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An Android launcher guide, focussing on Apex Launcher


Steve

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What's a launcher?

 

It's basically an app that allows you to change the Android user interface - not just how it looks, but how it works.

 

Why would I want to use one?

 

Customisability, basically. You can get your phone looking and functioning how you want it to without having to root your phone or do any kind of complex modification. If you install a launcher and you don't like it, you can uninstall it and you'll be back to exactly where you were before you installed it.

 

Apex Launcher.

 

Apex is my launcher of choice. There's a free version that you can use to test it out, but a couple of the features are locked away until you upgrade to the Pro version.

 

Here's the Apex settings screen: -

 

http://i.imgur.com/1ebC9Nt.png

 

The only option missing from that screenshot is Backup & restore.

 

Taking just the top menu item as an example, Homescreen settings, here's some of the options you get: -

 

You can change the grid size, so you can fit more icons and widgets on your home screens (or fewer if you like). You can set separate grid sizes for portrait and landscape view.

 

You can change the size of the margins on the home screens, or you can have no margins at all.

 

You can change the size of the icons.

 

You can manage the home screens, including adding and removing them, and you can choose any home screen as your "main" screen (the one it will go to when you press the home button on your phone).

 

You can turn infinite scrolling on or off, so if it's on you will endlessly scroll through your home screens rather than reaching the end and having to scroll back the other way. There are options for elastic scrolling and overscroll effects, so, for example, with elastic scrolling turned on the next screen kinda bounces into view and out again.

 

You can choose from 11 different transition effects for when you're moving from one home screen to another, or you can have no effect at all.

 

You can disable the home screen wallpaper. You can choose to have the same wallpaper on each screen, or a wider wallpaper that moves as you move from one home screen to another.

 

You can make the notification bar transparent or hide it altogether. You can have a persistent Google search bar that appears on all of your home screens, and you can choose from 4 different bar styles.

 

You can hide the names under icons. You can change the colour of the font used for icon names.

 

That's just some of the stuff you can do just under that one menu entry.

 

Some of the features I like.

 

I change the grid size, so I have 5 columns instead of the stock 4. That gives me more room for icons and widgets.

 

I use gestures. For example, if I swipe up anywhere on the screen it opens the app drawer. If I swipe up while in the app drawer it goes back to the home screen I was on. I can swipe down anywhere on any home screen to open the notification area. Those things make the phone easier to use when you're holding it in one hand, particularly if you've got quite a big phone.

 

Getting rid of the persistent search bar. I don't want the Google search bar taking up space on every home screen, so I just have it on the middle one.

 

Changing the icons in the dock. With stock Android, the main button in the middle of the dock is to open the app drawer. As I use gestures to open the app drawer, I can get rid of that button and replace it with something else. In fact, with Apex you can have multiple docks and scroll left/right to see them. You can even put widgets in the dock if you want to.

 

I hide app labels on the home screen, as I only have 2 folders and 1 icon on all of my home screens. The rest are widgets.

 

Scrollable folders. With stock Android, you can only add so many apps to a folder before it becomes full. With Apex, you can continue adding apps, so, for example, I have a folder with all of my games in it and when I open it, I can scroll up and down to see more games, rather than being stuck with a limited number and no ability to scroll.

 

Apex isn't the only launcher out there - there's tons of them, and you can also get themes and icon packs for them to change the look even further. Having tried a few of them, Apex is my favourite though and that's why I'm recommending it here. If you wish that stock Android did certain things, or if you've got a phone that isn't stock Android and has a custom launcher put on there by the manufacturer, using your own choice of launcher will almost certainly make your experience much better.

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Guest petesasqwax

I have Atom on mine. I can't remember why I chose that, but I basically only use it for changing the icons and tweaking the system tray/battery icon etc.. The only thing is, it loses the icon settings in the app drawer whenever i turn the phone off so the only benefit I get from it is that it changes the icons on the home screen (which I could have done some other way, I'm sure)

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  • 4 weeks later...

thanks for this Steve, just got the Z3 and wasn't super in love with the layout so got this and customized it to my liking. Now makes me wish I did it with previous phones lol. Still a few things I'd like to customize but not sure if it's possible.

 

I used to have a widget with all my wi-fi/gps/brightness/etc quick settings on my home screen, but now it's all in separate quick settings menu that is ironically much slower to access than before lol.

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No worries man. If you want a widget that has buttons for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi etc. so you can toggle those on off, there's a few options in the Google Play store. I haven't used a widget like that for years, so I can't recommend anything in particular, but there's bound to be a few good ones available.

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Word! I'll look out for it. It could be a case of just something I'm used to having but isn't really that necessary... I find a lot of times with phones the stuff that annoys me at first is just a matter of change more so than it being actually worse.

 

What phone are you rocking right now?

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I'm still using a Nexus 5.

 

If you do a 2 finger swipe down from the top, do you get quick toggles for Bluetooth etc.? On stock Android you should do, but I don't know how much customisation Sony have done with their phones. Presumably your phone is on some fairly recent version of Android 4.x, so you should be able to access toggles that way. They were added in Android 4.2 back in 2012.

 

With Android 5.0, you can either do a 2 finger swipe from the top to go direct to the toggles, or you can do a normal swipe down to open the notification area, than swipe down again to open the toggles. There's toggles for Bluetooth, aeroplane mode, wi-fi, mobile data, GPS, auto-rotate, a torch, and there's also a button to cast your screen if you use a Chromecast or similar device and a brightness slider.

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