Material You’s wallpaper-based theming system launched with Android 12. The theming system creates color palettes based on the dominant color scheme of your wallpaper and applies them to Quick Settings tiles, lockscreen, Settings, pop-ups, and apps.  The theming engine itself is code-named “monet.” Google actually manages to do a pretty decent job at assessing your wallpaper and picking dominant and accent colors for its palette. But if you don't like the colors that Google takes from your favorite wallpaper for theming your phone, though, it's possible to customize Android 12's monet colors without root, thanks to the LWP+ app on the Google Play Store.

Customize Android 12's monet colors without root

  • Tap "wallpaper type", select your preference (I use "cropped image")
  • Crop your image to your liking
  • Scroll down to "Custom colors"
  • Enable "use custom colors" and choose your primary, secondary, and tertiary colors
  • Scroll back up, and tap "set as current live wallpaper"
  • Go to your home screen

The LWP+ app (developed by XDA Senior Member AndroidDeveloperLB) was developed for Android 8.1 Oreo initially and it could be used to force system-wide dark mode. Since then, users have rediscovered that it works with Android 12's Material You, and I tested it out on my Google Pixel 6 Pro.

You can see from the above screenshots that the color accent on my launcher is different the first time than the second time, while still maintaining the same wallpaper. LWP+ works by setting a live wallpaper that hosts a static or animated image within it, and it then provides a primary, secondary, and tertiary color to the system. Every time you change your colors, you'll need to tap "set as current live wallpaper" again, but they'll persist as long as you leave LWP+ as your wallpaper.

Google's monet theming engine has been rife with issues, and many would have wished for this functionality to be built into the system. Sometimes I want to use a particular wallpaper, but Material You might choose colors from it that I don't want across my entire phone. This is an easy way to get around that problem and can make your phone even more personal to you.