Favorite Home Alternative

[Darrenrichie]

Paid for and used both ahome and open home. ahome is nice with the widgets but after installing and using the openhome full edition I have to say it is much nicer. Themes and icons look great (try the gloss theme), the pages are smooth and the gestures are good if not really necessary (to be able to get to main page from any other). I have also got Bettercut and use this to create shortcuts and it works brilliantly. My desktop now has dedicated pages for internet app's and shortcuts, pictures and music etc. I also like putting my most used contacts as a shortcut and applying a picture for the icon so i can call them just by clicking it. The soft keyboard works well for the search and the live folders demo is ok if not very useful for me at the moment.
Am glad to see that there are a few choices for home replacements and by messing about with them you can breathe new life into the look of your phone.

 

[breon]

No love for Sweeter Home?

I've tried them all. I'd have to say that even though it's in uber beta right now, Sweeter Home has so much potential.

Give it a shot.

breon

 

[punkzanyj]

I tried Open Home, but was annoyed that programs that create their own shortcuts on the desktop don't work with it. For example, Power Manager. It has the ability to create shortcuts to auto-apply a profile when you click it. It aways makes the shortcut on the normal Home desktop.

I see that Better Cut exists, and an Open Home version of AnyCut, but for other apps that may come out in the future that create shortcuts, how does one deal with this shortcomming?

Is there a way to treat these new home apps as the "real" Home app? I would think not or else the special version of AnyCut wouldn't exist.

Is there a way to copy a shortcut from the normal home to one of the other home apps?

Any other ideas?

You've basically outlined why I haven't jumped on these. I've downloaded them and played with them, but they seem slower than the default home section, and it's like I have to recreate my whole desktop all over again. I'd rather wait until google figures out what features it likes from aHome and OpenHome and decides to build them into the main OS. You know at least some of that stuff is probably on the cupcaker's list.

 

[justjimjpc]

Speaking of Google adding to the OS, the features of parts of 3rd-party Apps, I think Google may do that, but I wouldn't hold my breathe. I have enjoyed the looks and added usefulness of aHome since it came on the market.

Off Target: Google's potential for including features of 3rd-party apps and in effect making a Dev's work and investment less attractive to us is a double edge sword.
In some cases, It makes a feature available system wide, something a 3rd-party app can't provide. Will developers think twice before making an app to provide features that google didn't include in it's OS from the get-go... I hope the dev won't stop and I hope if Google jump's on their idea and includes them in a future OS, that the dev will be able to add some other benefit that the OS does not yet provide (i.e. aTractDog offers service for 3rd-party apps as well as market). In the end, it is not Google that will lead in the advancement and usefulness of this platform --- but the creative minds of the independent developers!

On Target: Dev's please know that most of us will continue to support your efforts to provide things that google forgot, didn't think of, or just didn't or doesn't want of to have. Keep up your great work!

 

[MarvinAndroid]

I haven't tried Open Home yet, so I can't really speak about that one. But so far I have to say I'm enjoying aHome quite a bit.

For me the main benefits are:

-auto-orientation flip (more cool than anything.. a bit slow but nice to have)
-more desktop screens! (this was my main reason for getting aHome - I like to have my apps place in groups with some space in between - that was impossible with only three desktops)
-clock and weather widgets are very nice
-you can set any screen as your home screen - just tap Home and it flips back there
-soft keyboard for Google Search widget... works well
-Themes - some of these are very nice (I'm using the Blue I-pod icons right now - nice and clean looking)
-I like the icon bar at the bottom with my most used apps
-deleting apps removes the icon from my desktop (just a small option - but I like it)

The bad parts:

-seems to slow down a bit... flipping through screens can be a TAD laggy, but still usable (and I'm picky about this stuff)
-it has crashed a couple times on me, but not often

For the most part I'm very happy with the app, my desktop was getting crowded and the extra space puts my geek mind at ease.

 

[mustafaq11]

can someone pm me ahome please
thankyou
mustafaq11

 

[gizbug]

Does not look like their is one clear cut winner here =(

Makes deciding that much more difficult.

 

[melissab]

Found this thread with search, but it makes no mention of Home++, which I'm currently using.

I'm just wondering if aHome is worth a try, or maybe a newer app is out there? What do you use and why?

Thanks,

melissab

 

[grainysand]

I'll throw my vote in for home++, though I don't use it anymore on account of using custom ROMs. It's easily the best I ever tried, as it affects minimal changes to the homescreens, hides the notification bar (which is pretty hideous in its default state) and provides the extra functionality of the app dock.

 

[plugnpl4y]

I used Slidescreen Home until I upgraded to 2.1. It was quite nice; I'd probably still be using it if it was 100% compatible with the update.

 

[melissab]

I like to switch between GDE and OpenHome. I'm not rooted YET. I signed up for TAT home last week.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[grainysand]

I used Slidescreen Home until I upgraded to 2.1. It was quite nice; I'd probably still be using it if it was 100% compatible with the update.

?

I'm trying it out on my N1 which, of course, runs 2.1. Don't experience any problem here; what's not compatible with it?

 

[JimmyT85]

I will soon be a new Android user, so which Home Replacement is the easiest/best for an Android Rookie?

 

[grainysand]

Depends on what you're looking for. Flashy? Simplistic? Functional?

 

[JimmyT85]

Depends on what you're looking for. Flashy? Simplistic? Functional?

Erm, just cool-looking and functional really, with good customization as I go along...

 

[grainysand]

In that case, the best home alternative is rooting.

Just kidding. Look up HelixLauncher on the market. It doesn't let you theme your homescreens or anything, but it's highly functional (add shortcuts in launcher, velocity scrolling, landscape rotation). GDE is good if you want themes, and Home++ hides the notification bar plus provides an application dock/status bar. SweeterHome 2 lets you customize the everliving daylight out of everything, but can be glitchy and requires a fair bit of setting up.

 

[jwmacdon1231]

Just got the Moto Cliq XT, and now really have no need for an alternative home.

I mainly used alt homes for the extra screens. With 5 screens on the default home, I'm one happy camper. No more FC!!!

Although, I do miss being able to really theme my home.

 

[dwcasey]

In that case, the best home alternative is rooting.

Just kidding. Look up HelixLauncher on the market. It doesn't let you theme your homescreens or anything, but it's highly functional (add shortcuts in launcher, velocity scrolling, landscape rotation). GDE is good if you want themes, and Home++ hides the notification bar plus provides an application dock/status bar. SweeterHome 2 lets you customize the everliving daylight out of everything, but can be glitchy and requires a fair bit of setting up.

I have Droid Eris with Android 2.1 and HTC Sense. HelixLauncher is the only one so far that I'm considering as a replacement.

It's lean, fast, has all the right features I need. Skinning is something I don't bother with. I has a shortcut bar at the bottom that can be used from all home screens, multiple home screens ( configurable ), home screen selection from any screen with a double-tap.

 

[captaincanada84]

I'm using ClockworkMod Launcher on my stock unrooted 2.1 Droid. LOVE it so far. It's 2.99 in the market, and definitely worth that 3 bucks.

 

[TopShelf10]

IMHO GDE, Pandahome, and OpenHome are the only ones really worth your effort (although I am still stuck on Android 1.5 so I have not been lucky enough to try all the alternatives on the market). Here are my what-fors on each of these, but please bare in mind these opinions are based on MY experiences with MY phone. All applications run different for everybody depending on their phone model, OS, and various things that they have running on their devices. So if you dont agree with something I'm saying please hold the "well your phone just sucks" ignorant talk:

GDE: This is the only alternative that I can currently stand by. It never lets me down. No lag, MINIMAL FC's. It is very smooth, and has nice transistions (cube, stretch, fade) if that is your thing. It is not so much geared towards customization as it is performance. There isn't an extensive market for themes, but I'm sure there is at least one good one out there for everyone. Has a nice scrollable app dock widget, and a drawer tray with embedded shortcuts (much like default home green "phone" button and blue "contacts" button.

Open Home: Don't get me wrong, this is a GREAT replacement. The ONLY thing that is repelling me is that it FC's almost every time I did an orientation change. This is a huge buzz kill. The FC's come as a shock because other than that it is lightning fast and very smooth, and never gives any indication that the app is having trouble running. Customization is spectacular with font/color support. Plentiful selection of themes. If this app was more stable the race would be MUCH closer between this and GDE.

PandaHome: This is a rare case where the developers' hard work may have actually them. They have put sooo many awesome features in this app that it has trouble performing. This app is extremely frustrating because it has so much potential. It is the best alternative for customization (some would argue Sweeter Home, but i feel its apples and oranges), it supports fonts/colors/, even has its own icon editor (which you can do with any replacement using "Bettercut", but not needing this saves you some storage space). It also has slide-out scrollable app docks which are nothing less than convenient, along with nice A-Z button categorizing for the app drawer. ALL this and more. So, why did I not stick with this app? One word....PERFORMANCE. This app has soo much going on, that it makes it one of the most fun, yet one of the most unstable. Constant lag, constant FC's, orientation problems. It is a crying shame because this app could improve your phone-navigation 10x.


I would love to hear who agrees/disagrees. Let her rip!

Jimmy
MotoCliq
And. 1.5

 

[AFAngryWarrior]

I've used them all and ended up using Helix Launcher as my favorite with Bettercut for customer Icons. Gives me a nice streamlined look and with Helix I get the permanent icons to the left and right of the launcher button to have my most used programs with me all the time.

 

[tparker1]

Gde

 

[midge37]

Been using Helix Launcher for a month or so now and not had any major problems. Love the bar at the bottom where you add your favourite apps as leaves a lot more room on the home screen for everything else.

 

[paimon.soror]

Question, is anyone here using a Home replacement for HTC Sense based phones? I mean non rooted phones like the Incredible. How has your experience been?

 

[EinZtein]

Adw rocks.