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How to turn your Galaxy S4 into an S5 with these awesome features

AndroidPIT Samsung galaxy s4 s5 comparison crop
© nextpit

All the tools you need to transform your Galaxy S4 into a Galaxy S5 are already available. In this tutorial we'll show you how to get the Quick Settings, notifications shade, settings menu (in both round icon and list view), Download Booster, wallpapers, icons and the Galaxy S5 apps from the latest version of KitKat. Just as soon as Lollipop features from the S5 start becoming available on the S4, we'll bring you those as well. 

AndroidPIT Samsung galaxy s4 s5 comparison crop
With a little bit of work you can set your S4 up like an S5. © ANDROIDPIT

What you need

You'll need a rooted Galaxy S4 and a few file downloads we'll move onto in a minute. You'll also need a root explorer like ES File Explorer or Total Commander.

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Notification shade and Quick Settings

All you need to do for this is go into your root explorer of choice, and head into the root folder, hit System and scroll down to build.prop and open that up. You'll see a ton of information about your device. All you need to do is locate the ro.product.name and ro.product.device entries and change them to SM-N900S. Save your changes and reboot.

You'll now have the new icons in the notifications shade and your Quick Settings will look like those on the S5. If you have issues with LTE after this change, try changing the two entries to ro.product.name=hlteskt and ro.product.device=hlteskt

AndroidPIT S4 S5 Build Prop
In your file manager, find the build.prop file and rename your device to SM-N900S / © NextPit
AndroidPIT S4 S5 Quick Settings
Now your Galaxy S4 will have the same new icons as those found on the Galaxy S5. / © NextPit

Galaxy S5 apps

These were leaked forever ago on XDA Developers forum so all you need to do is head over there and grab the APKs for the apps you want. Because you're rooted just delete the previous bloatware versions that you want to replace and grab the new ones you want, then install them as you would any other APK. Of course, you need to have ''Unknown Sources'' enabled in your Security settings first.

Galaxy S5 wallpapers and icons

The Galaxy S5 wallpapers you can grab with a quick and easy app install from the Play Store. There's also a decent-looking Solo theme that'll also get you the Galaxy S5 flat icons.

AndroidPIT S4 S5 Themes
You can get the Galaxy S5 wallpaper and theme with flat icons. / © NextPit/Stock Wallpapers/Chocolate Pie

Settings menu with list view

All you need to do to get your Settings menu looking like those on the Galaxy S5 is to grab an APK and replace an existing root file with the new one. So head on over to this XDA Developers thread and grab the APK, then open your root explorer and copy that APK into the System/priv-app folder.

Once you've done this you need to rename the APK to something easy like SecSettings2.apk and change its permissions to look like those in the screenshot. Then you can simply remove (but don't delete) the original SecSettings.apk and SecSettings.odex (if you're odexed) and then reboot.

AndroidPIT S4 S5 Priv App 1
Drop the APK into the System/priv-app folder and rename it like the existing SecSettings.apk / © NextPit
AndroidPIT S4 5 Priv App 2
Set the new APK's permissions (left) and remove the original SecSettings.apk (and odex) / © NextPit
AndroidPIT S4 S5 Root Permissions
If you have any issues, make sure you have these permissions set up for root access in your file manager. / © NextPit

You'll now have two settings icons in your app drawer. One will take you to your old Settings menu and the other to the Galaxy S5-style menu. Some settings will crash, like the fingerprint scanner module for obvious reasons, but you'll have access to Download Booster and other cool features.

If you don't like the big round icons just tap the menu button (left button next to Home button) and switch to List View. Now, if you don't see List view you can jump to another XDA thread where you'll find a separate APK for the Note 3 that resolves the missing List View on the S4 as well.

Just repeat the same process above with the new APK and you'll be golden. The new Settings menu is a little unstable and some users are reporting some force closes or crashes but it's still pretty cool.

AndroidPIT S4 S5 Settings 1
After rebooting, you'll have the Galaxy S5-style settings menu. / © NextPit
AndroidPIT S4 S5 Settings 2
If you don't like the large icons you can switch to List View. / © NextPit
AndroidPIT S4 S5 Settings 3
Download Booster (left) and the two Settings menu icons. / © NextPit

Have you set up your Galaxy S4 to look like an S5? With these changes on board is there now no reason at all to upgrade?

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Go to comment (116)
Kris Carlon

Kris Carlon
Senior Editor

Kris is a former AndroidPIT Editor who came to the team via a lengthy period spent traveling and relying on technology to keep him in touch with the outside world. He can usually be found juggling three phones at once and poring over G+ posts, Reddit and RSS feeds.

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116 comments
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  • 27
    Sorin Apr 8, 2018 Link to comment

    With a white marker you make 5 of... 4!


  • Brevin Ratliff 2
    Brevin Ratliff Jul 1, 2016 Link to comment

    Bypass Samsung's Fingerprint Lock without Losing Data
    youtube.com/watch?v=I9cTwSO4vhk

    Allen Kayla


  • Ivo Graca 12
    Ivo Graca Mar 23, 2016 Link to comment

    Where they get the code to modify ?


  • 1
    Mignon Rossouw Aug 18, 2015 Link to comment

    Please help!! Build.prob won't save. What do I do?


    • Youssef A. 17
      Youssef A. Dec 27, 2015 Link to comment

      U need to be rooted


  • Junaid Q. 17
    Junaid Q. Jan 28, 2015 Link to comment

    Thank this worked for me ☺☺


  • Lee 16
    Lee Jan 28, 2015 Link to comment

    lol how can I add the fingerprint sensor to the S4 home button and the heart rate monitor located underneath the S5 camera 😂 oh yeah just buy a S5 or a Note4


    • 1
      Derek Preston Apr 27, 2015 Link to comment

      Heart rate monitor apps were avail before Samsung acted like they created it..it worked on my s2 when I had one..FYI :-)


  • 1
    Bob F Jan 28, 2015 Link to comment

    One thing you can't do is make the screen about 1000% brighter and crisper. No going back.


  • 1
    CDD Sep 22, 2014 Link to comment

    Has anyone successfully converted the AT&T i337 NC1 running 4.4.2?


  • 1
    Pedro Gaona Sep 8, 2014 Link to comment

    It worked, but kept crashing. I tried to revert back to the original settings app, but it keeps saying parsing error. Is there a way to regain the stock app, or am I doomed to be without a settings menu any longer?


  • 2
    Leonardo Assaf Aug 1, 2014 Link to comment


  • 2
    Leonardo Assaf Aug 1, 2014 Link to comment

    There would be the possibility of making this process in S4 4.4.4? The phoenix custom Rom v9 is the best option, but it is giving error in installation. I believe the error is caused by the process downgrade, as is the custom 4.4.2. Thank's


  • 1
    João Neto Jul 30, 2014 Link to comment

    Got a big problem here. After editing build.prop and trying to restart my phone, it soft-bricked. Black screen of death right after Samsung logo. It's been a week now and nothings helps. I can't flash a custom rom from sdcard because, even though my phone is rooted, I didn't have CWM as stock recovery. Tried using stock recovery, but "Signature verification failed." Tried using adb to correct the build.prop lines, but adb pull won't work. In a nutshell, I'm desperate. Can anyone save me here?


    • 1
      Ray Agudio Mar 12, 2015 Link to comment

      I did the Same thing man... If you still have your phone.. go to Google and search something like.. Samsung galaxy s4 stock firmware (model number here).. download the firmware.. (you'll get an md5 file that you'll have to run in odin)if you dont know about odin.. email me. If youve been versed in it just for good measure go to your reboot screen and wipe the cache.. turn it off. Then put it in download mode and run the file off odin.. it may take about a minute to get past the boot screen.. but as long as you got the correct file.. It will tell you that it's updating.. rayagudio@gmail.com


  • 1
    Eloy Acuña Jer Jul 10, 2014 Link to comment

    Notification shade and Quick Settings, Works fine on my s4 active i9295..thanks!!


  • 2
    theo Jul 4, 2014 Link to comment

    Plz after downloading the apk for the s5 settings, the message I get is " there was error parsing the file or something. Can you plz help me with a proper apk. Thanks


    • Kris Carlon 35
      Kris Carlon Jul 7, 2014 Link to comment

      Hi @theo, a parsing error usually means that the API level of the APK is different to the API of your device's version of Android. You'd be better off just reading the XDA thread (as that's all I'd be doing!) and looking for anyone with the same issue.


  • 2
    Shane Roberts Jun 23, 2014 Link to comment

    Works on tmobile s4 but removes network mode option for LTE changed the build prop back and the option reappears


    • 1
      Nec Le Oct 23, 2014 Link to comment

      For those having trouble with missing lte option after editing build.prop, you might wanna use the real ro.product.name or ro.product.device of the phone model your actually imitating.

      Say, you want to use Note's.. instead of using SM-N900S, you have to use its actual ro.product.name/device...

      Therefore, your edits should go like this:

      ro.product.name=hlteskt
      ro.product.device=hlteskt

      Reboot your device after appying the changes. That should fix you problem.

      Mine? I used the S5 (SM-G900I) with the following info:

      ro.product.name=kltedev
      ro.product.device=klte

      Everything works great!

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