I spent a lot of time on AOKP of my former phone and as a result I fully redid all of my contact photos because of the high-res support built into ICS and JB. Incoming calls looked awesome with photo ID taking up the whole screen and being crystal clear.
Now I am using all these different TouchWiz roms for my new GS3 and the contacts and dialer are HIDEOUS. All my contacts are tiny images AND they look awful! I'm not even sure how that is possible.
Is there any way on earth to completely remove all the touchwiz pieces of software that pertain to contacts and phone in these TW releases? I've happily ditched the email app and replaced it with AOSP email, the AOSP calendar is on the Play Store. The AOSP lockscreen is available on most custom roms....but the dialer/phone piece is one of the last hideous things bugging me about this sweet phone.
Since no one seems to have done it I feel I should assume it's not possible, but figured I'd ask.
The other hideous thing that I'd love to fix is the size of the fonts in the notification curtain. Samsung designed their layout for 80 year olds apparently....everything is so enourmous
I'm not a big fan of the TouchWiz contact or dialer apps either, but the contact photos can be easily fixed.
What are you using to sync your contact photos? HaxSync (available on the market) works great if you are synching photos from Facebook. The quality depends on whether you are on ICS or JellyBean, as JellyBean is capable of storing higher resolution than ICS.
When I was on AOSP jelly bean I set up high res photos for almost all of my contacts in Gmail. I don't use Facebook. Recently Google upgraded the contacts applet within Gmail to allow for higher resolution photos.
So it was beautiful. On any clean install of CM or AOKP I had full screen high res caller id just by syncing my Gmail contacts.
Now crappy touchwiz takes my gmail contact photos and mutilates them to look low res and half-screened. It's shameful really.
I know exactly what you're talking about. I had a Gnex and my pics were little. tiny blurry cubes upon switching to my s3. You'll have to manually switch them all from the phone or use haxsync to overwrite some of them. It sucks though. I know where you are. Lol.
And I don't think you can get rid of the dialer/contacts. Pretty sure a dev buddy of mine said it's too deeply intertwined with the rest of the TW framework and wreaks havoc when removed. I could be wrong, but I think I'm right
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
I believe you...I figured it must be a major pain or impossible to remove or someone would have done it already.
I'd be willing to pay a developer if he could create a mod that fully removes TW-based contacts/phone and replaces them with the corresponding JB pieces.
So after spending a week on a flashing binge I've come up with two apparently impossible scenarios to make the perfect rom for this phone.
1) an AOSP rom that somehow is able to implement the TW-based Galaxy S3 Camera
or
2) a TW-based rom that somehow is able to remove everything TW-related (contacts/phone) EXCEPT for the camera
Good luck, my man. Lol. Let me know what happens. Both scenarios are nice.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
spearoid said:
I believe you...I figured it must be a major pain or impossible to remove or someone would have done it already.
I'd be willing to pay a developer if he could create a mod that fully removes TW-based contacts/phone and replaces them with the corresponding JB pieces.
So after spending a week on a flashing binge I've come up with two apparently impossible scenarios to make the perfect rom for this phone.
1) an AOSP rom that somehow is able to implement the TW-based Galaxy S3 Camera
or
2) a TW-based rom that somehow is able to remove everything TW-related (contacts/phone) EXCEPT for the camera
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just want a replacement for the dialer and contacts apps! Samsung did such a great job with this phone, and TouchWiz overall is actually kind of nice. I just wish they had put more effort into the dialer and contacts apps. It would be perfect if there was a viable way to replace those, but I agree it's probably damn near impossible.
Hi All,
Have Googled, Binged and looked thoroughly through XDA and have not found an answer, perhaps because it's such a piddling issue, but it's annoying me.
I have a stock Verizon Galaxy S III (SCH-I535) running Android 4.1.2 with Kernel 3.0.31-861013. I don't like the stock app that pops up when I set it in the desktop dock (Model EDD-D200BE). Specifically, I don't like the background it uses or the screensaver it goes to when it times out. (piddling, right?)
Q1. Is there a way to change that background and screensaver to use a live wallpaper?
Q2. If not, is there a suggested/preferred app that will replace the stock app that will allow me to change the backgrounds/screensavers?
I'm not talking about themes for the S III. I've tried those and they change everything PAST the dock screen, but the dock screen and screensaver remain the same. So either those apps don't change the default app, or I'm using the wrong theme(s) app, or I am missing something very basic (apologies if there are potholes in my "information highway"). I am also not talking about changing the apps in the app tray.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
I love the material design messenger app, but the randomly assigned colors piss me off. Is there a modded apk or any way to set customize the background color? I would have thought google would have made in an option.
The only way you're going to be able to mod that is by decompiling the messenger apk and going from there. Seems like it would be a lot of work though. I could take a look it at but I doubt I have the know how in order to do it.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda premium
Crappy Half-Solution
I've been watching this thread hoping for a more elegant (i.e. code-based solution) but for the time being I found a sort-of work around. First, uninstall the messenger app. Then say you want to change Person A from showing up orange to showing up purple, just for the sake of example. Google image search purple screen (or whatever, the point is to get a plain purple image of a shade similar to the app's). Download the pic to your phone, change the contact's picture to the plain color picture. Reinstall app, and open it up. Person A's conversation should now be purple. It should even be safe to change the contact's picture back, the point is to have the plain color photo as the contact picture when you install and first open up the app. You should be able to change as many contacts to whichever conversation colors (that the app comes preloaded with) you wish. Some notes: I did this on an AT&T galaxy s 4 active running kit kat 4.4.2 with the google messenger app being used as default sms app. My motivation was my gf saw her's was the orange and wanted to figure out a way to switch it to pink, lol. When I figured this method out to do just that, I changed a friend's convo color from green to red, and then an additional friend's from purple to green in order to verify. Again maybe this doesn't work all the time, or maybe it doesn't work on your device or maybe it's too much of a chore, but if you're looking to change conversation colors in this (otherwise very well put-together) app, this is the only way I've heard of so far. Hope this helps :good:
I don't know if it matters but I'm rooted stuck on touchwiz (locked bootloaders are a terrible thing, but at least it's de-odexed and I can mod it myself) and I use root browser to convert the google messenger app to a system app, because I like it better than Samsung's sms anyway.
upgraded from the S4 on Verizon, have a few questions
1. how do I draw on screenshots/pictures now? I couldn't find an option to in gallery edit or google photo edit.
2. how do I see a text notification (an envelope) on the status bar of the lock screen instead of Verizon Wireless and the first part of the text message?
3. how do I disable the 3 buttons from lighting up?
4. which is better, Music or Google Play Music?
5. can I change the Messages theme back to blue and yellow bubbles or better yet custom bubble colors? I do not like the orange and white cremesicle theme
are these things even possible?
1. Apparently you can't. I was lucky enough to have this feature on my Moto x (Motorola gallery app). Try using a different gallery app (quickpic or cm gallery maybe?)
2. Probably can't get rid of Verizon wireless. I haven't played with it enough to even notice what appears, but doesn't the notification appear on the lockscreen? Just curious, why do you need it in the notification bar?
3. You can't, unless you keep the power saving mode on at all times. This bothers me too. Pray for root.
4. I pay for Google play all access. This way I can stream music from my computer as well as use the streaming service (like Spotify). For this reason, Google play music is invaluable to me. I've actually never used the regular music player on any phone. I never got into storing music on my phone.
5. I tried making the messaging app more appealing, too, but I guess you can't. I use textra, and have for a long time. It's pretty simple yet customizable enough to make you happy
Verizon GS6
Number three is all I really want. They really need to add an option for this so we don't need to use power saving and we might not get root.
Sent from my SM-G920V using XDA Free mobile app
1. Folder in home screen. Do they really had to add that + sign inside the folder? Galaxy S6 did not have this. Whoever designed the folder and added a big fat + sign should get their head checked out. If I have 2 icons in one folder, there's a third button with a big fat + sign wasting space and distracting the user. Sure, different luncher will fix it but at what cost ($ or battery life from other bugs). The underlying thing for the UI doesn't change though. I also tried Samsung's other UI which you can download (GoodLock app) in their own app store, but that doesn't go well with the overall UI. ---> this is fixed in Nougat.
2. Bouncing effect in S-Health and other places. When I open S-Health to record my weight and scroll through the numbers, it's very hard to get it to stop on the place I want it to be because there's some stupid elastic bouncing back kicking and fourth effect on the dial. It moves for a while even after I let it go. I really hate this behavior and wonder whoever designed it had in mind. The person responsible should do something else for a living, and not be involved in designing user interface.
3. [edit: this one is treatable by changing Setting - Applications - Default applications - Default app selection] Default apps selection. Once you select an app, that becomes the default forever. Yeah, you can reset it by clearing the default, but I wish Samsung hadn't touched this behavior so I can choose to do it once "only for this time" or keep it as default.
4. User should be able to disable Samsung Calendar without 3rd party app, root, or adb. I find Samsung Calendar worse than stock Google's Calendar app so I use Google's Calendar app. Now why do I have to keep both if I'm not using it? So much for making TouchWiz lean. These apps should be uninstallable, or at least disable-able.
5. Every time I switch Auto Sync from quick settings pull-down, I get a warning message and must confirm that I will not get notifications about some apps and battery saving blablabla. It's almost ridiculous they did not add an option such as "Do not show again". This goes same for some other switches too. I think they fixed some such as the mobile data icon, or it may be a Verizon specific thing (as I'm using 935U). In the past you get a warning something in the line of "you won't have access to YouTube videos" and such stupid popup message.
6. High Volume warning. Every time, or once you reboot, or maybe every 24 hours this warning resets and comes back. I don't listen to music that loud but sometimes depending on what you connect you need to adjust the volume over 100% level. This stupid warning shows up and it won't let you go on unless you press OK. That's really stupid. I hate you whoever designed these this way.
I currently have a Verizon S7 Edge, with the latest 935U ROM stock, non-rooted. Because I hated how TouchWiz displays icon collection of folders, I was using NovaLauncher Prime for a while but went back because Nova Launcher caused more battery drain than TouchWiz. I turned off S-Health because it also causes some battery drain, and don't like to use it because the stupid scrolling kick bouncing effect. I tried iPhone SE for couple months, and it's so much more refined but I came back to S7 Edge because the better camera (even though it's artificially over sharpened) and for the file management ability.
I thought these annoyances would be fixed over time, but no, it's been almost 10 months since I got this phone and nothing has changed.
hp79 said:
1. Folder in home screen. Do they really had to add that + sign inside the folder? Galaxy S6 did not have this. Whoever designed the folder and added a big fat + sign should get their head checked out. If I have 2 icons in one folder, there's a third button with a big fat + sign wasting space and distracting the user.
2. Bouncing effect in S-Health and other places. When I open S-Health to record my weight and scroll through the numbers, it's very hard to get it to stop on the place I want it to be because there's some stupid elastic bouncing back and fourth effect on the dial. It moves for a while even after I let it go. I really hate this behavior and wonder whoever designed it had in mind. The person responsible should do something else for a living, and not be involved in designing user interface.
3. Default apps selection. Once you select an app, that becomes the default forever. Yeah, you can reset it by clearing the default, but I wish Samsung hadn't touched this behavior so I can choose to do it once "only for this time" or keep it as default.
4. User should be able to disable Samsung Calendar without 3rd party app, root, or adb. I find Samsung Calendar no better than stock Google's Calendar app, so why do I have to keep it if I'm not using it? So much for making TouchWiz lean.
I currently have a Verizon S7 Edge, with the latest 935U ROM stock, non-rooted. Because I hated how TouchWiz displays icon collection of folders, I am currently using NovaLauncher. I turned off S-Health because it causes some battery drain, and don't like to use it because the scrolling bouncing effect. I tried iPhoone SE for couple months, and it's so much more refined but I came back to S7 Edge because the better camera and file management.
I thought these annoyances would be fixed over time, but no, it's been almost 10 months since I got this phone and nothing has changed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then why did you get this device? Why not a myriad other devices that didn't have TouchWiz?
Sell it and buy a Nexus
"And on that Bombshell"
Sent from my Echoe Powered Nougat G935f
s7freak said:
Then why did you get this device? Why not a myriad other devices that didn't have TouchWiz?
Sell it and buy a Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because it has the best camera and some other hardware advantages. I like the water resistant feature, expandable storage, SamsungPay. Also, there was a $400 rebate when I bought this using a device payment plan. I paid it off the next day and closed the account with Verizon. So that's how I ended up with my S7 Edge.
Oh, and I heard Samsung was making TouchWiz leaner with less bloat, I think this was part of their promises from S6 days.
If you don't like TouchWiz why don't you switch back to Nova or Apex launcher?
Just use nova/apex/google launcher
As for your number 3 problem
You can change that behaviour in setting>applications>default applications
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Nova is the best launcher.
Woah, you sound agitated!
As for problem one, switch launcher. Problem two, three and four, that's just how Samsung has designed Touchwiz, there are plenty of other great phones with great software and components as camera (Pixel/iPhone) and water resistance (iPhone 7(pro)). As for the expandable storage, buy yourself an OTG cable and any USB stick! Hope to have helped you
Wait for Nougat. Not sure if you have tried/seen the beta, but it's :good:
I never ever used TouchWiz as a launcher. Nova from the start, and i never missed anything.
You should realize that every phone you will ever have is going to have something you won't like. And those things you counted can easily be fixed.
Running a Nougat Beta rom and i'm loving it. (TouchWiz was good too). I like it better then Stock Android.
Touchwiz is more than just a Launcher it's an integral part of the system.
If one doesn't like Touchwiz buy an LG or Pixel or a OnePlus3
"And on that Bombshell"
Sent from my Echoe Powered Nougat G935f
TW is better than it ever has been. With the theming engine I enjoy it much more than stock Android at this point!
mjs2011 said:
TW is better than it ever has been. With the theming engine I enjoy it much more than stock Android at this point!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed of course I'm an unabashed Sammy Fanboy LOL So yeah I'm a little biased
"And on that Bombshell"
Sent from my Echoe Powered Nougat G935f
s7freak said:
Touchwiz is more than just a Launcher it's an integral part of the system.
If one doesn't like Touchwiz buy an LG or Pixel or a OnePlus3
"And on that Bombshell"
Sent from my Echoe Powered Nougat G935f
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agrre with you, one thing i miss, since galaxy s5, samsung stop to make infinity scrolling in home screen and app driver,
Sent from my SM-G935F using XDA-Developers mobile app
I had a OnePlusOne and a OnePlusX I really loved them but I just love my Sammy devices more. One Plus devices are fantastically built but just not Sdevices
Of course this is all my own opinion
"And on that Bombshell"
Sent from my Echoe Powered Nougat G935f
Point 1: wait for Nougat
Other point are no issue for me
just got the s7 Edge today, will be delivered in a few days. I have a few questions about TouchWiz. Is the 'theme engine' thing really that good? Does it change Touchwiz that much depending on the theme used? I love Nova Launcher, so i'm wondering if i use it, will i be able to Theme my phone at the same time...
LightspeeDLee said:
just got the s7 Edge today, will be delivered in a few days. I have a few questions about TouchWiz. Is the 'theme engine' thing really that good? Does it change Touchwiz that much depending on the theme used? I love Nova Launcher, so i'm wondering if i use it, will i be able to Theme my phone at the same time...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The theme engine doesn't just change your icons, but changes the UI (menu, dialer, messages, quick settings, etc)
I really like it. Be warned, there are a ton of themes and probably only a small fraction of them are good, but the good ones are pretty fantastic.
Here are a few to try when you get the phone.
Bleex
Material Dark
Black and Blue Amoled
Bleen
Morfix
Aurora