So as promised, I've gathered together some pointers and thoughts on making your android really YOUR android. So let's go ahead with your Daily 120 (seconds).
When I first got my android phone, I played around with backgrounds, animated backgrounds, and putting icons all over the place. While that was neat, it really was just slightly better than the defaults you can do with an iPhone. I had heard android was much much more customizable, so I dove into learning about it. (NOTE: All my tips are root-free, you can do them all without affecting your warranty or hacking your phone)
First thing I learned is that you can change what's called your launcher. This is the part of the phone OS that shows icons, manages screen transitions, and things like that. Early in the process I learned that I didn't like having a grid making my icons all line up, so I searched around. There were a couple gridless launchers, but I opted to go with Lightning Launcher, which you can get for free on the Play Store. This launcher lets you zoom in and out, set up screens up, down, left, and right of each other, use ADW icons, and for me the most important part, use gridless positioning. Down side is it doesn't have much in the way of screen transitions other then "slides over".
My first attempt at making a "pretty" home screen on my phone ended up like this:
I liked it, but it still seemed too plain. I wanted pizzaz, style, uniqueness, so I made this one:
Yeah yeah, I just changed the pic and added the weather and battery. Really I made this one because I thought the first was a little pixelated. At this point though I realized I was just turning a clock and putting icons away neatly. I wanted to push the envelope, hard. So with a little work, I made this one and I think to date it's one of my favorites:
So take out of this the fact that you need to find a launcher you like that customizes the way you want, and keep that as the baseline for any new home screen customizations, and we'll go over other things like nice widgets next!
NOTE: A Launcher switching program, like Home Switcher, makes finding a launcher you like really easy, just install a few, then hop back and forth and see which features you like best.
While the home screens looks nice, what do they do for you? How do they help you use your phone?
ReplyDeleteDo you use more than 1 screen? Why should I or shouldn't I do that?
Home screen customizations can just be pretty, or they can be purely functional, or both. I was trying to make things more minimalistic, so I could really focus on what I needed, andnote the things I needed that weren't there, which is why, as you notice, through the three versions a few more buttons cropped in each time.
ReplyDeleteMy current screen though is covered with widgets and only a couple icons, but it's got an upcoming calendar and weather and time/date, and how many emails/texts I've got waiting. Honestly now more often than not I grab my phone, turn it on, look at it, and turn it off.
THAT is what I love about home screen customization. It lets you choose what you want/need and put it there.
P.S. I am trying to not use more than one screen anymore, I will, however, use folders. (which lightning launcher lets you put widgets into)