Optimal grid size - Moto X Q&A

In your opinion, what's the optimal home screen grid size? Experimenting here...

Here's mine Nova 5x4 but keep the bottom free for no issue swiping. You'll probably get tons of different opinions user to user. No app drawer button just swipe thumb up to pull up app drawer.

Related

Why ADW?

Just curious, why does everyone seem to lean towards ADW vs. Launcher Pro? Launcher Pro just seems to run so much smoother on the Nexus I was wondering why people would prefer ADW.
I prefer ADW because it runs so much smoother for me.
Plus it has one feature I cannot live without now. The slide up/down gestures. I normally have the Status Bar hidden, so I can't slide down on it to get the notification tray. Now I can just slide down anywhere on the screen to pull down the tray.
Zenoran said:
Just curious, why does everyone seem to lean towards ADW vs. Launcher Pro? Launcher Pro just seems to run so much smoother on the Nexus I was wondering why people would prefer ADW.
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+1 10chars
I use Launcher Pro as well. Seems a good amount of people use ADW because its the default launcher in CM. (cyanogen choose it because its open source and LP isnt)
Also the fact that it is open source is a reason I like it too. Not because of some philosophy, but because there are already a number of different developers contributing to it. And I know that if Anderweb ever stops development on it, someone else can continue. It gives me hope that it will be a very long lasting launcher.
Why do some people like red cars? or Ford over GM? (notice how I Americanized that <, I was going to say Renault but I don't suppose our US/foreign friends would have understood)....
It's just personal preference, neither is right or wrong, it just is.
Clarkster said:
I prefer ADW because it runs so much smoother for me.
Plus it has one feature I cannot live without now. The slide up/down gestures. I normally have the Status Bar hidden, so I can't slide down on it to get the notification tray. Now I can just slide down anywhere on the screen to pull down the tray.
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This. Also, the option to stretch the homescreen to 8x8. I'm going with 4x6 right now; last I used it, Launcher Pro only offered up to 4x5.
Smooth-wise, both LP and ADW are similar on my Nexus One Stock Froyo. I can't see LP much smoother than ADW.
I am used to ADW's "pull up home button to show hidden app dock". I put taskpanel and Mobile setting things there which I can easily access but don't wanna be visible all the time. The swipe left/right dock in launcher pro is unnatural to me.
On the other hand, I compared both launchers (briefly) on battery usage and it looked like with launcher pro my battery was going away faster. That was a few weeks ago and several updates had been made so I can't tell now.
ADW is open source so that may be a deciding factor. Also resizing widgets is great and a feature that was missing since the last time I used LauncherPro.
I have LauncherPro as well and have to say I am quite impressed with it. The main reason I have it is to save my nexus one from screen burn by the notification bar... but its speed and stability sure dont hurt either
ap3604 said:
I have LauncherPro as well and have to say I am quite impressed with it. The main reason I have it is to save my nexus one from screen burn by the notification bar... but its speed and stability sure dont hurt either
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as far as i know, LCD and AMOLED screens does not suffer from screen burn... weird you said that
drbuns said:
ADW is open source so that may be a deciding factor. Also resizing widgets is great and a feature that was missing since the last time I used LauncherPro.
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In my experience setting different sizes for a widget just caused it to break its display (text overflowing or items clipped off). It seems the only reason the feature exists is because ADW allows you to setup different amounts of rows/columns of icons, and since widgets work by taking up certain amount of icon spaces they had to also then add the option to say how much icons it should take up to end up looking normal. (Confusing, huh?)
This is actually what caused me to switch away from ADW to LauncherPro. They seem very similar, but ADW was going down the path of configuration hell where they introduce confusing options that cause features to break and need even more confusing options.
The real thing is, none of those options seem to improve anything for me, but they started getting in my way. Every time I added a widget ADW then asked me to specify how it should be sized. UGH!
All I really want is the stock launcher with smooth scrolling. These launchers seem to start off just being that but slowly grow into feature-creep beasts.
LauncherPro is faster than ADW. fact.
LauncherPro's app drawer (3D) is MUCH faster and smoother than ADW's. fact.
LaucherPro has more customization to the bottom 5 buttons than ADW. fact.
ADW is built into CM5.x, LauncherPro isn't. That's about the only drawback, and a weird one.
I am also a fan of LP, and i also found it to be a tad smoother and better responsive. imho
I just tried out ADW launcher for a bit instead of my default LauncherPro and have to say whike it seems like a great launcher as well there's two things the DarkDVR covered that I havr to agree with:
1. LauncherPro seems faster to me.
2. I LOVE how you can customize shortcuts on the botton of your screen. Im an extreme minimalist and the only things I want on my homescreen is the appdrawer button with quicksettings to the left of it and my browser to the right. Nothing else. With ADW you can't customize and are stuck with the phone and stock broswer on you homescreen.
Two things that I like better about ADW though:
1. The ability to swipe down while the notification bar is hidden to see it. Not a huge deal since I can just press menu while using LauncherPro to have the notification bar pop up and then pull it down.
2. When rotating your phone to landscape your wallpaper picture stays nice. In LauncherPro it messes your wallpaper photo will only show the top of the wallpaper that you usually can see fully while in portrait.
ap3604 said:
With ADW you can't customize and are stuck with the phone and stock broswer on you homescreen.
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That's wrong, just drag and drop any icon you want onto the shortcut spots on the bottom of the screen. And if you want 4 down there you can turn on the extra spots in the settings. Plus if you press and slide up on the 'all apps' button you get another bar to drop more icons on to, unlimited in size as it scrolls left and right.
I've used LauncherPro for 2 or so weeks, then ADW for the last 2 or so weeks...
ADW FC's a *lot* more, particularly during configuration (adding/removing apps or widgets, wallpaper, etc) but also at weird random other times, like 5-10s after launching an app.. Happens perhaps 1-3 times a day for me.
ADW squeezing more into the homescreen is nice.. I actually like that I can have 5x5 on the homescreen, although I don't think I'd want more.. And the Widget config does get more confusing along with it, but it's nice that 4x4 widgets can fill the whole screen even set 5x5.
I don't use the gesture options.. Too finicky, I usually wind up moving the screen sideways or launching an app.
ADW can uninstall a program directly from the app drawer.. Drag it out, drag it to the trash, hover.. Don't recall LP being able to do that.
LauncherPro is smoother and I don't recall it ever FC'ing on me.. I think one can adjust the rows/columns available, but IIRC the Widgets then fit kinda weird on the screen, and of course had less visible space and in some cases were cropped weird because they were smaller than they should be. Don't remember, I'll have to try it out again.
People use LP's 3d app drawer? I hate it.. It wastes like 30% of the screen... Different strokes..
Cons for both: Live Wallpaper. I don't use this much, sometimes I fire it up before I'm showing off the phone.. but both launchers slow WAY down with LW going. Less than the default Nexus homescreen.
I'll try LauncherPro again.. It's had a few version updates I just wish it were possible to sync all of the settings, vs having to set each launcher up.
Clarkster said:
That's wrong, just drag and drop any icon you want onto the shortcut spots on the bottom of the screen. And if you want 4 down there you can turn on the extra spots in the settings. Plus if you press and slide up on the 'all apps' button you get another bar to drop more icons on to, unlimited in size as it scrolls left and right.
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But can you pick any icon for the shortcuts?
DarkDvr said:
But can you pick any icon for the shortcuts?
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No, you can't pick any icon you like unless you have one of those other icon customization programs. I was just responding to the claim that you can never change it from phone and browser.
khaytsus said:
People use LP's 3d app drawer? I hate it.. It wastes like 30% of the screen... Different strokes..
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yeah, but it's just such a kick in the balls for google - private developers made the same 3D app drawer, but it's like 500% more efficient. Although... as google said on IO conf, that's exactly what they want from the community.. to replace standard android components with more efficient, customizable stuff.
Something you never gonna hear from apple. Something that will ultimately have Android ruling over the world with an iron fist of freedom and customization

[Q]Formatting Widgets

For some widgets, Astrid for example, I can't seem to stretch the widget. For example, when I long press and get the option as to how many pixels I want I enter 4x2. When the Astrid box is placed on my screen it's still the same size (2x2) as it would be if I hadn't entered 4x2. The only difference is I can long click around the widget to move it as if it was occupying that space. Is there anyway I can actually make it (and other widgets) to actually occupy the 4x2 space?
Also, I can't seem to move widgets into corner spaces on my screen or exactly where I would like them to be on the screen.
I'm running CM6 stable, Froyo, ADW Launcher, on a rooted N1. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
shankinstuff said:
For some widgets, Astrid for example, I can't seem to stretch the widget. For example, when I long press and get the option as to how many pixels I want I enter 4x2. When the Astrid box is placed on my screen it's still the same size (2x2) as it would be if I hadn't entered 4x2. The only difference is I can long click around the widget to move it as if it was occupying that space. Is there anyway I can actually make it (and other widgets) to actually occupy the 4x2 space?
Also, I can't seem to move widgets into corner spaces on my screen or exactly where I would like them to be on the screen.
I'm running CM6 stable, Froyo, ADW Launcher, on a rooted N1. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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ADW resizes the spaces used by widgets (as does LauncherPro) but it can not force the widget to resize the graphics within that space. If the widget is designed with resizable elements it will "grow" or "shrink" accordingly. If it has not been designed for this then you will get the experience you have. There's nothing you can do about this.
The (standard) screen has a 4x4 grid, widget and icon placement must conform to this, you can not place widgets or shortcuts in the "gaps".
djmcnz said:
ADW resizes the spaces used by widgets (as does LauncherPro) but it can not force the widget to resize the graphics within that space. If the widget is designed with resizable elements it will "grow" or "shrink" accordingly. If it has not been designed for this then you will get the experience you have. There's nothing you can do about this.
The (standard) screen has a 4x4 grid, widget and icon placement must conform to this, you can not place widgets or shortcuts in the "gaps".
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Thanks for the information.

Landscape launcher?

Anyone know of a launcher that orients the dock to the bottom in landscape? I've tried adw, launcher pro and zeam but none seem to have the option unless I'm missing it.
+1
I always wondered about this but never thought to post here. Thanks for reminding me.
Well here is one option. In ADW (I'm using EX but I'm pretty sure the unpaid app does the same) go into settings, UI settings, main dock, main dock style and choose the no icon option. Now, go back to your home screen and create a 'launcher action' shortcut that open and closes the app drawer. You'll have to make one for every screen you have ... or not. For a while i only had one on my main screen so there was more room on the others.
Yeah, that's what I am doing now (adw w/out dock). I was just looking for a sticky dock with maybe some eye candy.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
adampdx said:
Well here is one option. In ADW (I'm using EX but I'm pretty sure the unpaid app does the same) go into settings, UI settings, main dock, main dock style and choose the no icon option. Now, go back to your home screen and create a 'launcher action' shortcut that open and closes the app drawer. You'll have to make one for every screen you have ... or not. For a while i only had one on my main screen so there was more room on the others.
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That's a pretty slick idea.
Thanks!
I just use the swipe down action to open the app drawer. This way I have no dock on screen and can get to the drawer from any of my screens. I'm using ADW free version.
mistergreentree said:
I just use the swipe down action to open the app drawer. This way I have no dock on screen and can get to the drawer from any of my screens. I'm using ADW free version.
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Exactly, though I prefer swipe up for and down for notifications. That way you can even hide the status bar.
Power Launcher Pro has landscape mode with the dockbar at the bottom.

How to use different grid sizes at the same time (4x4 on home and 5x5 on next screen)

I'm on a Samsung Note 5 and I've been trying to make my widgets more readable by having them on a 4x4 grid sized screen, but I really like the room that I get for my app icons on the 5x5 screens. Is there any way that I can have both going on at the same time?
I'm rooted and on BreakDown's DPD1 v2.1 rom. I've got Xposed and have tried many different apps from the Play Store, Xposed, etc. I've also tried apps that change the DPI setting of my apps, and they do help with my widgets, but they ruin the app when I open them. For example, I can't reach the "Delete" button in Evernote because the DPI settings have made it sink under the screen. It makes the widget just the right size though. No 3rd party launcher seems to be able to do what I want either. I thought Zen UI could, but the grid size option is only for the app drawer and not the homescreen.
Ideally, I'd like for there to be a button or setting that let's me change the grid size on a per screen basis, instead of the universal setting that there is now. Can anyone help me out?

OnePlus Launcher

How can I tweak the inbuilt OnePlus launcher to add certain functionalities like hiding apps or organising them in folders within the app drawer?
(I haven't rooted my phone it is currently using OxygenOS version 4.0.3)
I know the easier option is to install another launchers available out there with these features. But I have found that UI of OnePlus launcher is quite clean. Though Launchers from play store like nova, arrow, buzz allow you to customise the icon size and lable's font size on the home screen, it is not possible in the app drawer, which makes to UI little clumpsy thus I want to add the feature of organising and hiding to oneplus launcher itself.
Nova allows you to tinker with icon size, text size, no. of icons horizontally and vertically, background colour, scroll bar colour etc. You can also setup swipe actions on desktop like one plus launcher and add even more gestures.
bonham1988 said:
Nova allows you to tinker with icon size, text size, no. of icons horizontally and vertically, background colour, scroll bar colour etc. You can also setup swipe actions on desktop like one plus launcher and add even more gestures.
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See. Many launchers have this feature in their paid version, but not in their free version. And, I personally don't believe in paying for an app without trying all its feature at least for a week for free.
Though I would try NOVA Prime, I want to know HOW can I tweak the in-built launcher?
Sagitragon said:
See. Many launchers have this feature in their paid version, but not in their free version. And, I personally don't believe in paying for an app without trying all its feature at least for a week for free.
Though I would try NOVA Prime, I want to know HOW can I tweak the in-built launcher?
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You can't. Either you like what OnePlus likes or you choose a different Launcher.

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