If you are tired of seeing your mobile always the same, with the same appearance, same icons, and without any grace, now you can give it a spin and think about installing an Android launcher or launcher. Nova Launcher It offers you everything you may need for this task.
You may not know the terminology too much, but we can simplify it in that it is an application that can change not only the appearance of the screen of your smartphone, but also you can configure everything (or almost everything) you can imagine, from the application icons, to the dock, the shape and style of folders, even turning off the screen with a double tap, although this last option is only available in the paid version.
As you can see, it is an application that gives your phone a new life in terms of styling and functionality. I consider that one of the best, if not the best is Nova Launcher, due to its almost infinite configuration level.
Everything you can imagine can be subject to change, not only the desktop screen where to place icons and widgets, the bottom bar (the dock) where to set the applications that we use the most, or an application drawer with all the ones we have installed. In addition, to be able to enjoy Nova Launcher you don't have to worry about the brand of your smartphone or the version of your Android.
You can find it in the Play Store both in free version, and beta (You can help its development by commenting on failure or improvements that can be applied), as another paid version priced at € 5,25 and is called Nova Launcher Prime, which releases a series of options that we will not have available in the free version, such as hiding applications, some gestures on the screen, or removing applications without uninstalling them from our terminal.
The installation of this application is very simple. We go to Google Play Store, look for Nova Launcher and press the install button. It's that simple, like any other app or game. Once installed, we have to perform initial setup. The first thing we have to do is choose between creating a new design (recommended option), or looking for a design using Nova backups, then click on "Next".
It is the turn to choose a theme, light or dark, or a third called "Automatic", Which will make it change from light to dark when night comes. If you choose the latter, we must give you the location permissions so that you can determine what time to go from one topic to another.
And last but not least, you must choose how you want to open the app drawer. Among the options we have: place an icon in the dock or bottom bar, or simply slide up on the screen, and press Apply.
The next step is set Nova Launcher as determined on our mobile, since by itself it is not activated. It is a simple step that we can do without much complication, we must reopen the application and it would already be working. You will only have changed the appearance to a very simple one with no icons, and just two folders. But on the left we have the Nova Launcher configuration icon, with which we can set all the parameters we want and set it as determined.
To do this we must scroll down and look for the option: "Select Default Launcher"When you click on it, the Nova Launcher icon will appear, and the launcher icon pre-installed on your smartphone, click on the Nova one and it's done. Every time we turn on the phone and use it, it will do so with this configurable launcher.
As I was saying, the options to leave it to our liking are many, it is best that you explore little by little all the options it offers to be able to leave it to your liking, and in the best possible way for our interests. But relax, here I will explain some tricks and curiosities to get the most out of it without too many complications.
Tricks to configure Nova Launcher
As we have already said, the appearance is configurable in many aspects, thanks to this application, I personally like to change the icons and not use the default ones of Android, since they give a more personalized air to our smartphone, the steps to follow they are simple:
Change the default icons
You must previously download an icon pack that you like, from the Google Play Store. To do this, for example, Pixel pie icon pack - free pixel icon pack or OxyPie Free Icon Pack, They are quite colorful, varied, and the best of all is that they are free, like so many others that we can find by looking a little.
Now we must do the following: we go to the Nova settings, to the 'Appearance' section. And in 'Icon style' we can choose the theme that we have downloaded by clicking on 'Icon theme'and there adjust its shape, among other options related to the icons.
Add app icons automatically
If you want to have the shortcuts of all the applications that you download to your desktop, automatically, you must do the following: We go, within the application to "Nova Settings", in its first section "Desktop". We now go down to 'New applications' and activate the option “Add icon to the home screen”.
Place the Google search bar on the desktop
By default, when you install Nova Launcher, the google search bar widget. This bar is also configurable, we can change it or take it to the dock. The procedure to follow is this: In the Nova Launcher and settings, we have to press the "Desktop" section and we must go to the section in question, which is "Search".
First of all we are going to select the place where we want the bar to be. For example, we can select that the bar appears at the top of the screen or place it right in the dock, below the icons as we have already commented.
Best of all, we can change the appearance of the bar in its entirety. In the "Search" section in the "Desktop" section of the Nova settings we go to 'Search bar style'. Indicate that all the changes we make can be seen in a 'preview' mode at the top of the screen.
This way we can change the style of the bar, the color, the type of Google logo that we want to choose and the content of the bar. And if you finally don't like the bar we've chosen, or you just don't want to have it on your desktop anymore, press on it for a long time until the "Delete" option appears and that's it.
Disable functions hide 'Labs'
This section will allow you to perform different actions, and among them, place the weather widget on the google search bar that we have just configured, for this you must press and hold the 'Volume down' button within the Nova settings. Now, look for the "Labs" section and enter it.
The first option we find is "time in search bar ". And we will already be able to know if it will rain, the temperature of our city and if we have to use an umbrella ...
Activate dark mode
Now that so many applications have their dark mode, being already available even for Twitter, we can also do it with Nova Launcher, in a very simple way. Although it could be used for a long time, with the launch of Android 10, this launcher promises a full and stable integration with the latest version of the operating system.
To activate it you just have to go to the "Nova setting ”, enter the option "Night mode”And choose between activating it, making it automatic or customizing it. We had already seen this in the first steps of its installation, but we had not said that it was also you can choose the background colorThey are all dark but with different shades. It includes the option to select if you want the folders, icons or search bars to be darkened.
Notification marker in apps
As we do not want to lose sight of the notifications without previously reviewing. you can set the notification marker so that be shown in numbers, dotted or dynamic, plus size, color, or position change.
However Only with the Premium version you can activate the option to bookmark unread notifications. The steps to follow are as follows: We go to the "Nova Settings", we look for App drawer and we must choose any of the styles available for this option, later you have to grantr the necessary permissions so that Nova Launcher Prime can access notifications.
It remains to choose the size and position of the applications in the drawer, and finally, enable the option to display the application content after making a continuous touch.
Lock desktop so that changes are not modified
We have been configuring our launcher for a while, and the truth is that it can be an arduous task, but the worst thing is that with a simple gesture we lose everything we have advanced so far ...
To avoid it, it is best if we lock the desktop once we are done and have the final custom design. To do this, we go back to the "Desktop" section (in the Nova Launcher settings) and, at the very end at the bottom, we display a hidden menu that bears the name of "Advanced". Click on the first option that appears, 'Lock desktop'.
And from now on you will not be able to make any changes to the desktop, unless you deactivate this option if you want to make new changes.