Finally got annoyed enough with google at a glance and it's inaccurate weather that I downloaded Nova launcher so I could banish the widget. I hadn't bothered before because the latest Android versions had most of the same functionality

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I'm a weirdo and so I use a launcher called KISS. There are different options but how I have it set up, it's mostly a clear screen except a search bar at the bottom with some favourites pinned above it. Then if you tap the search bar, it fills the screen with a list of the most commonly used apps. Or you can tap a button on the side of the search bar to see all apps, or start typing the app you want.

I also have gestures set up, so I swipe different directions on that blank home screen to open different apps.

I was previously using Pie Launcher, where there are no apps or widgets on your screen until you tap and hold and a circle of your pinned apps appear, then you swipe to the one you want to open. KISS was a bit less frustrating for others to use, but still a bit haha.

I love it though. For a long time I had the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day on my wallpaper, so having a clean home page meant I could see the picture really well.

[–] AWOL_muppet@lemmy.nz 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh wow, I forgot about APOD!

I loved some of their colourised nebula images

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yeah lots of cool stuff. You can use Muzei and the Muzei APOD plugin to automatically change your background each day.

[–] Ozymati@lemmy.nz 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That sounds fun actually.

I just have some folders with frequently used stuff, and one whole screen devoted to a non crap weather widget (Weawow) a search widget, and Agenda Widget.

I use persistent notifications for a few things, and occasionally apps get promoted to the home screen temporary, for example when I go to the USA in September I'll dig up the airnz app out of the app drawer.

Some of that's general laziness but also at some point I just lost interest in customisation for the sake of customisation and I tend to only go looking for options when I'm annoyed with something or if the amount of slack I can gain from customising will outweigh the effort.

I had the same background picture for like 6 years. Got bored enough during lockdown that I changed it, but then had to redo my colour and icon scheme.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 3 months ago

I had the same background picture on my phone for about the same amount of time, whenever I tried to change it, it didn't feel like my phone anymore.

That phone still has the background picture, but I got a new one last Christmas and now that one has become the phone for playing podcasts for the kids (and occasionally Minecraft).