4 ms·

I'm surprised you didn't simply take a black photo. I used to cover up the lens with something opaque in order to take one when I had a black wallpaper.

dorkwood 4y ago
I tried this and the phone asked permission for the default wallpaper app to access my photos. It was unclear what else it might use my photos for, so I said no.
- bobsmooth 4y ago
  So instead of trusting the built-in wallpaper app you downloaded a third party app to access your device?
  - dorkwood 4y ago
    Yes. I didn't like doing it, but only one of those apps would work without photo permissions. Should an app get a free pass just because it comes bundled on my phone?
    - bobsmooth 4y ago
      I just think it's interesting you wouldn't trust a built-in app to not do something nefarious with your photos yet you'll trust a random third-party app to be safe.
Markoff 4y ago
he can just take screenshot of black part of screen, crop just the black part and use it as wallpaper since it will be stretched/repeated, so even if it's just few pixels it's enough for whole screen
- dorkwood 4y ago
  Don't you think it's silly that I can't choose the color of my desktop background on a modern phone? These workarounds -- taking photos, taking screenshots, creating a single black pixel in photoshop and emailing it to myself -- shouldn't be necessary. It's a bit like someone complaining that a park's benches were removed, and everyone telling that person the different objects they could bring to the park to sit on instead.
  - Markoff 4y ago
    It's silly to complain not all launchers provide same features like Nova launcher by your logic. Nova launcher has option for No wallpaper only with black color, no selectable solid color. It's feature YOU are missing, some launchers have it, some don't, nobody stops you from installing launcher which has features you desire. But you don't have to even do it since there are simple workarounds how to set solid black home screen, take photo with covered lens, download black pixel, crop screenshot, etc. If they added option for no picture and chose black for no picture you would complain why they don't provide color picker. Should I flood random Android threads threads and complain you can't even select multiple threads in Signal to archive/delete them at once? I remember when they did same with photos, you could send only one at once. Should I blame my Android phone for something stupid Signal does? I could just use WhatsApp which has such basic feature. Blame dumb launcher you use, not the phone.
    - dorkwood 4y ago
      > Should I flood random Android threads threads and complain you can't even select multiple threads in Signal to archive/delete them at once? I don't think that's a fair comparison. I posted about how my phone, by default, had no functionality to set a solid color background, in a thread about setting your phone's background to be a solid color. I think that's relevant. I just find it amusing that setting a solid background color is no longer considered basic functionality for an OS, and people have to use 'workarounds' or install third-party apps to achieve it. It sounds like we fundamentally disagree that this is something worth commenting on, so I'll leave it at that.
kevincox 4y ago
I have a 1x1px black image just for this. I find that backgrounds slow down how quickly I can identify the icon that I want.

dorkwood 4y ago

I tried this and the phone asked permission for the default wallpaper app to access my photos. It was unclear what else it might use my photos for, so I said no.

bobsmooth 4y ago
So instead of trusting the built-in wallpaper app you downloaded a third party app to access your device?
- dorkwood 4y ago
  Yes. I didn't like doing it, but only one of those apps would work without photo permissions. Should an app get a free pass just because it comes bundled on my phone?
  - bobsmooth 4y ago
    I just think it's interesting you wouldn't trust a built-in app to not do something nefarious with your photos yet you'll trust a random third-party app to be safe.

Markoff 4y ago

he can just take screenshot of black part of screen, crop just the black part and use it as wallpaper since it will be stretched/repeated, so even if it's just few pixels it's enough for whole screen

dorkwood 4y ago
Don't you think it's silly that I can't choose the color of my desktop background on a modern phone? These workarounds -- taking photos, taking screenshots, creating a single black pixel in photoshop and emailing it to myself -- shouldn't be necessary. It's a bit like someone complaining that a park's benches were removed, and everyone telling that person the different objects they could bring to the park to sit on instead.
- Markoff 4y ago
  It's silly to complain not all launchers provide same features like Nova launcher by your logic. Nova launcher has option for No wallpaper only with black color, no selectable solid color. It's feature YOU are missing, some launchers have it, some don't, nobody stops you from installing launcher which has features you desire. But you don't have to even do it since there are simple workarounds how to set solid black home screen, take photo with covered lens, download black pixel, crop screenshot, etc. If they added option for no picture and chose black for no picture you would complain why they don't provide color picker. Should I flood random Android threads threads and complain you can't even select multiple threads in Signal to archive/delete them at once? I remember when they did same with photos, you could send only one at once. Should I blame my Android phone for something stupid Signal does? I could just use WhatsApp which has such basic feature. Blame dumb launcher you use, not the phone.
  - dorkwood 4y ago
    > Should I flood random Android threads threads and complain you can't even select multiple threads in Signal to archive/delete them at once? I don't think that's a fair comparison. I posted about how my phone, by default, had no functionality to set a solid color background, in a thread about setting your phone's background to be a solid color. I think that's relevant. I just find it amusing that setting a solid background color is no longer considered basic functionality for an OS, and people have to use 'workarounds' or install third-party apps to achieve it. It sounds like we fundamentally disagree that this is something worth commenting on, so I'll leave it at that.

kevincox 4y ago

I have a 1x1px black image just for this. I find that backgrounds slow down how quickly I can identify the icon that I want.