What's the benefit of using a launcher over TouchWiz?

[johnnylighton]

I'm happy with TouchWiz. But I'm out of new things I can make my S3 do. Would a launcher be a worthwhile new toy? What can they do beyond TouchWiz?

Should I wait until my AT&T phone gets JB before installing a launcher? I.e., will there be improvements to the TouchWiz UI that I would evaluate first?

Is it easy to return to TouchWiz if I don't like the launcher?

Thanks!

 

[dan55]

hi,
im using Apex launcher because i dont like the way TW stops you from quickly adding homescreen items by just tap+hold :/ plus i dont like the fixed app drawer icon in the right of dock

imo just try one or 2 and see what you think

cheers

 

[UserName872]

I'm happy with TouchWiz. But I'm out of new things I can make my S3 do. Would a launcher be a worthwhile new toy? What can they do beyond TouchWiz?

Should I wait until my AT&T phone gets JB before installing a launcher? I.e., will there be improvements to the TouchWiz UI that I would evaluate first?

Is it easy to return to TouchWiz if I don't like the launcher?

Thanks!

Typically 3rd party launchers such as Nova, Apex, Launcher Pro or Go Launcher offer more customization. The ability to resize icons and widgets, change icons with icon packs, enable home screen rotatiom .

There shouldn't be any harm messing with a launcher before Jelly Bean makes it to your device. Best part is you can always uninstall the launcher like any other app if you want to go back to Touchwiz.

 

[Stuntman]

Here are the things I cannot do with TouchWiz that I can do with Nova Prime launcher:

-- I can remove the dock at the bottom of the home screen. I don't find it useful, so I got rid of it.

-- I can have more than 4 rows and 4 columns of icons. I configure mine to have 6 rows of icons (one row replaces the dock) and 4 columns. The GS3 has such a big screen that it has room for more than 4 rows of icons plus a row for the dock.

-- When I was using the dock, you can have more than one page. You page through the docks just like how you page through home screens (by swiping left or right).

-- Moving icons and widgets around is easier. Nova moves icons and widgets out of the way for you when you customise your home screen. With TouchWiz, I find I have to delete stuff and re-add it if my home screen is crowded.

There are other things that you can do. I just listed the things that I did with my launcher.

 

[rborelli]

I use Go Launcher and love it. Lots of features and it's free. Couple of ones I like are you can change the font style and color for the icons and you can hide the dock.

 

[johnnylighton]

Thanks a lot everyone for the very informative responses!

 

[pappcam]

The 2 biggest things for me with using Nova over Touchwiz are being able to have more icons on my screens and being able to group my Apps in the App Drawer.

One thing I liked about Touchwiz was that it actually had a screenshot/preview of the widgets you could add to your home screens instead of just a plain list like Nova has.

 

[Heisenberg123]

ive been using Apex does everything that i need

main reason i like launchers is just to have different icons, and i like the app drawer centred on my dock

 

[aldo82]

gestures also make a difference. I use Nova prime and have swipe up bring up recent apps and a swipe down bring down the notification shade. The swipe up saves the home button (not really a fan of physical buttons and the more its used the more it'll wear out I guess) and the swipe down means opening notifications is easy with one hand without having to reach the top of the screen. That and having more icons and persistant search bar (better use of the screen), nicer icons and open app drawer shortcut in the centre of the dock mean when I went back to try Touchwiz after installing JB I lasted 5 mins before Nova was back on my phone!

 

[SMALBA]

I'm looking to start using a launcher. I would like to change the icons for the messaging and people apps. Where can I get the icon for the stock jellybean text message app?

 

[Stuntman]

One thing I liked about Touchwiz was that it actually had a screenshot/preview of the widgets you could add to your home screens instead of just a plain list like Nova has.

That is the one down side to using Nova Prime. You can get previews, but it requires root access and I just can't be bothered to do that.

 

[johnnylighton]

I'm interested in trying Go Launcher. I like what PRkid posted about swiping up to turn off the phone, swiping down from anywhere on the screen to get the notifications shade, and double-tapping to launch an app.

But I'm happy with how I've set up my seven TouchWiz screens. I will have to set all those up again if I install Go Launcher?

 

[Roadie1015]

I'm interested in trying Go Launcher. I like what PRkid posted about swiping up to turn off the phone, swiping down from anywhere on the screen to get the notifications shade, and double-tapping to launch an app.

But I'm happy with how I've set up my seven TouchWiz screens. I will have to set all those up again if I install Go Launcher?

I think there's an app called desk migrate but I'm not sure how well it works.