your Microsoft SwiftKey app
• Tap 'Themes'
• Select the 'Custom' tab

Then

1. Tap 'Start' to design a new theme. 
2. Press the 'Add Image' button to choose photos from your camera roll or an alternative location. Your photos must be in either JPG or PNG format.

Next, we'll take you through the various adjustment options available. When you've finished, remember to hit 'Done' or your design will disappear.

 

Resize and reposition

You can:

• Pull focus to a particular area. Just pinch to zoom in and out of your photo.
• Drag your photo around within the boundary box to reposition it.

it's not possible to rotate your photo at present.

 

Adjust background brightness

The background brightness can be controlled by dragging the slider left and right. This setting determines how much of the photo is visible behind the keys. It defaults to 45%.

 

Toggle key borders

Choose between showing borders around your keys.

Toggle symbols on keyboard

You can specify whether you want your Photo theme to include symbols on the keys.

3 - How to delete Photo themes

Please note that once you delete a theme you won't be able to get it back. Instead you'll need to begin your design again from scratch.

To delete:

1. Long press on your theme to reveal the 'Delete' prompt
2. Tap on it to confirm

 You cannot delete a theme that's currently in use.

 

4 - FAQs

Permissions

Microsoft SwiftKey will ask for your permission to access your photos when you enter the Photo themes wizard for the first time. You'll need to confirm and accept in order to create your own.

For more information on our Privacy Policy please visit this link: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-gb/privacystatement

 

Do Photo themes work with Backup & Sync?

It is not currently possible to use Backup & Sync to save your Photo themes to your Microsoft SwiftKey Account. Therefore if you remove Microsoft SwiftKey from your device you'll lose any themes you previously created.

This also means that your themes cannot be transferred between Android and iOS devices.

 

Additional customisation options

There are differences between Photo themes on Android and iOS. The Microsoft SwiftKey team monitor all feedback closely and will make changes accordingly.