How to change the android app icon

How many apps do you use on your Android smartphone or tablet? Too little? Or too many? Each application has a unique icon (or icon) with which we define it. This icon is a kind of visual reference. The icon is an important contribution to the promotion of the application on the market.

A beautiful, unique and memorable icon can significantly affect the popularity and success of an application. This is not just a logo, but a significant component of the brand. Sometimes application developers go to great lengths to create a successful application, but do not pay enough attention to this issue.

I'm sure most of you don't like the default icons in many applications, but there is nothing you can do about it. Now everything has changed. If you don't like the default Android app icons, you can change them.

Here is your smartphone. If you don't like something, you can either delete it or change it. If you like an Android app but don't like its icon, you can replace it with another icon of your choice.

It is for this reason that almost everyone loves Android. On Android smartphones, there are almost unlimited possibilities for customizing the appearance. You can change the device to your liking - from rooting to changing app icons. You can even put your own image or photo as an icon.

If you want to take a fresh look at the applications installed on your smartphone, then this article is for you. I will tell you about some simple ways that you can change the Android application icon on your phone.

How to change the Android app icon on your smartphone.

There are two ways to change the Android app icon. The first is to install the launcher, the second is to use third party application... Both methods work on both rooted and non-rooted devices.

1. Awesome icons

Awesome icons are a simple and effective way to customize your home screen icons. The app does not require root privileges. All you need is to download a selection of icons from Play Store and swap icons freely. You can even use your own images from the gallery to create a unique icon.

Just select one of them and use it as an icon. You don't need a third-party launcher, Awesome icons are enough to change the application icon to the one you want. The application will not “eat up” the battery charge of the smartphone - it does not affect the operating time.

2. Icon changer Free

The application allows you to change the size of the icons.

There is another easy method to customize icons - Icon Changer app in Android Play Market. Icon Changer is a great app that lets you create shortcuts with new icons on your home screen. You can choose an icon for any application from the gallery or collection of icons that you can download.

The app is easy to use. First, launch Icon Changer and select the app to change the icon. You can also select an icon from the phone gallery or collection. Don't worry if the app changes icons permanently. You can restore the previous icon whenever you want.

3. Install Nova Launcher

Go to Play Store, search for Nova Launcher and install it. Press the back button and select Nova Launcher as the new launcher on your smartphone or tablet.

Sequencing:

After installing the app, set up the launcher. Press and hold the app icon on the home screen that you want to change.
In the “Menu” section, select “Change”.
A window will appear.
Choose the theme and icon you like.
To complete the selection, click the corresponding button.

Conclusion

If you've ever wanted to change the look of your app icons, now you can do it for every taste. Great, isn't it? Now your creativity will be reflected on your phone screen and app icons.

Today we will consider one of the options for the graphic design of the theme on Android devices, or rather changing the standard icons. Let's just say the procedure is not easy, and only technically competent users will be able to do it, in turn, we will try to describe everything in as much detail as possible, illustrating everything with detailed screenshots.

Replacing standard Android icons

Before starting the procedure, you must make four "golden" rules:

Important! Android system version must be 4.0.3 or higher.

1. Make sure that the device is rooted, i.e. has superadministrator rights, if there is no root access, then we read this article;

2. Download latest version Xposed Installer, to do this, follow this link and download the apk file (see the screen below), more details about itself;

4. Install two previously downloaded apk on your gadget, read more about the installation procedure.

If all the above points are done, then go directly to the procedure itself:

1. Launch Xposed and give it root access, select the framework item;

Be careful! In some cases, the device may not boot after connecting the framework. If you are not familiar with the terms "looping", "turning into brick" and have not encountered or solved such cases, do not install it.

2. Press the "Install / Update" button, the application will install all the necessary files;

3. We overload the gadget;

4. Open the Unicon application;

5. Select "Open Xposed Installer";

6. It will automatically appear in the "Modules" section, you must check the box;

7. Now we find any icons pack, for example;

8. Open Unicon, select the pack and click "Aplly";

9. For new packages, click "Download themes from Google play»;

10. We reboot the device and enjoy the new Android icons.

Outcome

This procedure is not easy, and there are certain risks, so Android beginners are not recommended to change the standard icons of their device.

In contact with

In the first article, we talked about how to change the wallpaper and change sounds, how to change the lock screen, install a third-party keyboard and replace the address book. Now is the time to move on to more difficult things.

In this article, we'll take a look at third-party launchers, discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and talk about whether or not to change them at all.

There will be many pictures in the article. In order not to heavily weight the page, only thumbnails of screenshots will be inserted into it. When you click on a thumbnail, you can see the screenshot in full size. Even so, the page was pretty heavy. Be careful.

Haven't chosen your launcher yet? Then we go to you!

The article will be in two parts. In the first part, we will look at the main reasons for changing the stock launcher. In the second part, we will look at specific products. Of course. it is impossible to consider all launchers within the framework of one article. Therefore, I tried to choose a few dissimilar to each other. Reviews of many others are not hard to find on the same site.

Let me remind you that the purpose of this article is to review the customization capabilities of an Android phone, and not detailed review specific programs. And even more so, not a direct comparison of different launchers. Therefore, I will try to dwell in more detail on the strengths of each launcher, to show its main features.

Foreword

Launcher is the face of anyone Android smartphone... It is he who primarily affects the user experience that the user will receive. Will it be easy to change your wallpaper and add a new widget? How many shortcuts can fit on the desktop? Is there a way to sort dozens of apps in the main menu? How smooth is the phone interface? are 3D effects used? How much remains free random access memory for applications to work? All this depends primarily on the installed launcher.

Almost all manufacturers strive to provide the user with a ready-made version of the design of the workspace with the minimum possibility of making changes. And it's very good if it suits you. because regular means you will hardly be able to make your own corrections. The same is true for pure Android. For example, in version 4.0, a built-in search widget appears on every desktop. The widget itself may not be bad, but why should it take up space on every desktop? After all, many do not use it at all.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that the adaptation of the proprietary launcher for different models usually minimal. For example, and a huge screen samsung Galaxy Note II and on a relatively small (by modern standards) screen Samsung Galaxy S III mini fits the same number of icons. And, of course, there is no way for the user to change this.

The devil is not so terrible ...

As it has been written many times, customization is one of the strengths of Android. And the launcher can be changed as easily as anything else. However, among new users Android phones, there are several terrible myths about replacing launchers.

The first myth. It is very difficult to replace the launcher, it requires special skills and entails a loss of warranty.

Many people confuse the replacement of the launcher and the flashing of the phone. Like any program, the launcher is downloaded from Play.Market and installed in one click. If you don’t like it, then it will be just as easy to return to the “native” version. And, of course, there is no question of any loss of guarantee.

The second myth... Third-party launchers are no good, they are just amateur handicrafts collected on the knee.

Many third-party launchers are created by experienced development teams that have long been successful in their business. Moreover, some manufacturers even choose them for their devices themselves. Although, of course, low-quality products can also be found among them. As with any other software.

The third myth. If you put a second launcher on the phone, then there will be almost no free RAM, the phone will start to slow down a lot.

Only the launcher that is currently running is in RAM. All other launchers are unloaded from memory. Therefore, the second brakes can be noticed only at the moment of changing one launcher to another.

The fourth myth. A third-party launcher will work much less smoothly than the native one. After all, the manufacturers have probably adapted the native launcher for the hardware of their phone.

It's hard for me to judge how much time vendors spend optimizing their skins. The fact is that on many phone models they noticeably slow down, and in addition, they "eat up" most of the available resources. And very often, a third-party launcher turns out to be much more attractive in these parameters.

Pros of third-party launchers

Why do they usually install a third-party launcher? What advantages does it give? There are quite a few reasons to change the launcher, and each of them may have their own. Let's take a look at a few of the most obvious points.

Create folders on the desktop and in the application menu

According to the original idea of Google, users should place all shortcuts to the necessary programs on the desktop. And the main menu with a list of all programs is nothing more than a list of all installed applications... It was assumed that the user would use it very rarely and only in order to bring the necessary shortcut to the desktop.

In practice, not everyone liked the idea of placing all shortcuts on desktops. This is primarily due to the fact that a long Android time did not know how to create folders on the desktop. Because of this, the desktop very quickly became littered with a bunch of poorly sorted shortcuts, and it was rather difficult to quickly find the right one. The ability to create folders on the desktop is one of the basic features of almost any third-party launcher.

At the same time, many people are used to opening programs from the application menu, and leaving the desktops themselves for various widgets. After all, many of them, such as mail or RSS feeds, take up a lot of space. Unfortunately, Google stubbornly sticks to its original idea and stubbornly does not add normal sorting to the application menu, while many third-party launchers allow you to create folders and separate tabs in it.

Desktop grid

Why don't manufacturers give the user the opportunity to choose the maximum number of icons on the desktop? For me, this is one of the biggest mysteries. And if on small screens this is not very relevant, then on "shovels" a la SGS3, Htc one, or the Galaxy Note is quite significant. After all, the fact that the 5.5 'screen contains exactly the same amount of information as the 3.5' screen is complete nonsense. Fortunately, most launchers allow you to customize the desktop grid size to your liking.

Appearance

Another common reason for replacing the stock launcher is the desire to change appearance... Everyone has different tastes, and it is quite possible that some proprietary shells may seem clumsy and ugly to someone (hey, who just said "TouchWiz"? ..) Perhaps you want to change the set of icons, add effects when scrolling desktops, or install horizontal scrolling in the application menu. Or, for example, you just want to try the classic look of Android 4.0. In all cases, third-party launchers are at your service.

New features and tweaking

It often happens that at first everything suits you. But after some time I want to "twist" something, make it a little more convenient or change it a little. Or just add some new features. Alas, many manufacturers consider this a reason to change the phone. In new versions branded casings new cool features are often added, but they won't appear on older phones. Even with the update. For example, similar situation often occurs with HTC Sense.

This is another plus of third-party launchers. There is no need to immediately deal with a bunch of all possible settings. The main thing is to just remember that if you want, you can customize a lot for yourself in a couple of clicks. And all the new functions will appear on your phone immediately. You no longer have to wonder if the next update will be released for it or not. As a result, your phone will always meet your requirements, even if they have changed since you bought the phone.

Go Launcher EX

Unlike many competitors, Go Launcher is part of a whole suite of programs from the Go Dev Team. This includes the phone book, keyboard, lock screen, a variety of widgets, and more. All programs are designed in the same style and perfectly match each other. In fact, all of them together are a whole shell like TouchWiz or HTC Sense. However, Go Launcher is not bad in and of itself.

When you start the launcher for the first time, a short "tutorial" of several slides will be shown.

In addition, there is a special section "Go HandBook", in which all the launcher settings are considered in great detail. Unfortunately, all text is in English. But thanks to the very detailed screenshots, in any case, it will not be difficult to figure it out.

Initially, the launcher has five desktops. Two of them are empty, the rest are widgets. Pay attention to the widgets with the "Download" ribbon. In fact, this is not the widget itself, but just a picture of it. When you click on it, the Play.Market page will open, where you can download it. By default, no 3D effects on scrolling desktops are set, standard horizontal scrolling is used. Circular scrolling on desktops is disabled.

Support for multiple gestures initially works. A swipe up on the screen will open the settings menu, a swipe down will reveal the "curtain" of the notification panel, a "pinch" allows you to go to the desktop matrix.

Under the desktop there is a panel with quick access icons (dock): phone, address book, application menu, SMS, browser. Like the desktops themselves, you can turn it over with a swipe left or right. This will open a second set of icons.

With a long tap, a menu will appear on the desktop to configure it. The menu contains the following options:

— "Add"... Using this item, you can bring an application shortcut to the desktop, create a folder, install one of the many widgets specially created for the Go Launcher, or install any third-party widget.

Below you can see how application folders are created and look.

— "Wallpaper"... Here we can set up the wallpaper display mode (with or without scrolling), set the wallpaper both from a special set for Go Launcher, and using any available picture, set up and install interactive (live) wallpapers.

Section "Wallpapers"

— "Theme"... In this section, you can separately select a theme for the launcher and lock screen. From here you can also go to the special store for GoDev products.

Section "Theme"

— "The effect"... Selecting animation when scrolling the desktop. There are a lot of options, from unobtrusive to very complex. Everyone will find something to their liking.

Everything is done simply and intuitively, the desktop is easy to set up in just a few clicks. And most importantly, there is no need to dig into a bunch of launcher settings to find the desired function.

The application menu is just as simple, but functional. Horizontal scrolling works in the menu, the background of the menu is a slightly darkened desktop wallpaper. Circular scrolling enabled. There are three tabs at the top - "All", "Recent" and "Open". The contents of the tabs are clear from their names. The "Open" tab also displays the number of used \ free RAM. There is a button to clear it. Here you can also edit the list of blocked applications.

At the bottom there are three additional buttons: "Multimedia" (unfortunately, I don’t know the correct name), "Home" and "Menu".

Open Programs Tab

Menu "Multimedia"

When you click on the Multimedia button, a pop-up menu appears that allows you to quickly navigate to gallery, music, video and search. Moreover, the search is carried out both among applications and among multimedia files. The idea turned out to be very interesting, it is convenient to use this menu, and everything is done very nicely.

The "Menu" button brings up a pop-up menu with the ability to sort applications, hide unnecessary shortcuts, go to the built-in application center, "play area" and settings. Separately, I note that the ability to hide icons unnecessary programs I find it very useful. After all, many phones have a bunch of unnecessary preinstalled apps that cannot be deleted in the standard way. A long tap on the icon allows you to delete the program or place it in a folder.

Themes and Widgets

As with all other GoDevTeam products, there is a huge number of quality themes for Go Launcher. Themes are set literally in one click and the appearance of the phone is completely transformed. Below is an example of one of the free themes. In addition, you can separately install one of the many icon packs.

As I mentioned above, there is a whole range of high quality widgets for Go Launcher for all tastes. Many of them have become real hits and are very often used even outside the launcher itself. For example, a very nice weather widget, which was already mentioned in the last article.

Fine tuning

I want to note right away that the menu with the settings looks very nice and is perfectly structured. This favorably distinguishes Go Launcher from many peers, where the settings are presented in one long list with an unobvious breakdown into categories and subcategories. It can be seen that when creating their launcher, GoDevTeam focused on “ordinary users”, and not only on “geeks” who are ready to delve into obscure settings for hours.

The first section is "Registration" contains several screens between which you can navigate with a horizontal swipe.

— Fonts screen allows you to select the type of font, adjust its size and color.

Fonts screen

— Backgrounds screen allows you to select the wallpaper for the desktop, the background of the panel with shortcut icons, the background of the application menu.

Backgrounds screen

— Icons screen allows you to change settings such as icon size (all changes are clearly shown in the picture above), icon theme, panel style, color when clicked, etc.

Icons screen

— Indicator screen allows you to customize the appearance and position of the desktop indicator (built-in dotted widget showing the active desktop and their total number)

Indicator screen

The next section, "Appearance settings", allows you to change advanced settings for the dock, icons, and application menus.

Section "Appearance settings"

Application Settings- this is another section that contains quite a few useful settings. It consists of two screens:

— Home Screen allows you to change the screen orientation, change the grid size, enable circular paging of desktops, set up gestures, add additional panels quick access icons.

Home Screen

Separately, I will dwell on the "custom gesture" function, assigned by default to double tap on the screen. When activated, a special window appears on the screen in which you can draw a certain arbitrary figure and assign it to perform a certain action.

— Application Menu screen contains similar settings. Here you can select the direction of scrolling in the application menu, the size of the grid, the type of animation, enable support for gestures.

Application Drawer screen

"Additional settings" contains many more additional options. Of the interesting points, it is worth noting the drawing High Quality, clearing duplicate shortcuts from the desktop and the ability to copy installed icons from the old launcher. Unfortunately, I couldn't copy them from TouchWiz.

Outcome

Go Launcher EX can be safely recommended for the first acquaintance with third-party launchers. High quality made and focused on new users. It has high functionality, but at the same time the most simple and intuitive interface. Quite beautiful even in the "default" form, has a bunch of themes and beautiful animation effects. Allows you to organize applications into folders, customize the desktop grid, has an extended dock and supports gestures. If desired, it is easy to turn it into a full-fledged shell with its own address book, lock screen, and unique widgets.

If you are in doubt whether it is worth changing the stock launcher to a third-party one, then try installing Go Launcher EX. In any case, you will not lose anything except a couple of minutes of time.

Launcher 7

The launcher is made in the style of mobile Windows 7. And is addressed first (and last) to those who want to try the famous Metro interface.

During installation, you will be asked to specify applications for standard tiles (tiles). This includes a dialer, an application for sending SMS, a browser, a market, a phone book, a video and audio player.

The entire launcher essentially consists of only two screens. This is the desktop and application menu. Vertical scrolling works there and there. A long tap on the tile allows you to edit and move it. By pressing the "menu" key of the phone itself, you can call a pop-up menu with settings and a button for adding a new tile. It is possible to set a regular widget as a tile.

This is how the widget support is implemented

Launcher settings are not rich. Basically, it's about setting up animations, tile colors, and fonts. It is possible to set the wallpaper and enable the "Windows 7" style for the status bar.

Customizing the Music Tile

It's hard to say who might need Launcher 7. I see only one use for it - to surprise friends with "a new smartphone on Windows 7". Use it in real life, in my opinion, is completely impossible. Nevertheless, he has several million installations on his account. This means that for someone, everything may not be so simple. In any case, I definitely do not recommend starting acquaintance with third-party launchers with it.

Nova Launcher

When Android 4.0 came out, many people liked its updated interface. And several different launchers appeared at once, which tried to preserve the sensation of "pure" Android, but at the same time make its customization more flexible, add functions that were lacking in many.

If Go Launcher EX, in my opinion, is focused more on "ordinary users" who want to try something new, then Nova Launcher is designed for a more experienced audience. After all, without additional configuration, the difference with the "bare" Android will be almost imperceptible. But, if you tinker a little, then the difference will become very noticeable, since it has a huge number of various settings and interesting features... However, here it is worth considering that "pure" Android, without third-party shells from manufacturers, is not available for everyone. And if you are tired of the pre-installed shell and you want something more classic, then Nova Launcher, even out of the box, will be a very successful solution.

Note that I have a paid version of the program. Free, some additional functions can be blocked. In particular, these are features such as the ability to hide the icons of unnecessary programs, the creation of tabs, or support for gestures.

What do we get out of the box?

When the launcher is launched for the first time, we find ourselves on the desktop with two widgets "Import settings from another launcher" and "Restore settings from backup". Clicking on a widget will launch the corresponding dialog.

When I first started, I chose to import settings from another launcher (in my case, it's TouchWiz). The launcher reported on the number of elements found and warned that it would not be able to import widgets on its own. Nevertheless, their place is reserved for all widgets, and it is no longer difficult to add them manually. You can see the import result in the screenshots below. Please note that the desktop in Nova Launcher initially had a place under additional row icons.

When switching between desktops, the 3D cube effect works. I have heard that on Android 4.1, the Nova Launcher animation may be slow. But personally, in my case, everything works smoothly and smoothly. The transitions when opening and scrolling through the list of programs in the main menu work just as smoothly. A pinch on a desktop takes you to the list of desktops. If necessary, you can change their number or swap places.

Animation "Cube"

Supported quick creation folders by dragging and dropping two application icons onto one another. The folder view is configured in detail in the launcher settings. Widgets can be swapped by simply dragging and dropping them on top of each other. Or you can immediately put one widget directly on top of another, if this function is activated in the settings. The launcher has another interesting feature: you can remove not only the application shortcut from the desktop, but also completely remove the program itself. It is also worth noting that you can bring several application shortcuts to the desktop at once, and not add them one at a time, as usual.

The program menu itself is divided into two tabs: applications and widgets. As in standard Android 4.0, if you scroll through all the screens in the "Applications" tab, then the next screen will be shown from the "Widgets" tab. The application menu supports the creation of folders and individual tabs, we will talk about this further below. To the right of the tabs there is a "menu" button, when you click on it, a list of several actions appears. It contains three options: launch Play.Market, launch the standard "Application Manager" and go to the launcher settings.

As with Go Launcher EX, a scrollable dock is supported. But this launcher does not offer any own widgets.

Fine tuning

It is during customization that Nova Launcher shows itself in all its glory. Sometimes you get the feeling that you can customize anything and how you want in it. Because The possibility of detailed customization is one of the main features of Nova Launcher, then we will dwell on them in a little more detail.

In the first category of this section ( "Layout"), the view of the desktop itself is configured in detail. Of course, you can adjust the size of the grid itself. In addition, the width of the fields and the height of the desktop are configurable. Here you can also customize the display of the search string and select its style. Additionally, you can enable or disable shadows, adjust the number and location of desktops.

In the second section, "Scrolling", effects when flipping desktops are configured, various options for scrolling wallpaper, turns on circular scrolling of desktops.

Section "Scrolling"

Third section, "Icons and Widgets"... In this section, you can not only enable resizing of any widget, but also enable the ability for widgets to overlap each other. In my opinion, this is one of the most interesting features of this launcher. We have already seen something similar in Widgetlocker Lockscreen, but in Nova Launcher it is implemented much more conveniently. In addition, in the same section, you can configure the display of signatures for program icons and lock all changes on the desktop.

As with the desktop, you can change the grid size and scroll animation for the application menu. You can adjust the transparency of the background, choose the style of the entire menu (infinite vertical scrolling or horizontal "pages"), customize the display of the list of widgets. In the same menu, you can configure the list of hidden applications that will not be displayed in the menu. As I said, this is a very handy feature in my opinion.

Another very interesting feature of Nova Launcher is the ability to independently create not only folders in the application menu, but also the tabs themselves. In my opinion, this is extremely convenient. And it's very strange that such a useful and logical function is not in Android itself.

— Dock bar

Not deprived of attention and the dock with icons quick launch... You can customize the number of its panels, the number of icons on each panel, the width of the fields and the height of the dock. You can customize the display of the scroll indicator (built-in widget that displays the active desktop and their total number) and the separator between the panel and the desktop. For the dock, you can turn on the "blend mode", in which it is displayed on top of the desktop itself

By the way, to save screen space, you can simply turn off the dock. It might be interesting for phones with small screens.

— Registration

In the first section, "Registration", you can customize the appearance of the launcher. For example, choose a theme color. Or change the icon set. Here you can also set up the animation in detail: the speed of scrolling through screens, the speed of transition animation, and different animation options when opening applications can be adjusted separately. You can customize the display of the notification panel.

Section "Registration"

Second section, "Folders", allows you to customize the preview of folders and their background. Personally, this opportunity pleases me, standard view I don't really like folders in Android 4.0.

— Gestures and buttons

In chapter Button Actions you can choose the behavior and appearance of the "Home" button, assign one of the many actions to a long press of the "menu" button.

"Gestures" looks much more interesting. In it, you can assign actions to various gestures: pinches, swipes with one and two fingers in different directions, double tap, turns clockwise and counterclockwise. You can assign both the launch of certain applications and some system actions to gestures. For example, hiding the dock bar or notification panel, calling the launcher settings, viewing the latest running applications, switch to a preset desktop, etc. Gestures are flexible tools that anyone can use as they see fit.

Among the other settings, it is worth noting the setting of the counter of unread messages (for example, the number with the number of unread messages on the icon mail client), the default launcher setting, backup and restoration, import of settings from a third-party launcher.

As you can see, there are really a lot of settings. And by combining them, you can get a completely different desktop. One of the options is shown in the screenshot below.

For the dock bar, the "blend mode" was chosen, in which it is drawn on top of the desktop, and does not occupy the entire bottom strip of the screen. For the "down" and "up" gestures, I assigned hiding the dock and status bar, so they appear on the screen only when I need it. I took the space that was freed up on the screen for additional icons and widgets, adding two additional lines to the desktop grid. In addition, I added one more additional column - four rows of icons on the 4.8 ′ screen are clearly not enough. The only thing left to do is to resize the mail widget so that it occupies not 4, but 5 columns wide.

Outcomes

Many will disagree with me, but I would consider Nova Launcher not so much as a standalone launcher, but as a powerful tool for customizing your workspace. Go Launcher EX, Launcher 7 and many other launchers offer the user their own view of how the workspace on the phone should be arranged. The authors tried to create a completely finished product that has its own face and reflects their views on what the ideal phone interface should be. As with HTCSense, many of the "pure" Android aspects of them can be rethought and changed.

In turn, Nova Launcher does not try to offer any unique concept or idea, it simply allows each user to independently create the perfect workspace for themselves. As a result, it is perfect for those who don't mind the extra time it takes to tweak and experiment. Or those who know in advance what they want to get in the end and are looking for an easy way to accomplish this. If you just want to try something new, and at the same time do not want to delve into the menu items for a long time, then it is better to look towards other options.

Yandex.Shell

A very interesting and underestimated launcher by many. Yandex.Shell is one of those launchers that you can not only download from Play.Market, but also come pre-installed on some phone models. This launcher is the complete opposite of Nova Launcher. Instead of a standard appearance and a huge number detailed settings it offers an original and concise interface with a minimum of options. To be honest, I myself am usually not a supporter of this approach. But Yandex.Shell unexpectedly hooked me with something.

What do we get out of the box?

Initially, 6 desktops are involved in the launcher. A standard 4x4 grid is used. A beautiful, but unobtrusive animation is set for scrolling through desktops. Looks like a cross between the usual horizontal scrolling and "cube". New shortcuts and widgets can be brought to the desktop only through the program menu. You won't be able to do this through a long tap on the screen or the context menu. A similar situation is with changing the wallpaper - they change only through the launcher settings.

With a long tap on a widget, icon or any free space, the editing mode is turned on. In this mode, the active desktop is slightly moved away, and two adjacent desktops can be seen on either side of it. In principle, this display is standard for many launchers. But unlike them, in Yandex.Shell, editing mode is not automatically disabled after transferring a widget or shortcut. The user can safely place all the necessary elements and then return to standard mode. In my opinion, this is really very convenient. In addition, in edit mode, you can add a new desktop or delete an existing one. It is worth noting that you can only delete an empty desktop that has no shortcuts or widgets.

Between the desktop space and the dock is the desktops indicator. Regular desktops are displayed on it in circles, desktops occupied under the panel - in squares. We'll talk more about panels below. The dock itself contains five icons: phone, SMS, browser, search, application menu.

Yandex.Shell also has its own "dialer" (dialer with an address book). I will not describe it in detail, just look at the screenshots. I will only note the ability to search for missing numbers in Yandex and the beautifully executed "favorites" screen.

Everything else is standard, except that the search will be from Yandex and not from Google.

The application menu is divided into three tabs: Applications, Widgets and Panels.

In the tab "Applications" a list of all installed programs is displayed. A long tap on the program icon allows you to place it on the desktop. There are three buttons below the list of icons. The first button, with the image of a house, allows you to choose which shortcuts will be displayed on the desktop. Shortcuts that are already on the desktop are marked with a house icon. If you mark any other icon with this icon, then it will also be brought to the desktop. If you remove it, the icon will be removed from the desktop. I really liked this solution. IMHO, this is much more convenient than taking out the shortcuts of programs one by one or turning on the automatic delivery of the shortcut when installing the program (as in MiUI, Iphone, etc.).

The second button, with the trash can icon, offers to select programs to uninstall in the same way. For any new Android user, this looks much more understandable and logical than the standard version of uninstalling programs in Android.

The last button, "Search", allows you to quickly find the necessary program... Moreover, the search results display not only installed programs, but also search queries on Play.Market

In masonry "Widgets" special widgets from the set for Yandex.Shell are presented. The list looks pretty nice. There are a lot of widgets, they are all made in the same style and perfectly fit the launcher. The last item on the list is the "Other Widgets" icon. If you click on it, a list of all standard widgets... installed on the phone. They will be shown regular list, without thumbnails.

It is worth mentioning here another interesting point - when you add several widgets or shortcuts to programs on the desktop, they are automatically distributed between the desktops. If there is no more space on the desktops, a new desktop will be automatically created. Thus, you can select any number of widgets or panels directly from the menu itself, you do not have to worry about not having enough space for them.

The last tab is called "Panels". Panels are kind of interactive full-screen widgets. Each panel has its own settings. There are eight panels in total.

— Weather. It is essentially a full-screen weather widget. You can watch the weather for several cities for several days in advance. The widget is beautifully animated.

Weather panel

— Photo. Photos from Yandex.Fotki and Flicker services. Any photo you like can be immediately downloaded or installed on your desktop.

Photos panel

— News. Full screen news widget. Separately displays news for each channel, for example: "World", "Moscow", "Science", etc. When you click on the news, its description and links to various sources open. In general, the standard format for news.yandex

News panel

— Notes. Great widget for taking notes. The widget itself is a "board" on which you can stick multi-colored "sticky sheets" with notes. For each category of notes, there is a separate "board". The notes themselves can be freely moved around the "board".

Notes panel

— Moon phases. I am not fond of either astronomy or astrology, the phrases "Sun in Sagittarius" and "Moon in Cancer" do not mean anything to me personally. Therefore, it is difficult for me to judge what practical use it is (and is there any at all? ...) But it is made very beautifully. First, as with the Weather panel, the widget is well animated. Secondly, when tapping on it, a three-dimensional model appears with the moon, sun and zodiac signs. The model can be twisted as you like and viewed from different angles, you can choose different signs of the zodiac.

Moon Phases Panel

The rest of the panels are more or less standard, an alarm clock (allows you to change the appearance of the clock, watch the lunar calendar), a calendar, and a calculator.

Panel "Alarm"

Calendar panel

Calculator panel

Another interesting feature of Yandex.Shell is its three-dimensional desktop carousel. To switch to this mode, it is enough to make a "pinch" on any desktop. The carousel spins smoothly, lingering on each desktop. At the same time, if a panel widget is installed on it, then a very beautiful 3D animation will work. For example, a news panel will turn into a newspaper with the headline of the current news, which will be revealed to the user. Weather widget panel will show animated weather forecast for several days in advance. If a folder with programs is installed on the desktop, then it will open for a while, showing the user its contents.

The "News" panel turns into a newspaper ...

And "Weather" turns into a tear-off calendar

Fine tuning

There are very few settings in the launcher, you can change only the most obvious things: set the wallpaper, choose one of the two pre-installed themes, disable the "telephone component" of the launcher. There are also a couple of experimental features, like changing widgets (although it worked pretty awkwardly for me).

Outcomes

Yandex.Shell is a simple, but very well-made launcher. On the one hand, the creators of the launcher clearly tried very hard to make it as convenient as possible in everyday use. Many standard for Android functions have been significantly redesigned. On the other hand, there is practically no opportunity to customize it for yourself. And if the option that the authors of the launcher offer you does not suit you with something, then you just have to either accept the inconveniences, or change it to another.

PostScriptum

As I already wrote, Yandex.Shell unexpectedly hooked me with something. And I would like to add purely subjective impressions to the review.

It felt like it reminded me of HTCSense in some way. Of course, outwardly they are not much alike. But the creators of Yandex.Shell, like the HTC team, had their own point of view on many points. And, as in HTCSense, many things are implemented very simply, but at the same time very convenient. For example, when adding a widget, you will never get the error "no space on the desktop". And when you uninstall several programs, you just need to mark them with checkmarks right in the menu itself, and not delete each separately, looking for them for a long time in the long list of the application manager.

And, like the HTC team, the Yandex.Shell creators paid great attention to detail. For example, remember the weather widget that became the hallmark of HTCSense? Indeed, from the point of view of functionality, there is nothing special about it. But even by today's standards, he looked very cool. Similarly, at first glance, there is nothing special about Yandex.Shell desktop carousel, in which the news widget turns into an expandable newspaper, program folders open to show the content, and Yandex. Photos fly off their widget to describe a circle of honor to the user. But after all, in the end, it is not the list of available functions and settings that is important, convenience of use and positive emotions... And for many people, the laconic, but thought out to the smallest detail Yandex.Shell will be preferable to the faceless, but much more technically advanced Nova Launcher

Let me remind you once again that these are exclusively subjective impressions.

ADW.Launcher

Finally, let's look at another very popular launcher - ADW.Launcher

The launcher is pretty interesting. To some extent, it combines strengths of all reviewed launchers, but it also has a number of disadvantages. As in NovaLauncher, it has a large number of detailed settings for everything and everyone. At the same time, unlike it, it does not require Android 4.0. Like GoLauncher, it tries to be interesting for both beginners and "advanced" users. And, as in Yandex.Shell, some standard functions and android settings it is slightly rethought and changed.

The main disadvantage of the launcher is poor localization. The launcher settings are a jumble of English and Russian names, the training slides are not translated into Russian at all.

What do we get out of the box?

Tutorial slides

At the first start, a "tutorial" of several slides is shown. It is followed by similar slides, but with the settings themselves. The user immediately has the opportunity to select the animation he likes, customize the behavior of the dock or indicator without having to look for these functions in the phone settings. Great idea - it's a pity that the whole text is, again, in English.

Initially, only the very minimum of everything necessary is installed in the launcher. Of the five desktops, four are completely empty, the rest contains only 5 program icons. The dock is also almost empty, there is only a button to call the application menu. The indicator is designed as a thin white strip and takes up minimal space. The theme is light. Animation when flipping through desktops works quickly and smoothly. Perhaps it is because of all these moments that the launcher is perceived as very light and fast.

At the top of each desktop is an ActionBar. Outwardly, it resembles the search bar from Android 4.x, but its capabilities are somewhat broader. In particular, apart from search and voice search, it also allows you to go to the launcher settings or open the applications menu.

If in Yandex.Shell the developers tried to get away from the tradition of assigning all functions for setting up the desktop to a long tap on the screen, then the creators of ADW.Launcher took a strictly opposite path. In ADW.Launcher, a long tap on the screen calls up the main launcher menu, through which you can not only add content to the desktop, but also change its configuration or go to the settings of the launcher itself.

Like many other points, the appearance of the menu is a bit unusual for Android, but at the same time it is convenient and logical. The menu is divided into two tabs. On the "ADWConfig" tab, the first are the icons to go to the phone settings and launcher settings. This is followed by an icon that allows you to lock all changes on the desktop. Conveniently, it is included in the main menu. In some launchers, this option is hidden in some submenu of one of the phone settings section, which is why it is often inconvenient to use it. You can also turn it on and off at any time.

The next icon allows you to switch to the desktop editing mode. Everything is standard here - you can assign a home desktop, swap tables, add a new one or delete an existing one. The icon following it allows you to change the size of the desktop itself. To do this, you just need to change the size of the frame, there is no need to specify the values of the offset from the edge of the screen, set its height, etc. The last item allows you to change the wallpaper on the desktop.

The second tab, Add, is responsible for adding content to the desktop. You can add several types of content: "ADW Actions" (hide or show the dock, open the "curtain" of the notification panel, display programs from the corresponding category or go to a specified desktop, etc.), a shortcut to the program or some data (including number, allows you to manually set the icon and name), create a folder, add a widget. In the screenshot below you can see how the process of adding a widget looks like. As often happens in ADW.Launcher, everything is done very logically and conveniently, but at the same time it is noticeably different from the stock version.

Add a shortcut to "Action ADW"

The application menu initially has only one tab - "AllApps". But there is an opportunity to create tabs yourself. Moreover, unlike the same NovaLauncher, you do not need to look for this function in the launcher settings for this. It is enough to click on the "menu" button at the top of the screen and select the ManageGroups item. And to add new applications to the group - SetupGroup.

Create a new tab ...

The animation when you turn the screen works very interestingly: its speed depends on the speed with which you turned the screen. It is a bit like kinetic scrolling of lists. Looks pretty original.

Fine tuning

The launcher has a lot of settings. In the screenshot below, you can see what the main menu looks like. I will not describe them in detail, for the most part they repeat the settings of the already reviewed launchers. Full list settings you can see in the screenshots.

I used the free version of the launcher, so some of the settings are blocked for me.

In this section, you can customize the overall style of the launcher. There are two options available: Light and Dark. Here you can also customize the appearance and behavior of ActoinBar, change the screen grid, the color of the icon outline. The screen behavior is adjusted below: circular scrolling, transition animation, speed of scrolling desktops, wallpaper scrolling. The last are the settings of the screen indicator, its auto-hide and style.

Section "Screen"

In this menu, you can choose the general style of the application menu. In addition, it is possible to customize the menu in detail manually. For example, set a grid for horizontal and vertical modes, choose a menu background color, customize icon labels, set the color and saturation of shadows. You can also customize the behavior of the menu, for example, set the effect when it is opened or set the animation of page turning.

Application Menu Section

— Badges

The program icons themselves are configured in no less detail. Among the settings. available in free version, it is worth noting the choice of the size and color of the text, the choice of the color and saturation of the shadow, the choice of the background color for the text. Paid version The launcher also allows you to customize icon size, icon background color, glossy effect, and more.

Section "Icons"

— Folders

Folder settings. As usual, the main style is chosen first. Then - settings for preview, background, text color and shadows.

Section "Folders"

— The bottom panel

The first is the choice of the dock style (phone, tablet). Next, you can configure the auto-hide of the dock, its size in landscape and portrait screen orientations, customize the display of icons, enable auto-scroll of the dock, etc.

Bottom Panel Section

— Gestures

In this section, you can customize the behavior of the Home button, select and configure gestures, set actions on the dock swipe and the application menu.

Section "Gestures"

Customizing the Home Button

— Customizing themes

A very interesting section where you can manage themes. A huge number of themes are supported, including special themes for ADW.Launcher and icon sets, and themes for GOLauncher ... Launcher is almost omnivorous. =) Under each topic it is shown which components are included in it. Whether there is support for skins, whether the icons change, whether it contains wallpapers for the desktop, etc. There is a button "Get themes" that will show the results of a search query in Play.Market

The theme can be configured manually, for this in the list of themes there is an option "Customize". In this mode, you can manually select each component.

Section "Customizing Themes"

— System settings

This section contains standard system settings such as backing up, resetting, restarting the launcher. One of the interesting features is support for presets. In addition, it is possible to set a PIN both for unlocking the desktop (for some reason it did not work for me), and for launching specific programs. The latter function can sometimes be useful, for example, if someone else has access to your phone.

Section "System settings"

Outcome

ADW.Launcher is a great launcher that lets you look at the classic desktop concept from a slightly different angle. All functions are implemented very conveniently, but often a little differently from what is customary in Android. It is also worth considering that initially the launcher is almost empty, there are not even the usual icons in the dock.

In fact, ADW.Launcher is a kind of compromise between richness of settings and ease of use. If you find the time to customize the desktop for yourself once and understand its main features, then the launcher will become your faithful assistant when working with a smartphone. If you do not want to waste time even on a one-time setup, then it is better to look towards products that are more convenient “out of the box”. For example, the same GO Launcher.

Instead of an afterword

Launchers are quite different, they all have their pros and cons. Trying to compare them directly and identify the winner is pointless, everyone will choose according to their taste and color. For some, the abundance of settings is more important, for some for the original appearance, and for others, they are looking for just a convenient “out of the box” launcher. And, of course, someone simply does not see any reason for themselves to change something.

I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies. In particular, I sometimes compared the functions of the lunchers with the capabilities of "pure" Andriod. Unfortunately, the phone with "pure" Android 4.0 managed to turn in my hands for literally twenty minutes and maybe I could have missed something. If you have any comments on the content of the article, please write in the comments. Thank you in advance

PostScriptum

In the comments to the last article, many shared the names of interesting programs. And this is very cool. Unfortunately, like most other people, I just physically have no time to try each program. At the same time, you can even read a short note with a description of the program and a couple of screenshots from your phone on the way to work.

Therefore, if you know some interesting, but not very well-known program and have 20 minutes of free time, then write a short note about it on Android.MR. Writing a couple of paragraphs of text about a familiar program is usually not difficult at all. And many will be grateful for an interesting tip. And the Android.MR blog itself will become much more interesting.

The main advantage of Android over other mobile operating systems is its openness. Any user can customize the system "for himself" even without the knowledge and skills of software development. For example, everyone can install their own icons.

To do this, you need to get root rights... There are several options:, with, or.

Download the icons you need from Google Play - they are all collected on this page. Now install the Xposed Installer app from the official website, open it and follow the instructions:

1. In the main menu of the program, click on "Framework".

2. Select "Install / Update" and agree to reboot the device for the changes to take effect.

4. Open it. At the first start, give it root rights and in the window that appears, select "Open Xposed Installer".

5. This will open the Xposed Installer. Select "Modules" from the menu and check the box next to Unicon.

6. Now go to Unicon and select the installed Icon Pack. Click "Apply", after which a notification will appear about the need to reboot the device. Click "Reboot".

That's all. You yourself can estimate how much cooler the system looks.

Well, that's how easy it is to set your own stylish icons. If you have any questions, welcome to the comments.