I attempted a clean homescreen on my Android telephone for 2 weeks

A few weeks in the past, I discovered myself putting in Niagara Launcher for the primary time. It had been years since I’d used a third-party Android launcher and the final time I did, it was Nova Launcher and its very stock-like expertise. Niagara’s distinctive strategy intrigued me, however after an hour of tinkering, I noticed I might disable each single component on the homescreen. The icons, the widgets, the choices, all of it: gone.

What began as a innocent exploration of Niagara remodeled into a private problem. Might I reside with a very clean homescreen? What would it not be wish to unlock my Android telephone and see no app icon ready for me? Would it not rework the best way I take advantage of my telephone? I made a decision to stay with that setup for a number of days. 18 days later, I believe it was time to name the tip of the experiment, so right here’s what I found alongside the best way.

I’ve been utilizing the homescreen setup you see above for years. Seven, eight, perhaps extra. It’s acquainted, it’s practical, and it has every thing I would like. The wallpaper modifications on daily basis or two, however the remainder is fairly static.

There’s a Google search bar, the At A Look widget, plus shortcuts to the telephone app and my 4 most-used apps: WhatsApp, Digicam, Chrome, and Spotify. On prime of that, you will discover folders with dozens of the apps I take advantage of. The primary one is a productiveness mish-mash of banking apps, work apps, and extra. The second is simply Google apps. Third is a sequence of instruments. Fourth has all of the media and enjoyable apps. And the fifth has all my sensible dwelling and related gadget apps.

A secondary homescreen homes a Todoist widget, plus extra app folders that I stored piling up after I moved to France and began utilizing a number of native providers.

The system served me properly sufficient that I by no means felt the necessity to change it and that I by no means even seen there have been two folders with the “Instruments” title — ha! I knew easy methods to get to any app in two faucets max, or one swipe and two faucets max in the event that they had been on the second homescreen. I hated the inefficiency of app drawers and having to scroll to seek out the app I wanted; this, I believed, was higher for me.

So why did I am going the acute reverse and take away every thing? Effectively, I suppose I needed an actual shock to the system. A clean homescreen was the proper set off to start out questioning every thing about my setup. Did I would like all of those apps inside straightforward attain, and what occurs after they disappear?

The primary 24 hours had been very bizarre, I’ll admit. I unlocked my telephone and there was… nothing. Only a cool wallpaper. If I had no pending notification, the expertise was disconcerting. There was nothing for me to do, no app ready to distract me, no icon inside straightforward attain of my bored finger.

I instantly knew I needed to discover a solution to quantify this experiment. So I began noting down my Digital Wellbeing stats on daily basis to maintain a tally of issues. Beneath are the common values of day by day unlocks, notifications, and screen-on instances for the month previous to the experiment, plus the primary day (the true shock), first week, second week, and whole length. I additionally calculated the share of unlocks per notification, i.e. my readiness to seize my telephone and work together with it when there was a pending notification.

Digital Wellbeing tells me I unlocked my Pixel 8 Professional 29 instances whole on November 15 (the primary day), down from a median of 55 unlocks/day within the month prior. I used to be clearly discouraged from even opening the telephone. My display time (3h 18m) was one of many lowest of the whole experiment.

For the primary week, I needed to be very deliberate about every motion I needed to do. If I needed to test X/Twitter, I needed to go search for it. The icon wasn’t in entrance of me anymore. Similar with Instagram, YouTube, and different time-sucking apps. And even after I unlocked my telephone to reply to a notification, there was no further distraction inside straightforward attain. I needed to actively search for it.

As time handed, although, I someway discovered my means again to my distractions and previous habits. Positive, I needed to set off the app drawer and alphabetically scroll by means of apps, which was inefficient at finest, however I began getting used to it. You possibly can discover my unlocks/day stand up significantly on Week 2 (although, that’s partly as a result of increased variety of notifications too).

You possibly can see that I used to be getting extra notifications, on common, these two weeks than within the earlier month, however I used to be clearly much less tempted to unlock every time I acquired a notification. My telephone turned boring. That’s how I felt every time I interacted with it.

The clean homescreen was equally releasing of distractions after I didn’t have a particular process in thoughts and irritating after I knew precisely which app I needed.

Taking a photograph took extra time, opening WhatsApp or Slack to ship a message was annoying, and checking my pictures and movies wasn’t intuitive anymore. Overlook about controlling my sensible dwelling, listening to podcasts or music, shopping Chrome, or opening my password supervisor. Actually, every thing I wanted was a number of steps too far. I acquired used to a few of it, however I stored getting extra pissed off with time. Counting on the app drawer for every thing is extraordinarily inefficient for me. It’s clear that I don’t want all app icons, however I do want some app icons.

Surprisingly although, the factor I missed probably the most was my Pixel 8 Professional‘s At A Look widget. I didn’t know I used to be this reliant on it, nevertheless it’s the quickest solution to know if I’ve an upcoming occasion, test the climate, see the battery degree of my Pixel Watch, and extra. After I’m touring, At A Look is virtually indispensable, however I noticed it’s turn out to be part of my on a regular basis telephone interactions too. I actually hated having to open the Google app and scroll to faucet on the climate icon to see the forecast.

One other Google function I missed was the search bar. Having to open the app or Chrome first was annoying. Even worse was the shortage of a Lens shortcut, which had turn out to be a often used device. On-the-fly textual content translation and object recognition are issues I do typically sufficient that I would like a homescreen shortcut for Lens.

However, I additionally realized I didn’t want quick entry to greater than 70% of the icons that beforehand sat on my primary homescreen. Plus, my secondary homescreen had no purpose to exist in any respect. The Google Uncover feed was virtually a wash too. I solely felt its absence after I was bored, and I not often am bored.

After I ended this experiment, I sat down with my telephone and considered every thing I’d realized from the clean canvas strategy. I didn’t need to return to my previous tried-and-approved setup; I needed one thing higher. Quick access to the apps I actively want probably the most, much less entry to distractions or infrequently-used apps.

I made a decision to stay with Niagara Launcher in the meanwhile, which meant bringing again At A Look by means of the Google app widget. I’m undecided this has all of the options of the Pixel-exclusive launcher widget, nevertheless it has the calendar and climate on the very least.

Subsequent was a shortcut to the Google app for fast searches and Lens entry. I additionally enabled the alphabet record for the app drawer. As good because it was to not see it, I admit it’s holly inefficient to swipe to disclose it every time I need to launch an app that’s not on my homescreen.

And eventually, I introduced again some favourite app icons. WhatsApp, Chrome, Digicam, Images, Spotify, Pocket Casts, and 1Password, plus two folders for my most-used work apps and most-used Google apps.

This looks like a contented medium between the busy unique setup and the fully clean homescreen. I’m nonetheless within the technique of determining what my perfect setup appears like, so issues are more likely to change with time. What I’ve realized is that stagnation and piling up icons on prime of icons isn’t as environment friendly as I believed it was.