One of the most popular uses of Apktool, a tool which allows you to decompile Android applications so you can make modifications, is to modify the Android framework-res.apk. This app, called the Android Framework, is responsible for providing much of the assets, colors, images, and configuration values on your device. For instance, you can modify framework-res to enable or disable round icon support. Making modifications to framework-res has required a bit of effort until PrivSet came along. PrivSet, made by XDA Senior Member sir mordred, is a useful root app for changing Android framework values without needing to use Apktool.

It works by redirecting Android to draw resource values from an overlay it creates for the framework-res.apk. If you're familiar with Substratum, PrivSet works in the same way as it's based on an overlay using RRO (for Android Marshmallow and Nougat) and OMS (Android Oreo). Thus, there's no need to directly modify the framework-res at all as the values are read from the overlay and not from the original framework-res.apk.

It enables users to change many Android framework values related to settings dealing with four-way rotation, forcing rounded corners for all apps, changing what the phone does when users double press the power button, and more. Users have to restart their device after applying changes. They can also choose to reset all their changes and start over. It should be noted that PrivSet allows the user to generate overlays for changing only those framework values which are actually present in the device's framework-res.apk. It does this by reading the system properties of the user's device.

When we previously covered this app, it didn't have support for Android Oreo. Now, it has been updated with support for Android 8.0 and Android 8.1 Oreo. It's worth noting that PrivSet doesn't have a rootless mode for Android Oreo yet. According to the developer, it's a work-in-progress, and it's something that should come in future updates.