Hideous TouchWiz

[MBX]

Hi there

I'm not a fan of TouchWiz, kinda ugly. Especially some UI's like dial-pad and some icons.

Now I looked into launchers to skin it differently. But if I understood correctly these launchers like NovaLaunch are just apps that you have to press at start up every time to activate the skin? At least when I did it it always reverted to TouchWiz after a while and I had to press on NovaLaunch icon again.

Is there anything that can theme/ skin the Samsung phone permanently?

 

[chagla]

Hi there

I'm not a fan of TouchWiz, kinda ugly. Especially some UI's like dial-pad and some icons.

Now I looked into launchers to skin it differently. But if I understood correctly these launchers like NovaLaunch are just apps that you have to press at start up every time to activate the skin? At least when I did it it always reverted to TouchWiz after a while and I had to press on NovaLaunch icon again.

Is there anything that can theme/ skin the Samsung phone permanently?

no. after installing a launcher, when you press the home button, it will ask you whether you want to use the new launcher or the existing one. you can pick one and make it a default. this way you wont get prompted again. otherwise when you press the home button, the prompt will show up.

check out "smart launcher" by ginlemon. if you like themes, Go launcher EX is also good.

 

[MRU]

You set Nova as your default and you won't have to go back to touchwiz BUT!!!! The things you have difficulty with like dialer, contacts and hideous messaging will all remain and whilst you can opt for another messaging app - i'm afraid even if you utilise a third party dialer - you will still get touchwiz dialer when you call or receive and you can not disable it otherwise you won't get proper notifications of missed calls and such.

So yeah - Nova will resin the front end - but for me the launcher part of touchwiz is actually pretty good. customisable app drawer and such. However the inability to move app drawer icon to centre of the doc is a pain in the arse.

Likewise changing to Nova doesn't solve the other ugly UI elements.


Samsung DO need to go back to the drawing board and 1 - unify the aesthetics of touchwiz and make them consistent and coherent through the whole of its OS and stock applications.

Then on top of that they need to optimise the whole lot of it so that it's not such a leech on resources. The difference between stock android and touchwiz on resources is quite startling.

 

[MBX]

Are those better for "permanently" skinning or do they behave same as Nova?

check out "smart launcher" by ginlemon. if you like themes, Go launcher EX is also good.

 

[kevinof]

All launchers behave the same. You install is, select the home button and it will ask if you want to make it the default. Select always and you're done.

Are those better for "permanently" skinning or do they behave same as Nova?

 

[The Game 161]

Sadly no more features work on anything else but touchwiz

 

[Oohara]

Samsung DO need to go back to the drawing board and 1 - unify the aesthetics of touchwiz and make them consistent and coherent through the whole of its OS and stock applications.

Then on top of that they need to optimise the whole lot of it so that it's not such a leech on resources. The difference between stock android and touchwiz on resources is quite startling.

I could seriously tattoo this post all over my body and run naked through the streets of Seoul yelling "Hear ye, hear ye!!!"

 

[MBX]

Samsung needs to hire some really good UI designers and catch up to Apple iOS7 or Google's stock Android... in terms of aesthetics that is.

I could seriously tattoo this post all over my body and run naked through the streets of Seoul yelling "Hear ye, hear ye!!!"

 

[Dontazemebro]

Sadly no more features work on anything else but touchwiz

.... and that's the crux of it. Do you roll with a better launcher for visuals or go with touchwiz because of the numerous feature set. I guess it depends on if you use the features or not.

Multi window and air gesture is just too important for me.

 

[PollyK]

Multi window and air gesture is just too important for me.

Bingo!
To be honest I don't find TW all that ugly. I prefer black backgrounds. But I also like change, so a change in the UI would be welcome. I also appreciate that android has launchers. I never get bored of cycling through my favorite icon themes. Again, smart features over anything else always weighs heaviest for me.

 

[F123D]

I can live with touchwiz using Nova Launcher since some of the features are really helpful. I also don't find the UI to be as ugly as some make it out to be. Its the carrier bloat and features I dont find useful that are annoying.

 

[Stuntman06]

Samsung needs to hire some really good UI designers and catch up to Apple iOS7 or Google's stock Android... in terms of aesthetics that is.

I'm generally indifferent to asthetics. I don't have any issues with the asthetics of TW. I do like the Sense dialler a lot better. Other than that, I'm happy with my SGS3. I currently use Nova Prime to get rid of that annoying dock and add 2 more rows per home page in its place.

 

[appledes7]

Hi there

I'm not a fan of TouchWiz, kinda ugly. Especially some UI's like dial-pad and some icons.

Now I looked into launchers to skin it differently. But if I understood correctly these launchers like NovaLaunch are just apps that you have to press at start up every time to activate the skin? At least when I did it it always reverted to TouchWiz after a while and I had to press on NovaLaunch icon again.

Is there anything that can theme/ skin the Samsung phone permanently?

Did you ever see the part that says "Select Default Home" in Nova launcher settings?

 

[ivtecDOu]

I had to remove touchwiz for vanilla Android

 

[mib1800]

.... and that's the crux of it. Do you roll with a better launcher for visuals or go with touchwiz because of the numerous feature set. I guess it depends on if you use the features or not.

Multi window and air gesture is just too important for me.

If I am not mistaken those features are still there even if you don't use touchwiz. now even all the samsung widgets are available for use in other launchers as well unlike previously.

Just install a new launcher, theme it and you are done. Not sure what's this big hurrah about nothing.

 

[rhinosrcool]

If I am not mistaken those features are still there even if you don't use touchwiz. now even all the samsung widgets are available for use in other launchers as well unlike previously.

Just install a new launcher, theme it and you are done. Not sure what's this big hurrah about nothing.

Agreed. Nova prime still lets you have multi-window, air gesture, and all s-pen functionality.

 

[InuNacho]

I like Touchwiz and the apps associated with it but its unbearably laggy. I wish Samsung would go back and clean it all up instead of throwing bigger badder specs at it.

 

[Dontazemebro]

If I am not mistaken those features are still there even if you don't use touchwiz. now even all the samsung widgets are available for use in other launchers as well unlike previously.

Just install a new launcher, theme it and you are done. Not sure what's this big hurrah about nothing.

Didn't know that, thanks for the heads up.

I tried to use the Samsung calendar widget with Nova Prime recently and it didn't work. Might still be limited on which widgets you can use.