Not specific to this phone, but figured I'd post here as the G Pro appears to be my next phone (and my first android device). So, I have no experience to rely upon for answers.
I'm familiar with iPhones and jailbreaking them and unlocking, but I'm a total newbie with everything Android! I'm curious as to how much an aftermarket launcher takes over your phone. For example, with an jailbroken iPhone, if I was tired of having the default 16 apps on a screen, I could install Iconoclasm or something similar and it would allow me to change the amount of apps on the screen to pretty much any amount I wanted. Iconoclasm would only change that one parameter and not mess with anything else.
When you install a new launcher, can you have it just change one small thing, or do they change a whole host of items all at once? Basically is it an all or nothing change, or can you have it change one and only one thing if that's what you desire?
If I understand correctly, TouchWiz, Sense and Optimus are launchers (or user interfaces) that are placed on top of plain android. If I were to install a new launcher, would that get rid of the built-in features of Optimus such as the Quick Button and Q-Slide, or would those Optimus features that the hardware/software needs still remain?
I'm just trying to figure out...if I wanted to customize some items, would it screw up some of the others that I want to remain factory stock.
TouchWiz, Sense, Blur or any of the other manufacturer skins are integrated into the whole experience of the Android OS. Some manufacturers integrate their changes much more deeply than otheres. In my opinion, LG was lighter on the tweaks than many of the others. Installing a launcher will generally change your home screen and application drawer, but does not change other manufacturer integrations. For example, installing another launcher will not change how the system settings menu is displayed in anyway. The launchers will allow you to change the animations from screen to screen, how many columns and rows you have on your home screens or app drawers, etc. (depending on which launcher you decided to use as they all have slightly different options as far as what you can tweak).
The best part about it though is that if you install it and don't like it, uninstall it and try another. I would just recommend trying out their free versions to figure out what you like before you decide to go and buy the premium versions.
andygold said:
Not specific to this phone, but figured I'd post here as the G Pro appears to be my next phone (and my first android device). So, I have no experience to rely upon for answers.
I'm familiar with iPhones and jailbreaking them and unlocking, but I'm a total newbie with everything Android! I'm curious as to how much an aftermarket launcher takes over your phone. For example, with an jailbroken iPhone, if I was tired of having the default 16 apps on a screen, I could install Iconoclasm or something similar and it would allow me to change the amount of apps on the screen to pretty much any amount I wanted. Iconoclasm would only change that one parameter and not mess with anything else.
When you install a new launcher, can you have it just change one small thing, or do they change a whole host of items all at once? Basically is it an all or nothing change, or can you have it change one and only one thing if that's what you desire?
If I understand correctly, TouchWiz, Sense and Optimus are launchers (or user interfaces) that are placed on top of plain android. If I were to install a new launcher, would that get rid of the built-in features of Optimus such as the Quick Button and Q-Slide, or would those Optimus features that the hardware/software needs still remain?
I'm just trying to figure out...if I wanted to customize some items, would it screw up some of the others that I want to remain factory stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
trying new and different launchers won't screw anything up. you also have factory reset to fall back on.
I'm currently using Nova Prime, and all of the built-in apps (like QuickMemo) work just fine. Remember that when you install a new Launcher, your old one doesn't go anywhere, so you can switch back and forth.
Try Nova, Apex and a few others, then buy the paid version of the one you like.
Sent from my LG Optimus G Pro using XDA-Premium
Im currently using ADW EX. Works like a charm. Just like nova you can spend hours setting it up to your like and chose over thousands of themes. The sky is the limit on android.
Sent from my LG-E980 using xda app-developers app
Related
I ran a few searches and while there are some topics on other sub-forums just thought I'd ask here. Is there a general aversion to using this app?
I've used it on all the ROM's I've flashed and have found that it is more efficient than a stock launcher. It most often runs smoother as well especially the app drawer.
I know there are many who use it here, but overall rosie's get the win on XDA hance all the rosie/Sense mods.
Is it because it is not an open source launcher? Is it the aesthetics? Is there such a thing as "Android Purists"?
What say you!
I love it but won't use it because i love my sense widgets too much and it acts funny.with widget locker
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App
Been using it since almost Day 1. I change backgrounds and clocks fairly often. Wouldn't use anything else.
You lose all the sense widgets. And in the new sense roms which have been ported to the inc, there are great new ones - so on the new sense roms I can't afford to use launcher unless they have equivalent widgets.
I use launcher pro on cm6.1 which is an aosp rom. There it is the better option because I don't have any possibility of getting the sense widgets anyways...
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Thanks for the replies so far! I use one widget (smooth calender) and forgot about all the sense widgets folks like to use.
I use launcher pro as well. I think its a great home replacement. Gives great options in settings to change almost everything. I currently just have it set to give me 3 home screens and that is it. I don't need any more than that currently.
I replaced the Sense widgets with beautiful widgets and extended controls. I also love launcher pro's ability to make custom shortcuts that can take you directly a page in the setting menus that may be 2 to 3 pages in. Saves a lot of time as I currently have one set directly to the development page. Have to turn that thing on to use PDAnet.(The 3g hotspot just doesn't work for me very well as it drops my laptop every 10 minutes and then it cannot join it again till I restart the hotspot on the phone.)
Additional Info:
I never really liked senses giant phone button at the bottom of the screen all the time. With launcher Pro I can make the dock look like stock android. Once I made the switch I never went back
boomertwo said:
I use launcher pro as well. I think its a great home replacement. Gives great options in settings to change almost everything. I currently just have it set to give me 3 home screens and that is it. I don't need any more than that currently.
I replaced the Sense widgets with beautiful widgets and extended controls. I also love launcher pro's ability to make custom shortcuts that can take you directly a page in the setting menus that may be 2 to 3 pages in. Saves a lot of time as I currently have one set directly to the development page. Have to turn that thing on to use PDAnet.(The 3g hotspot just doesn't work for me very well as it drops my laptop every 10 minutes and then it cannot join it again till I restart the hotspot on the phone.)
Additional Info:
I never really liked senses giant phone button at the bottom of the screen all the time. With launcher Pro I can make the dock look like stock android. Once I made the switch I never went back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Launcher Pro is great, and Launcher Pro Plus is worth every bit of $2.99. It's one of the only apps I've paid for and it has all of the sense widgets; including multiple bookmark and calendar widgets for example. In addition, having the ability to resize any widget to your liking I find makes it that much more attractive. Like you also said the shortcut option basically eliminates the need for apps like Bettercut. And of course the obvious options to change docks and icons make it a fun alternative for people.
Good stuff I've always like LP as well and got the + version as soon as it went live. A lot of proponents so far!
I think i remember seeing something that the dev of Launcher Pro asked that it not be cooked into custom roms
Therev29 said:
I think i remember seeing something that the dev of Launcher Pro asked that it not be cooked into custom roms
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the stock launcher isn't used, they cook ADW or launcher 2 into ROMs. But you always have the option of installing LP and even removing the launcher you had previously
Hi all,
Is it possible to get the Home page screens to rotate and things like the diallers etc? Although auto rotate is on, lot of things like this don't rotate. I'm using a pretty much stock Orange ROM.
I know on my old windows HTC Touch Diamond phone there was an additional app that allowed me to override these home screen settings, thus forcing most screens to rotate.
This is very useful when you use the phone as a sat nav device that is mounted in landscape. Of course, when you bring up the contact list to navigate to, or the phone rings, everything goes to the wrong - well back to normal - but difficult to see unless you tilt your head which is not a good idea when driving!
Many thanks for any help
AFAIK, you have to replace the Rosie Launcher apk, and this is only available if you are using a custom HD/Z port ROM.
Ahh, bugger. If there was an Orange ROM out there I would do this, but with no way back to a stock image on a relatively new works phone, I simply can't justify it yet. What a shame this can't be added to a normal ROM.
There is another way! If you are not determined to stick with sense, use Launcher Pro. See what you think. No rooting or flashing required. Just download from marketplace.
It has the option to rotate the home screens. Personally I also think it is also smoother and has more customizing options than sense.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA Premium App
Cheers for that. Now we open a full Pandora's box. I didn't realise quite how the widgets are integrated with the launcher. I loose many of the sense widgets that i use to frequently such as currently appointment due, coming agenda, fully calendar email notification (not gmail but exchange, really miss this one), power bar etc.
I assume a lot of these could be added a separate downloads. I juts now have to start figureing out what they would be.
Lol. Sorry, should have made that clearer. There are plenty of choices for replacing the HTC widgets. The paid version of launcher pro has a tidy calendar, but if you are looking for free alternatives, I've found that the 'post your screen shots' thread in the 'themes and apps' section is a good way of seeing what other people are using...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=665991
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA Premium App
I would post this in the ROM thread but since this is my first post I can't, but I'm using the LiquidSmooth 4.0.4 Rom and was wondering if there was any way to keep the stock look without changing anything but add more pages to my home screens.
Thanks,
Matt
download "nova launcher or apex launcher"
So installing those launchers won't affect the way my home screens look or make my phone look less "stock"? I like how clean the ROM I currently have looks and want to keep everything the same more or less, just add more pages.
LampeMW said:
So installing those launchers won't affect the way my home screens look or make my phone look less "stock"? I like how clean the ROM I currently have looks and want to keep everything the same more or less, just add more pages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both Nova and Apex are based off the stock launcher, and so don't change the look/feel of your phone greatly, but also both have plenty of customisation options so that you can make your home screen march to the beat of your tune.
I've got Nova Prime with one homescreen, dock turned off, additional page in the app drawer for most used apps (as well as hiding apps that I don't use), and have swipe gestures to open the drawer/access other features.
Apex and Nova have free versions in the Play Store that you can try, and if you don't like them, just un-install. The beauty of Android.
P.S. Some of the customisations I've made are only available in the paid version of Nova.
Nova launcher is just the stock launcher with enhancements, one being the ability to add more home screens. Highly recommended.
delete home pages
hi i'm marley, i know that this is the wrong thread but, i couldn't find any solution to my "problem", well i just did a pre-order on the nexus 7 because i'm switching from my iPhone, and unlikely iOS we don't have the home page, just the menu instead, and all i wanted to know is if it's possible to disable all the pages in the jelly bean, leaving the home screen alone, by that i mean disable like from the code, so nobody can turn them on again.
For the last two years I have been using ADW Launcher. When it came out at the end of 2010 I paid for ADW_EX. It has been great for me. I have tried to use the TouchWiz on the S3 but there have been two main things that kept me from using it regularly. One was fixed (by an answer in another forum).
The one that was fixed was the ability to have shortcuts to individual files on my home screen. In ADW I was able to create a shortcut with Astro File Manager. For some reason Astro does not have a way to do this with TouchWiz. Then someone pointed out that a long press on a file in ES File Manager would create a shortcut. I use a lot of individual files and that feature was great.
Now the last deal breaker for me is the lack of a 5x5 icon grid. Again, in ADW you can have a choice of icon numbers both horizontally and vertically. While 6 or 7 is too much, I like the choice. 4x4 with that gigantic screen indicator is useless. I use a couple of big widgets on my main screen and there is no room left for the important icons.
Now for the question. Is there any way to create a 5x5 icon grid on stock unrooted touchwiz?
From my point of view, Samsung is copying Apple by limiting the choices and configurability. If we could choose our icons and how they act, it would be a lot less like Apple. Personally, when I try an Apple device, I get frustrated because of the lack of control I have. I don't like someone else making my choices. One last part of my rant: I recently tried Windows 8 on a laptop. It looks like everyone is trying to copy Apple.
All this is because the motion scrolling features and eyeball sensor are TouchWiz only. I would like to move my phone to move icons around. I would like to keep the screen on time short to save battery but still be able to have it stay on when I am reading a long web page.
I'm pretty sure all the TW features stick around even if you use a different launcher. I know smart stay and tap to top work on Nova and those are the only ones I use.
Edit: all the motion features still work on other launchers. I just went through them all. Liberate yourself. I use Nova.
Alternatively, if you are rooted you can find a modded stock launcher. Or even flash a more heavily modded rom. This is where Android shines anyway. Not because of what the manufacturers allow, but what open source allows!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
dkmdlb said:
I'm pretty sure all the TW features stick around even if you use a different launcher. I know smart stay and tap to top work on Nova and those are the only ones I use.
Edit: all the motion features still work on other launchers. I just went through them all. Liberate yourself. I use Nova.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use nova also with the motion featres
Sent from my SGH-T999 or GT-P3113 using xda premium
If i do not root the telephone, can I use personalized widgets and themes?
Sorry for the quite trivial question but I do not have Samsung experience
trocchietto said:
If i do not root the telephone, can I use personalized widgets and themes?
Sorry for the quite trivial question but I do not have Samsung experience
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If partner. goes through my web
www.eladiosthemes.com
Enviado desde mi SM-G935F mediante Tapatalk
trocchietto said:
If i do not root the telephone, can I use personalized widgets and themes?
Sorry for the quite trivial question but I do not have Samsung experience
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely! That's the great thing about Android. You can even choose to go with something completely different than Samsung's launcher. There's lots of different launchers that support themes. Nova and Apex are two popular options. Themes are also available for Samsung.
Sent from my SM-N930P using Tapatalk
1. Launcher and theme as mention above.
2. Ads free by Adguard on Play Store.
3. Disable almost apps anf module you want by EZ Disable Package or Package Disable Pro
4. Change dpi by Content Scaling or some commands through adb
Sent from my SM-N930F
I prefer not to root or tinker with my primary business phone because I don't want to have something not work as intended and miss a call or appointment.
The level of customization you can do with launchers and themes these days is almost on par with what you can achieve with a rooted device.
In addition to themes you can also download and install custom icon packs to customize the look of all of your icons.
For widgets you can get something like the Beautiful Widgets app that lets you customize various widgets for the device. It is very popular for people who like the HTC type clock widget look on their home screens.
Just do some searches on the play store for themes, icon packs, widgets, keyboards, etc and there are enough customization options to make your head spin.
For Home screens / App drawer / Folder, any Launcher will do. My all time fav, and most reliable recommendation is easily Nova Launcher.
- Nova lets you customize the font size, label colours, icon sizes, icon packs, homescreen grid, app drawer grid, homescreen gestures and so much more.
For custom button remapping, Button Remapper works perfectly without root. It will let you set custom actions for your physical buttons (swap the recent/back if you wish, or add hold functionality)
- The app is a bit limited without root in regards to added functionality, but its something!
- I believe the non-rooted version also allows you to map volume keys to add Music skip / pause functionality. (Correct me if im wrong!)
For global app / service disabling, definitely use Package Disabler Pro. It has a built in list of (currently) 97 apps considered unneeded, and gives you full control of every app.
- This has been proven to save battery btw!
For added Toggles in the Notification panel (not QuickPanel) there are hundreds of working apps that add their own little notification bar, fully interactive, that shows up as a notification card.
- It may seem a bit redundant considering Samsung's built in QuickPanel does mostly everything, but for a few things that may be missing (ie. Hotspot, Mobile Data, or specific functions like opening apps, setting gps/data to specific modes etc).
For ad blocking, you can use AdGuard. I havent personally tried this app, but it is highly recommended by most users in this forum.
For button backlight disabling / modding, you can use Button Backlight 2.
- It allows you to turn off button backlight completely, add a custom time, or have them on all the time
Android is so vastly open, even without root, if you ever feel like you are missing a certain function / feature, theres a very high chance that a solution would have been made long ago.
It never hurts to google what you wish to do. When I first got my Note 5 for example, the first phone with button backlights, I wanted to turn them off completely as well as swap the layout of them from recents home back, to back home recents. A few minutes later and I found myself using the two apps mentioned above, and a happy camper!
well it looks like I am really grateful to samsung to give me the possibilities under the hood. My dev friends scared me in every way saying that touch wiz is bloatware, that people think is really taking the control of the system, instead I found it effective, and most important of all I am happy samsung is not taking coltan from congolese mines.
I am also really grateful to you.
which tutorial do you recommend me to customize my themes? if there is an app, Gui super, otherwise I am also an android developer, so do not mind also to write some java/xml. Also i guess there is some design involved, which software should i use photoshop or gimp? Last but not least, as I use to test my apps, installing a lot of themes will decrease the perform, or the fact that is run one per time will not affect performance? thank you guys. Customization is everything for me, as bosters creativity and make the day more exciting
EDIT: I am wondering if downloading themes is safe in terms of malicious code.