Give your Android home screen a fresh coat of paint with Buzz Launcher

Martin Brinkmann
Jun 27, 2013
Apps, Google Android
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6

The home screen theme your Android phone or tablet ships with is usually not the prettiest to look at. While it may be functional, it is often not as customizable as you may want it to be. Adding a new wallpaper or replacing a couple of apps shortcuts or widgets is usually all you can do here, if at all.

If you want more control over the home screen, you may want to take a look at Buzz Launcher. It is a free application for Android 4.0.3 and up devices that reminds me a lot of the PC desktop application Rainmeter.

What this means is that you can use stock themes or designs for the home screen that the developer's have created, or install user creations instead. This is in fact the greatest strength of the program as you can browse and install hundreds of user created themes for your Android home screen from within the application.

The application walks you through a tutorial of sorts that explains its key concepts. The first thing that you will notice is that you may have to install additional applications or widgets. This is usually indicated with a download icon displayed directly on a widget or application on the home screen.

Just tap on it and you are either taken to Google Play where you can download it, can add it right away if it is already installed on the device, or replace it instead with an installed widget or app. The latter option may be useful if you prefer to use a different widget or if the suggested widget is only available if you pay for it.

A long tap on any element on the screen opens a configuration menu. You can use it to edit the icon or widget directly on the screen, for instance to replace it, change its label or move it around on the screen.  You can also tap on free parts of the screen to add widgets, shortcuts or apps to it.

To install a different design, tap on the menu button and select Homepack Buzz from the menu. You are taken to a theme browser of sorts that you can browse by editorial picks, hot, new or categories.

To install a new theme simply tap on it here and select the download option on the theme's profile page. Here you can then select to apply it to the home screen, which makes the new theme the default one, or add it instead to it.

Buzz Launcher displays previews to you once the theme has been downloaded so that you know how it will look like. A tap on confirm finalizes the process and installs the theme on your system.

home screen themes android

As you can see on the screenshot above, several download icons are displayed indicating that apps or widgets need to be downloaded or placed here.

You can alternatively replace or remove them easily with a long tap on the icon on the screen.

Some home screens use multiple pages that you can swipe between easily, for instance to display a calendar or updates from a connected social network.

Verdict

The sheer number of themes available, according to the developer's more than 21,000, may be reason enough to give this one a try. The entire process of downloading and installing a new theme does not take longer than a couple of seconds usually. While you may have to install additional widgets and apps from Google Play, this too should not take too long and only needs to be done once as the widgets and apps are shared across all themes you install.

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Comments

  1. bruh said on August 18, 2023 at 1:25 pm
    Reply

    Uhh, this has already been possible – I am not sure how but remember my brother telling me about it. I’m not a whatsapp user so not sure of the specifics, but something about sending the image as a file and somehow bypassing the default compression settings that are applied to inbound photos.

    He has also used this to share movies to whatsapp groups, and files 1Gb+.

    Like I said, I never used whatsapp, but I know 100% this isn’t a “brand new feature”, my brother literally showed me him doing it, like… 5 months ago?

  2. 💥 said on August 18, 2023 at 3:55 pm
    Reply

    Martin, what happened to those: 12 Comments (https://www.ghacks.net/chatgpt-gets-schooled-by-princeton-university/#comments). Is there a specific justifiable reason why they were deleted?

    Hmm, it looks like the gHacks website database is faulty, and not populating threads with their relevant cosponsoring posts.

  3. 45 RPM said on August 19, 2023 at 6:29 pm
    Reply

    The page on ghacks this is on represents the best of why it has become so worthless, fill of click-bait junk that it’s about to be deleted from my ‘daily reads’.

    It’s really like “Press Release as re-written by some d*ck for clicks…poorly.” And the subjects are laughable. Can’t wait for “How to search for files on Windows”.

    1. owl said on August 20, 2023 at 12:51 am
      Reply

      > The page on ghacks this is on represents the best of why it has become so worthless, fill of click-bait junk…

      Sadly, I have to agree.

      Only Martin and Ashwin are worth subscribing to.
      Especially Emre Çitak and Shaun are the worst ones.

      If ghacks.net intended “Clickbait”, it would mark the end of Ghacks Technology News.
      Ghacks doesn’t need crappy clickbaits. Clearly separate articles from newer authors (perhaps AIs and external sales person or external advertising man) as just “Advertisements”!

      We, the subscribers of Ghacks, urge Martin to make a decision.

  4. chessandonions said on August 20, 2023 at 12:40 am
    Reply

    because nevermore wants to “monetize” on every aspect of human life…

  5. Frank Rizzo said on August 20, 2023 at 11:52 pm
    Reply

    “Threads” is like the Walmart of Social Media.

  6. Ashray said on August 21, 2023 at 4:06 pm
    Reply

    How hard can it be to clone a twitter version of that as well? They’re slow.

  7. Paul(us) said on August 21, 2023 at 5:16 pm
    Reply

    Yes, why not mention how large the HD files can be?
    Why, not mention what version of WhatsApp is needed?
    These omissions make the article feel so bare. If not complete.

    1. Paul(us) said on August 21, 2023 at 5:18 pm
      Reply

      Sorry posted on the wrong page.

  8. Marc said on August 21, 2023 at 6:00 pm
    Reply

    such a long article for such a simple matter. Worthless article ! waste of time

  9. plusminus_ said on August 21, 2023 at 7:54 pm
    Reply

    I already do this by attaching them via the ‘Document’ option.

  10. John G. said on August 21, 2023 at 11:43 pm
    Reply

    I don’t know what’s going on here at Ghacks but it’s obvious that something is broken, comments are being mixed whatever the article, I am unable to find some of my later posts neither. :S

  11. Tom Hawack said on August 23, 2023 at 2:28 pm
    Reply

    Quoting the article,
    “As users gain popularity, the value of their tokens may increase, allowing investors to reap rewards.”

    Besides, beyond the thrill and privacy risks or not, the point is to know how you gain popularity, be it on social sites as everywhere in life. Is it by being authentic, by remaining faithful to ourselves or is it to have this particular skill which is to understand what a majority likes, just like politicians, those who’d deny to the maximum extent compatible with their ideological partnership, in order to grab as many of the voters they can?

    I see the very concept of this Friend.tech as unhealthy, propagating what is already an increasing flaw : the quest for fame. I won’t be the only one to count himself out, definitely.

    1. Tom Hawack said on August 23, 2023 at 2:34 pm
      Reply

      @John G. is right : my comment was posted on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/23/what-is-friend-tech/] and it appears there but as well here at [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/08/how-to-follow-everyone-on-threads/]

      This has been lasting for several days. Fix it or at least provide some explanations if you don’t mind.

  12. Tom said on August 24, 2023 at 11:53 am
    Reply

    > Google Chrome is following in Safari’s footsteps by introducing a new feature that allows users to move the Chrome address bar to the bottom of the screen, enhancing user accessibility and interaction.

    Firefox did this long before Safari.

  13. Mavoy said on September 16, 2023 at 2:17 pm
    Reply

    Basically they’ll do anything except fair royalties.

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