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[Q] How to create home screens, themes, etc?

Hello all,
New to the forums and I'm pretty much a complete newb to smart phones as well (I haven't had a cell phone in close to 5 years lol). Anyway, got a Galaxy S2 a couple weeks ago, started wondering about customization, etc and ran into this site.
Looking at some of the home screens you guys come up with, they are amazing.
But, I honestly have no idea where to start to make my own. Do I need to root my phone to do this stuff? Or, is it as simple as downloading some themes and icons and installing them?
I don't mind reading and/or teaching myself how to do it, but, if someone could just point me the right direction I would appreciate it.
Thanks in advance for any help. Cheers.

actually , you have no need to root your phone if you just want to change some icons or themes , but you may change your launcher so you can use those themes or dock icons that you have download in xda .

Try different launchers to replace your standard home, they're all good. Adw is what I normally use, launcher pro is good, go launcher also.
sinkster

I was actually curious about this too. I like PyroMod, but I think the Opacity of the windows should be closer to 80% and the notification fonts should be white instead of black. What specifically do I need to modify for this to work?

Thanks for the replies.
I downloaded and installed Launcher Pro, just to try...I have read about ADW and a couple others that I will try as well once I get the hang of this thing.
Are there any problems that may pop up with the phone using 2 launchers? I guess not or you guys wouldn't be using them.

im using launcher pro and zeam launcher and i had no problems so far

Without rooting, you can change icons on your homescreen (using a home replacement app and/or Desktop Visualizer), use modified widgets as long as they're not system apps, customize your lock screen with WidgetLocker, and of course change your wallpaper. You can also use something like Multipicture LWP to do a bit more creative stuff - like embedding icons on the wallpaper in PS and stuff.
With rooting you can do all of those things, plus modify your status bar & notification icons, change icons for apps officially (not just on the homescreen), modify system apps or remove them, etc etc. If you have no reason to root, don't. It's a common misconception that you have to root to make your phone look good. While it definitely helps, it's not necessary.
If you do plan on rooting and are interested in theming, see if MIUI is available for your device. You may like it, and the theming possibilities are endless. If you don't like it or it isn't available, other roms have theming built in as well - CM7 is one that comes to mind.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

plainjane said:
Without rooting, you can change icons on your homescreen (using a home replacement app and/or Desktop Visualizer), use modified widgets as long as they're not system apps, customize your lock screen with WidgetLocker, and of course change your wallpaper. You can also use something like Multipicture LWP to do a bit more creative stuff - like embedding icons on the wallpaper in PS and stuff.
With rooting you can do all of those things, plus modify your status bar & notification icons, change icons for apps officially (not just on the homescreen), modify system apps or remove them, etc etc. If you have no reason to root, don't. It's a common misconception that you have to root to make your phone look good. While it definitely helps, it's not necessary.
If you do plan on rooting and are interested in theming, see if MIUI is available for your device. You may like it, and the theming possibilities are endless. If you don't like it or it isn't available, other roms have theming built in as well - CM7 is one that comes to mind.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting might be something I would think about down the road, but, being so new to this I will probably hold off for now. I wouldn't mind unlocking it at some point though as I do travel to the States a couple times a year and would like the freedom that provides for my trips.
Thanks for the detailed reply, it is appreciated and I will look into some of those apps that you mentioned.

Note pro 12.2 is it worth Rooting?

I have been using the device for a while right now and I saw a lot of topic about people talking about rooting the device. the question is, is it worth rooting? I don't actually see the need for that. So, if anyone can point out some major reason for rooting for me please?
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk

I rooted mine only because I couldn't write to extSD as I bought it for reading eBooks which would be stored in extSD. I also freeze indexservice which drained the battery. Adaway is also another good reason to root.

woowdy said:
I have been using the device for a while right now and I saw a lot of topic about people talking about rooting the device. the question is, is it worth rooting? I don't actually see the need for that. So, if anyone can point out some major reason for rooting for me please?
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's totally subjective; if you don't see a need then don't worry about it. Sites like this though exist in part because there are many who do have a need/desire to take things further than stock is able to go.
Reason's for me to root include:
Freezing of stock applications I don't want loading at any time (stock browser, stock email, e-meeting, web-ex, group play, knox, magazine widgets, stock music app, netflix, ny times, remote pc, screen saver, side-sync are all frozen using titanium backup on my device).
Installing Xposed Framework to customize the tablet - disabled youtube ads, customized multi-window menus, per application display density/resolution control for greater leverage of screen real estate, status bar tweaks and notification tweaks to name a few)
Full greenify support through Xposed framework - ability to hybernate applications to keep memory use low and maximize battery life.
Button savior application - ability to quickly access home/back/menu buttons from the side of the tablet in landscape instead of having to use the built in capacitive ones.
Titanium backup - ability to keep a backup of my last couple of versions of each application so that should an app update produce results that i don't like I can easily revert to an older version.
As has been stated, allowing for write access to external microSD.
Just a few tweaks I've added to my tablet. I continue to experiment with xposed modules as time goes on. All subjective "needs".

Every reason listed below is why I need root on my VZW Tablet.
Reason's for me to root include:
Freezing of stock applications I don't want loading at any time (stock browser, stock email, e-meeting, web-ex, group play, knox, magazine widgets, stock music app, netflix, ny times, remote pc, screen saver, side-sync are all frozen using titanium backup on my device).
Installing Xposed Framework to customize the tablet - disabled youtube ads, customized multi-window menus, per application display density/resolution control for greater leverage of screen real estate, status bar tweaks and notification tweaks to name a few)
Full greenify support through Xposed framework - ability to hybernate applications to keep memory use low and maximize battery life.
Button savior application - ability to quickly access home/back/menu buttons from the side of the tablet in landscape instead of having to use the built in capacitive ones.
Titanium backup - ability to keep a backup of my last couple of versions of each application so that should an app update produce results that i don't like I can easily revert to an older version.
As has been stated, allowing for write access to external microSD.
Just a few tweaks I've added to my tablet. I continue to experiment with xposed modules as time goes on. All subjective "needs".[/QUOTE]

I rooted it to use adaway, xposed with wanam xposed module and to uninstall bloatware.

Don't forget about changing to what we're font you want.
Really, if you live to tinker, you have to root. If you are just a user (nothing wrong with that) then rooting may not mean anything to you.

tdetroit said:
Every reason listed below is why I need root on my VZW Tablet.
Reason's for me to root include:
Freezing of stock applications I don't want loading at any time (stock browser, stock email, e-meeting, web-ex, group play, knox, magazine widgets, stock music app, netflix, ny times, remote pc, screen saver, side-sync are all frozen using titanium backup on my device).
Installing Xposed Framework to customize the tablet - disabled youtube ads, customized multi-window menus, per application display density/resolution control for greater leverage of screen real estate, status bar tweaks and notification tweaks to name a few)
Full greenify support through Xposed framework - ability to hybernate applications to keep memory use low and maximize battery life.
Button savior application - ability to quickly access home/back/menu buttons from the side of the tablet in landscape instead of having to use the built in capacitive ones.
Titanium backup - ability to keep a backup of my last couple of versions of each application so that should an app update produce results that i don't like I can easily revert to an older version.
As has been stated, allowing for write access to external microSD.
Just a few tweaks I've added to my tablet. I continue to experiment with xposed modules as time goes on. All subjective "needs".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[/QUOTE]
Are there any functions that would be lost by rooting, for example the ability to use screen mirroring?

muzzy996 said:
It's totally subjective; if you don't see a need then don't worry about it. Sites like this though exist in part because there are many who do have a need/desire to take things further than stock is able to go.
Reason's for me to root include:
Freezing of stock applications I don't want loading at any time (stock browser, stock email, e-meeting, web-ex, group play, knox, magazine widgets, stock music app, netflix, ny times, remote pc, screen saver, side-sync are all frozen using titanium backup on my device).
Installing Xposed Framework to customize the tablet - disabled youtube ads, customized multi-window menus, per application display density/resolution control for greater leverage of screen real estate, status bar tweaks and notification tweaks to name a few)
Full greenify support through Xposed framework - ability to hybernate applications to keep memory use low and maximize battery life.
Button savior application - ability to quickly access home/back/menu buttons from the side of the tablet in landscape instead of having to use the built in capacitive ones.
Titanium backup - ability to keep a backup of my last couple of versions of each application so that should an app update produce results that i don't like I can easily revert to an older version.
As has been stated, allowing for write access to external microSD.
Just a few tweaks I've added to my tablet. I continue to experiment with xposed modules as time goes on. All subjective "needs".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the list, didn`t knew TB could freeze programs so just snatched up the pro :victory:

Okay.. Can I borrow this thread a bit?
Can you change overall colour theme of NP? I have thought of buying one (LTE Model) and I just hate how it looks when settings, "drop down" notification bar etc.. are on white background. Is it possible change those to black like all AMOLED phones / tablets have?
Thanks.

Spere said:
Okay.. Can I borrow this thread a bit?
Can you change overall colour theme of NP? I have thought of buying one (LTE Model) and I just hate how it looks when settings, "drop down" notification bar etc.. are on white background. Is it possible change those to black like all AMOLED phones / tablets have?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. With xposed framework you can install wanam module to ATTEMPT to do it. I say attempt because try as I might I could not change the color of the volume slider background. I posted a screenshot of my issue in the wanam thread but am not sure if it will be addressed in an update soon as I am not sure the developer has the means to look into it. We shall see, it's not like that module is updated frequently since it takes a lot of effort to find the settings in various versions of roms. If I had one complaint about the note pro it would be that the quick settings tiles and notification pull down is far too wasteful of screen real estate to the point that it's shameful. Tiles are huge on it and with the sliders extended one has to scroll frequently in landscape mode.

Spere said:
Okay.. Can I borrow this thread a bit?
Can you change overall colour theme of NP? I have thought of buying one (LTE Model) and I just hate how it looks when settings, "drop down" notification bar etc.. are on white background. Is it possible change those to black like all AMOLED phones / tablets have?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really, but with rooting, you will be able to install themes. There is currently one very interesting theme available for the Note 10.1, I am hoping a port may eventually become available for our device. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2687087
While the theme is "busy" compared to the Pro's generic white everywhere idea, it does harken back to the early days of Android hacking and the interesting icons which appeared. I'd probably give it a go on my Pro if it became available.

I too would like to theme my tablet. I like the look of some experia stuff quite a lot.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
---------- Post added at 01:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:22 PM ----------
muzzy996 said:
Nope. With xposed framework you can install wanam module to ATTEMPT to do it. I say attempt because try as I might I could not change the color of the volume slider background. I posted a screenshot of my issue in the wanam thread but am not sure if it will be addressed in an update soon as I am not sure the developer has the means to look into it. We shall see, it's not like that module is updated frequently since it takes a lot of effort to find the settings in various versions of roms. If I had one complaint about the note pro it would be that the quick settings tiles and notification pull down is far too wasteful of screen real estate to the point that it's shameful. Tiles are huge on it and with the sliders extended one has to scroll frequently in landscape mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has anyone tried to force it into tablet mode? I used to get a dropdown bar like the one on the note pro if I lowered my dpi on my note 2. Just in the middle. If you lowered it far enough and used a patch ui.apk you could get a tablet style menu bar on the note 2 (man I miss that)
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

[Q] what are the root apps you use...?

So, I'm trying to decide if to root my tablet - the unlocked lte version. . .
I wanted to ask you what are the main apps/ modules/ tricks you use (that require root ).
and now, looking back, do you think it was worth it losing the warranty ?
(since there is not a lot of development for our tablet anyway- no custom rooms, no costum recovery etc' )
all my devices were rooted until now.... so I'm not new to rooting
thanks ))

Xposed(App settings and Wanam),Titanium backup,Greenify,Pen window manager/launcher.
Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-P900 met Tapatalk

trickster mod kernel settings. you can make many of the changes you find in custom roms with this.
not sure how much its really worth it. the speed and battery life improvement arent to big. this isnt like my nexus 7, which get scary fast once i have a new kernal and dalvik patches installed.
maybe once.if a custom kernel comes out, and i can add a few more changes, like UV things, it would be worth rooting more.

In terms of applications that have root access on my note pro right now I have:
Button Savior
File Manager HD
Gesture Navigation (an Xposed Module)
Greenify
Pen Window Manager
StickMount
Titanium Backup
USB OTG Helper
Wanam Xposed
Xposed Installer
I've posted a list of Xposed modules that I'm running here.
I agree about what has been said with regards to root and its impact to speed and battery life; there are tangible benefits but not to the degree that other devices with less RAM and slower CPUs would see. Between what I have frozen and what I keep from loading at startup using boot manager I start off on cold boot with about 1.4GB of available RAM (1.30 taken). Responsiveness to me is improved but it could be placebo. Battery life is more about managing wake locks and background process. For that you don't really need root, its more of an app selection and app settings issue.
For me the speed thing is not as important on this device as are the customization benefits. Button Savior and Gesture Navigation alone make landscape use in hand a lot easier. Having custom app settings, ad blocking and visual tweaks like tinted status bar are icing on the cake.

aartvv said:
Xposed(App settings and Wanam),Titanium backup,Greenify,Pen window manager/launcher.
Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-P900 met Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same in here
Sent from my SM-P901 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

muzzy996 said:
Gesture Navigation (an Xposed Module)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How does this compare to GMD gesture control. Seems GMD has more customization. But i never tried Gest Nav .... TZ

tonyz3 said:
How does this compare to GMD gesture control. Seems GMD has more customization. But i never tried Gest Nav .... TZ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gesture Nav doesn't have as many features as GMD and is probably lighter on resources as a result though I'm not positive on that. When Kitkat rolled out for my Nexus 4 I immediately went to ART and didn't wait around for GMD to update to support it (though it did after a short wait) so I haven't used GMD in about 6 months.
I find myself using very little by way of gestures anyway so I'm using the free version of Gesture Navigation and merely using it to bring up things like search, settings, recent apps tray, a quick way to do a "back" command and a couple of frequent applications like my lastpass app, lecturenotes and a file manager.
I'd say stick with what you know if you already have it set up.

Annoyances, TouchWiz really sucks

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

Recommended launcher??

Hi all, new to this groups as I've only last night paid for and installed AppRadioUnchainedRootless and from what I've tried to do to get my phone mirrored, ARUR is simple to use and amazing!
Was just looking for personal favourites or recommendations to a different launcher? I've downloaded Apex and Nova, both pretty cool! Only issue I'm having Is I find the icons really small on my SPH DA120, even the same on the normal samsung standard os (Samsung s8)
Does anyone know a way or suggestions to get icons bigger?
I've seen YouTube videos and the icons and text seem to be a nice manageable size! I've tried options on my phone, thinking about it, haven't tried options when I've got my phone linked up to my headunit.. suggestions, personal favourites, tips appreciated
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