The home screen of your phone is something you see several times a day, possibly hundreds. It’s a personal organisation of what matters to you on your phone, what you access regularly and what you need to access quickly. Because of this personalisation, everyone does it differently. Have you ever picked up someone else’s phone and tried to find an app? Tricky isn’t it.
Well we thought it might be fun to share ours. So we each took a screenshot of our homescreen and wrote a little bit about it. I’m sure there will be some similarities, Twitter for example, but there are some guaranteed wild cards. Have a look at each, and who knows, you might see something you find useful or fun!
John Reilly’s Homescreen (HTC One M8)
As a huge fan of all things HTC, I always like to use their now iconic clock and weather widget (albeit an updated one) to act as my ‘homescreen’ anchor. It acts more like an instant reminder that I’m on my homescreen and not some other side screen rather than a time keeping necessity.
With my four main ‘staple’ apps in the bottom tray, they’re easily accessible even from the lock screen which speeds up my usability and productivity.
As you can see, I’m a serious Google addict and use a lot of their services. I’m a big fan of their new Play Music: All Access service which is only €7.99 a month to stream all the music I want.
I really like Ulster Banks mobile banking app as well and being able to check your account in a few seconds and pay my rent on the go, I really couldn’t live without it. Facebook Messenger gets a lot of us also but with the updated Google Hangouts which correlates both your Hangout and text messages into one thread like iMessage, I’m finding myself using it more and more.
Joe Carlyle’s Homescreen (iPhone 5S)
The first thing you may notice is the lack of notifications, I’m a sucker for a clean home screen, I always get rid of them immediately.
My must have apps are my two mail apps, personal and work, Twitter and Google Search. I use all 4 all day, every day.
My tray is fairly generic thanks to phone and messages, I added Twitter as I use it a lot and Google Search as I find myself jumping from apps back to it.
I rarely re-order my apps as I find my thumb heading in the wrong direction. I try keep my commonly accessed apps lower on the screen as it is easier to reach.
My newset addition to the coveted home screen is Hailo. I’ve found myself using it more and more recently, it deserved it’s spot. I do still have two spare slots, but cannot decide what deserves the promotion yet but Threes and VSCOcam are making a strong push.
Luke Hoare Greene’s Homescreen (Nokia Lumia 925)
Windows Phone is clearly much different to iOS and Android as seen above, the live tiles move and change to show me different information – hence why you can see half of my boyfriend and mine’s profile pictures, that changes to the full picture, then flips to show our latest tweets, status or text messages etc.
I’m running a developer preview of Windows Phone 8.1 which is why I’m able to set an image as a background instead of the coloured tiles on a black or white background that you’ve probably seen with other Windows Phones.
Naturally I chose an awesome shot of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, the picture moves with a cool parallax effect, meaning that it moves as you scroll down your start screen.
I’ve got the essentials on the right for easy reach with my thumb – phone, Internet Explorer, Messaging, Facebook Messaging, WhatsApp and 5 email accounts in one linked inbox.
Otherwise I have Twitter and Instagram up top, Readit for my daily fix of Reddit, my People hub which serves as a Twitter/Facebook feed and also my phonebook, and finally just at the bottom right there is the Facebook app.
My Start Screen actually scrolls down a few pages long, but the most important stuff is what you see at the top there – live, attractive and well-presented!
Tony Reilly’s Homescreen (Sony Xperia Z1 Compact)
I’m a creature of habit and be it this phone, or any device, I like to have certain things on my home screen. My ‘core’ apps are always in the doc. You can see that is my main communication apps – Gmail, Hangouts, Chrome and my phone. Above those I have my social apps, and a folder of Google Apps. I use beautiful widgets for my main clock, weather and date widget. It just seems to be my go to every time, as it just works for me.
I like to have access to my camera directly on my home screen as well for quick and easy access. Like John, I do love my Google. I use Google Music, Hangouts, Google+, Gmail, etc… every day without fail!
You also might notice that I have applied a Theme to my Xperia that gives me some of the upcoming Android ‘L’ release look, specifically the back, home and recent keys at the bottom of the screen! I do like the Xperia devices for their ability to apply themes and change these buttons and other features throughout the device.
So there you have it, a rundown of how we have our homescreens set up here at TheEffect HQ. How do you like yours? Let us know in the comments below.
