4 ms·
My personal experience, and what I've noted of other Android users is that you generally don't fill your screens. Home screens tend to get filled up with your m
by commandar 15y ago
My personal experience, and what I've noted of other Android users is that you generally don't fill your screens. Home screens tend to get filled up with your most commonly used apps - I have a page with a handful of social networking apps, one with news apps, etc. Everything else gets left in the app drawer, which is organized alphabetically and can be easily scrolled through or searched.
- dpark 15y agoThen how is the question of screen swipes even relevant? If you're not using the left and right screens, then it's kind of a moot point. I'm not trying to be rude here. I seriously just don't see how the left and right screens can be considered a benefit if people don't use them.
- Macha 15y agoSome people don't use them. commandar for one, obviously. However, others make a lot of use of them. (Myself, cristoph and CoffeeDregs in this set of comments, for example). So for the people who don't use them, it's a moot point, but for people that do, it's a nice advantage. (I think you may not have realised commandar's and cristoph's replies were not written by the one person)
- dpark 15y agoI knew they were from different people. I think my point stands, though. If you do use 5 pages filled with apps, then the "swipe the wrong way" problem seems inevitable. And if you don't, then the comparison is kind of moot. Certainly, offering the option to put apps on the left of "screen 1" is not a problem if that's what you prefer. I'd probably never use that if I were on Android, though. Of course, Apple already uses "screen 0", so the "swipe left" option is already taken by search.
- Macha 15y agoThat depends. I use 5 pages but each page has a clear purpose. From left to right: Games, social, organisation (calendar + clock), Internet (bookmarks + search widget), media (music, videos, YouTube and so on). The only app I use on a regular basis that could fit on multiple screens is YouTube, and I can easily remember the position of one app. Swiping the wrong way does not cone into that. Your point only applies if you fill the 5 pages with apps as they're installed, iPhone style.
- dpark 15y agoYou could easily create folders and fit all of those on Screen 1 on iOS. 1 click to open any folder. As I've said a number of times, the usage patterns are too different. If you're using your screens as folders, then maybe you want the left-swipe functionality. If your screens contain every app you install, then that might not make so much sense. I'm not saying Android is wrong to have left/right screens, merely that the behavior would generally be wrong for iOS.
- losvedir 15y agoIt's relevant because we still do use the home screens, just not for every app. I'd say 90% of the functions I use my phone for are available on my home screen or one swipe away. I still use the App Drawer (the alphabetical list of all installed apps) occasionally for the rare app I don't use frequently to merit a prime spot on my home screens.
- commandar 15y agoI think you misunderstood me. I do use all 5 screens. I just don't completely fill every screen because there's no need for me to. I like organizing my apps on home screens into small, logical groups based on what I use most often. Apps I use on a day-to-day basis are never more than a couple of swipes away, and getting "lost" among 80 apps like you suggested isn't a problem because I have nowhere near 80 apps on my home screens. If it's not something I use all the time, it can live in the app drawer rather than be in my way on a home screen.
- dpark 15y agoAgain, though, this isn't apples to apples with iOS. You're using several screens to store a few apps on each. But then you've got the app drawer full of apps. How many swipes do you have to go through to get through all of the apps in your app drawer? Is your worst-case actually better than an iPhone user who has all their apps on 5 screens instead of in the app drawer? As for accessing things quickly, an iOS user can stick all their "social" apps in a folder on their main screen. The 5 screens can easily become a single screen, with 1 click to open any folder. Left and right swiping don't even mean anything here. As I said, it's not Apples to Apples. Saying that iOS should have left/right screens because it works on Android doesn't make sense if the usage patterns are different.
- keeperofdakeys 15y agoPersonally I only use one home screen on Android. I have my app draw available on a down swipe, and can scroll through the app draw (ie. not pages). I find it far eaiser to use the app draw even for things I use occasionally, as it is just a swipe and scroll away.