Im a new android user after switching over from iOS, where home screen apps are not allowed. Just was curious how many people use apps on their home screen, and if so what are some good/common ones. Also are home screen apps typically used by the every day android user or for more advanced users?
Please, clarify what you mean by "home screen apps". Since you are new to Android and don't know the terminology, I'll define "launcher" and "widget". It seems you could mean either when you say, "home screen apps".
A home screen launcher is how the phone displays icons and other screen objects. The iOS launcher just displays a grid of icons that represent apps you have on your phone. When you tap on an icon on the iOS launcher, it will start the app. On iOS, you cannot use a third party launcher.
On Andriod, there are a number of launchers that replace the default launcher that comes with your phone. I happen to use Nova Prime Launcher. What this launcher can do that my default launcher on my Galalxy S3 cannot is allow me to choose the number of rows and columns of screen objects. The default GS3 launcher offers only a 4x4 home screen and an app tray at the bottom (which doesn't change when I pan left or right to other home screens). With Nova Prime, I configure my home screen to have 6 rows x 4 columns and I actually remove the app tray on the bottom.
On any home screen, you will see icons that you can tap to start an app. What Android offers is what is called a "widget". Widgets are either mini versions of an app that display information on the home screen and/or provide controls to manipulate the mini version of the app or change some settings. The weather widget is one of the most common widgets you will see. It is a mini version of the weather app that usually displays a small amount of weather info such as current conditions and possibly a part of the forecast over the next day or few hours. Different weather apps have different widgets to choose from which display different amounts and types of information.
Another type of widget is a control object or shortcut. For instance, I have an icon on my screen that activates the WiFi hotspot feature on my phone. Instead of going into my settings to activate or deactivate the hotspot, I can just tap on the Hotspot widget to toggle it on or off. I also have a widget that is a shortcut to my SoundHound app. SoundHound identifies a song that is playing. Normally, I have to launch SoundHound and then tap on a button to identify the song. With the shortcut widget, I just need to tap my screen once to do that.
If you can please, clarify your question we can better answer it.
