9 useful apps to personalize your Android home screen

By Gizbot Bureau

| Updated: Monday, December 24, 2018, 10:53 [IST]

The Android home screen is akin to your wardrobe, where you keep all the necessary things within reach, yet have to maintain its aesthetics. The home screen is what people look at, and a well-maintained one makes you feel good as well. Keeping in stride with the nature of Android, making use of its customizable nature, one can completely alter how it looks. There are several ways to personalize your home screen, given below are some essential apps that help you do so.

Muzei

Described by the developers as a "living museum," Muzei is a live wallpaper app that displays famous artworks. Every few hours, the app refreshes the wallpaper. You can change the setting to display pictures from your gallery. If a particular artwork interests you, Muzei gives you information about the artist and year of the painting.

Contextual App Folder

Get contextual access to your apps. The app creates a folder which includes apps you use most. It works on a trigger, such as inserting a headphone opens the music app, or a fitness app opens when you reach a gym. True to its name, this one.

Launchers

Needs no introduction. Several third-party launchers are available on the Play Store which offer wide experiences. Choose one of many such as Nova Launcher, Evie launcher. Each one offers a UI worth exploring.

Icon Packs

Material Design gives every icon rounded edges, and they can be monotonous to look at. You can easy alter their appearance by downloading various icon packs available in the store, such as - Viral, Pixel pie.

Zooper widget

An extremely customizable, battery friendly DIY widget. Just the thing your home screen needs. Contains several templates, shows every information possible - Battery, weather, calls, sunrise/sunset, moon rise/set. The list goes on.

Custom Search Bar

Custom Search Bar is a widget that lets you search across several search engines right from the bar. Duckduckgo, Facebook, and it even lets you search within apps such as Google Drive, Music, amazon.

Smart Drawer

This is sort of a cross between a launcher and a standalone app. It arranges all the apps into categories such as settings, browsers. You can easily pull it up and open the app you wish. Smart Drawer meshes well with any launcher.

WallMag

If you often forget to read an article or a magazine, WallMag ensures that you won't. It sets an article as the wallpaper and you can access it by tapping the floating app widget. The app lets you set your interests and suggests article by turning your background into one.

Tapet

A background generator that automatically generates interesting hi-res backgrounds for your home screen. Tapet, being compatible with Muzei, doesn't even require an internet connection. You can set the duration according to your preference - every day, every hour.