topic Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone in Off-Topic

Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Chris_K — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 21:13:19 GMT

Hey guys,

As some of you know I'm a big Android fan, and one of the reasons is because of the customisation and personlisation options it gives me. Just because your phone comes with pre-set icons, widgets and layouts doesn't mean it needs to stay that way. Time to break the chains and make your device your own!

Note: Although I'll focus primarily on Android, I'm sure there will be similar ways to bling your iOS / Blackberry / Windows Phone device - i'll leave that to you guys, feel free to use this same thread.

Launchers
A launcher for Android is basically the front of a shop display. Your Android device probably came with a built-in one in the form of TouchWiz (Samsung), Sense (HTC), Xperia Home (Sony) etc. While some of these do the job, 3rd party ones can offer a tonne more options to get your home screen looking just how you want it!

Some 3rd party launchers: Nova, Apex, Go Launcher, Buzz

Icons
Bored of your icon designs? It's so easy to change them on Android and you'll find literally thousands of icon packs on the Google Play store. Many are free, and most paid ones (generally a bit more work goes into them and usually from an experienced designer) are under £1. If you've downloaded a pack of icons on your computer, copy them to your phone and you can usually change the icons manually with most 3rd party launchers.

Widgets
Widgets can really bring your homescreen alive - not only visually, but functionally too. There's widgets to display weather, times & dates, calendar entries, new emails. And if you're the creative type, start making your own widgets with the likes of Zooper, UCCW, Minimalistic Text etc.

To give you some idea and perhaps maybe even some inspiration, here's my home screen right now:

- I like a minimal style, for most of my wallpaper to be unobstructed, and yet still offer some functionality. The 'replacement status bar' is actually a widget I built from scratch in Zooper... It's very easy to use, no coding knowledge is needed, and there's tonnes of tutorials out there to help you get started.

So, lets see your homescreens... Let's share tips/tricks on getting the most and how to personalise and customise your phone to its fullest!

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

version7point0 — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 11:19:50 GMT

Nothing fancy with mine, I prefer a minimal look.

Nova launcher pro
MiUI icons
Hidden status bar
Sony clock widget
Own wallpaper
Swipe up gesture for app drawer
Double tap screen for app search
Swipe down for notification access

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Cleoriff — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 11:32:47 GMT

Hi @version7point0 I also prefer a minimal look. I hope you don't mind me saying that your wallpaper, though glorious. is very very 'busy'. I think it's very much down to personal choice (and eyesight)

This is my homescreen...clear as day. if I swipe across I get the same picture with the date, time and location...

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 14:12:11 GMT

My iphone is on the charger at the moment, but the images it uses are from the Addams Family movies. And I have the sent and received text message tone set to that from the PC game "Life is Strange"

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

jonsie — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 15:30:58 GMT

Want to rename or change the icon....? A great tool here...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sika524.android.quickshortcut&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dquickshortcutmaker&pcampaignid=APPU_1_CExHVtDXBtKSuAS0t5rwBQ

My current home screen, very basic.

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Chris_K — Sun, 15 Nov 2015 02:14:00 GMT

Some good stuff here guys 🙂

A great resource for wallpapers is InterfaceLift - it has all sorts... Space, nature, cars, people, objects, minimal, colourful, black & white.

Also if you use UCCW or Zooper for widgets, there's tonnes of free widgets on the Play Store... You don't need to make your own.

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Cleoriff — Sun, 15 Nov 2015 07:53:24 GMT

@jonsie wrote:
Want to rename or change the icon....? A great tool here...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sika524.android.quickshortcut&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dquickshortcutmaker&pcampaignid=APPU_1_CExHVtDXBtKSuAS0t5rwBQ
My current home screen, very basic.

Blimey @jonsie I see you have 4G there?......who knew?...

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

jonsie — Sun, 15 Nov 2015 08:20:16 GMT

Very good 4G almost everywhere I go, Bkk, Rayong, Bang Saen, Pattaya Hua Hin....a 200km circle.

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Toby — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 17:10:10 GMT

It's an iPhone, so I can offer my wallapaper (I've had it for ages!). Unless you guys have some great iOS ideas for me

Let's see some more customized phones from you guys!

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Cleoriff — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 18:55:07 GMT

@Toby wrote:
It's an iPhone, so I can offer my wallapaper (I've had it for ages!). Unless you guys have some great iOS ideas for me

Let's see some more customized phones from you guys!

Well that looks like the night of the living dead @Toby

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

blissgirl — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 19:11:06 GMT

Agreed @Cleoriff I would post mine but don't know how to

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Cleoriff — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 19:23:28 GMT

@blissgirl wrote:
Agreed @Cleoriff I would post mine but don't know how to

How I do it is by swiping right to left take a screenshot ....uploading that to messenger and copying it from there then pasting here. I know there are far quicker ways ...but I do what works for me..:smileywink:

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

blissgirl — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 19:31:17 GMT

will try that

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Toby — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 09:15:23 GMT

Cleoriff wrote:

Well that looks like the night of the living dead @Toby

Batman and his villains

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 12:01:37 GMT

On my Windows Lumia 640 lte I have the tiles I want all over the screen more-or-less, I can scroll them up / down, with the background wallpaper being a photo of a pink rose in my sunny att yard ... I'm happy with that :womanhappy:

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 13:58:12 GMT

That sounds really artistic @WispaRed7! What made you choose that screen?

Re: Customise & Personalise Your Phone

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 17:30:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
That sounds really artistic @Anonymous! What made you choose that screen?

thank you @Anonymous

I consider myself a bit 'arty farty' & I wanted a photo I'd taken personal to me to be my phone wallpaper ... since having my smartphone late May I've not taken many pics, but this rose is old & doesn't always flower, probably because it's in a tub - I don't have a garden, but do have a yard - the bud on it is crimson & then it opens into pink / peach colour ... on the pic is foliage, a full flowering rose & a rosebud allus been just a 'happy snapper'