Home screen customization

Greetings,

One of the multiple reasons for resisting the move to Android is aesthetic: The default home screen is, to this writer's eyes, plain ugly. The typography of the digital clock is especially atrocious; the forced placement of individual apps at the bottom and of a search bar at the top with that ostentatious Google logo are turn offs. On my bb10 there are no individual apps in your face, everything is organized into folders, etc.; out of the box or customized, the bb10 aesthetic is uncluttered and unmatched.

It may sound silly, but carrying around and looking at anything resembling that default screen setup is a non-starter.

That said, how customizable is the Android home screen? Can some of you share some screen shots of how far you've been able to customize things? Any way to remove the Google logo? Change the clock? Etc. Thanks in advance.

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Originally Posted by BBHermes

Greetings,

One of the multiple reasons for resisting the move to Android is aesthetic: The default home screen is, to this writer's eyes, plain ugly. The typography of the digital clock is especially atrocious; the forced placement of individual apps at the bottom and of a search bar at the top with that ostentatious Google logo are turn offs. On my bb10 there are no individual apps in your face, everything is organized into folders, etc.; out of the box or customized, the bb10 aesthetic is uncluttered and unmatched.

It may sound silly, but carrying around and looking at anything resembling that default screen setup is a non-starter.

That said, how customizable is the Android home screen? Can some of you share some screen shots of how far you've been able to customize things? Any way to remove the Google logo? Change the clock? Etc. Thanks in advance.

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I use Nova Launcher on my DTEK60. That along with widgets, if that is to your liking, can make your home screen look like damned near anything you like. Android is virtually limitlessly customizable if you are willing to spend the time and effort to do so.

You aren't limited to Nova. Many good launchers available.

You can do whatever you wish... Remove that search bar (I never used it or had it on my phones in my life for more than the 20 seconds it would take me to get rid of it), remove icons from the bottom,, remove the clock widget and replace it with any other you wish (and there's a lot in the Play Store), put a launcher which would change the whole look...
This is my current setup, nothing too interesting:
Attachment 422016

I used this launcher for a long time, it's great, but I find the simple BB launcher satisfactory atm:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...p.nextlauncher

Try doing a Google image search for "custom android home screen". You'll see that the possibilities are limitless. You can literally have as much or as little on your home screen as you'd like. You can download launchers that give the look and feel of your home screen the way you want it. You can download icons if you want to change how they look. You can download endless varieties of clock widgets if that bugs you. The Google search widget is removable (and customizable if you'd like).

The stock view that you see when you think of Android is just that...just a view. You can do with it whatever you'd like.

Thanks to everyone who replied. Questions: Can you change the font of that clock? Can you organize icons into folders?

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Originally Posted by BBHermes

Thanks to everyone who replied. Questions: Can you change the font of that clock? Can you organize icons into folders?

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There are countless watch widgets if you don't like the default one: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=watch%20widget

You can see I have two folders in my screenshot in my earlier post.

So, yes to both of your questions. You can't change the system font, if you're wondering... That would require rooting which you can't do on BB phones.

I must admit, though, that I don't quite see what the problem is with the font of that clock. :D But I guess it's a subjective matter.

Originally Posted by Mirko935

There are countless watch widgets if you don't like the default one: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=watch%20widget

You can see I have two folders in my screenshot in my earlier post.

So, yes to both of your questions. You can't change the system font, if you're wondering... That would require rooting which you can't do on BB phones.

I must admit, though, that I don't quite see what the problem is with the font of that clock. :D But I guess it's a subjective matter.

Thank you again. Didn't notice the folders the first time I looked at your screen shot... So this means I can organize the entire home screen into folders?

As for that font, yes, it is subjective. At the same time, I do professional typography and have become increasingly sensitive to these things.. The Slate font as integrated with BB10 is beautiful in comparison.

Can the geometric shapes at the bottom of the screen also be changed with custom widgets?

Thank you, Mirko935, and to everyone who replied. Still on the fence about Android, but the customization options will help make the transition palatable if it comes to that.

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Originally Posted by BBHermes

Thank you again. Didn't notice the folders the first time I looked at your screen shot... So this means I can organize the entire home screen into folders?

As for that font, yes, it is subjective. At the same time, I do professional typography and have become increasingly sensitive to these things.. The Slate font as integrated with BB10 is beautiful in comparison.

Can the geometric shapes at the bottom of the screen also be changed with custom widgets?

Thank you, Mirko935, and to everyone who replied. Still on the fence about Android, but the customization options will help make the transition palatable if it comes to that.

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NP. You can, yes, there are also launchers which don't have an app drawer at all so all your apps are on homescreens, there are ones that mimic Windows Phone's look if you're into that kind of things etc.

Of course... Well, as far as I'm concerned, as long as it isn't Comic Sans, I'm fine with whatever font the phone manufacturer wants me to use. :D

About the shapes... That's the navigation bar, Back, Home, and Recents buttons; unfortunately, you can't change them. There are apps like these for some slight changes, but if you'd want to change them into something else entirely, that would also require rooting.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ski.navbarapps
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ee.pixelnavbar
You're quite a difficult customer. ;)

Originally Posted by Mirko935

You're quite a difficult customer. ;)

BB10 spoiled me :D




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Originally Posted by Mirko935

NP. You can, yes, there are also launchers which don't have an app drawer at all so all your apps are on homescreens, there are ones that mimic Windows Phone's look if you're into that kind of things etc.

In that case, it's rather odd that neither BB nor any of its fans have developed a "launcher" that mimics BB10!


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Originally Posted by Mirko935

Of course... Well, as far as I'm concerned, as long as it isn't Comic Sans, I'm fine with whatever font the phone manufacturer wants me to use. :D

Comic Sans is evil :D

OTOH mobile os's should allow users more system font options as a matter of course..

Thanks again!

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Originally Posted by BBHermes

BB10 spoiled me :D




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I don't recall hardly any customization option in BB10....

Originally Posted by Centerman66

I don't recall hardly any customization option in BB10....

"BB10 spoiled me :D" is elliptical for "The excellent aesthetic of BB10 spoiled me."

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Originally Posted by BBHermes

In that case, it's rather odd that neither BB nor any of its fans have developed a "launcher" that mimics BB10!

My guess is that BB wanted to make it obvious that they're changing to Android, so that's why their launcher is pretty much the stock Android launcher. Even with all that, there are obviously tons of people that still don't understand that BB phones now run Android, so imagine what would have happened had they made a launcher that looks like it's a BB10 device.

Originally Posted by BBHermes

Comic Sans is evil

OTOH mobile os's should allow users more system font options as a matter of course..

Some manufacturers build that function in, I think Samsung, maybe HTC and a few others have (or had, at some point) a font chooser. I even had a cheap Chinese "no-name" phone that had it. Why is it not standard I really don't know, you have to ask Google about that. :D It's really a simple thing to implement and when rooted, you can just overwrite the default font file, restart and that's it.
I mean, obviously most people couldn't care less about it, but for some, such as yourself, it would be a nice thing to have. Btw, some launchers do have the option to choose another font, so at least there you can have the look you want. :)

Home screen customization is endless. There are many icon packs, zooper widgets, kwgt widgets.

Thank you, telepbs. And many thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread, especially Mirko935. This has been a great help.

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