Launcher 7 – Customize your Android phone to look like Attractive Windows Phone 7
by Antonio Wells
Aug 2, 2011 12:04 PM –
Install
Launcher 7. A Windows Phone 7 style launcher for Android. Unlike other current WP7 launchers (Windows Phone Android, Metro UI), this one allows you to properly modify your start screen. Just long press on a tile and drag tile where you want!
Price: Free, Donate Version ~$1.44
Tested on: Nexus One, Nexus S 4G
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Personalize your Android phone with minimalist metro UI that is Windows Phone 7!
- Plenty of configuration options!
- Supports Android widgets!
Cons
- Missing nuances like sound effects, Facebook integration!
- You have to set up many things to get the true WP7 effect!
Features:
Launcher 7 is a home screen replacement app that allows you to simulate Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 sleek & sexy user interface on your Droid! One thing WP7 is claimed to fame for is its gorgeous minimalism- typography inspired user experience. This is one of the top features why many customers migrate to Android, to have the freedom to customize your phone to your tastes and not be bound by mobile operating system UI rules.
Launcher 7 allows you to change the tile color with a simple color picker. Don’t want the default Android-green it downloads with… do you fancy hot pink or metro blue from traditional WP7 devices? You can do so with ease by eyeballing it. You don’t have to stick with the default black background either, you can change the background color to white or set a wallpaper image.
This app is the mix of both worlds with Android & WP7 features such as the app drawer and Android widgets which can reside on the tile showing ‘live’ information, with or with the background color. You can lock tiles, change the status bar, backup and restore settings, and it even provides those fly-in tile animations when you press the Home button.
My only gripe is a small lack of WP7 nuances the app is missing. Plus, you have to set up many things to get the true Windows Phone 7 effect, so unless you have actually used a WP7 phone extensively you would miss all of the nuances this app user interface provides.
How to Add Tiles on Launcher 7?
Adding a tile is simple, tap the top right arrow to launch the app drawer, longpress (hold for 2 or more seconds) the app will present options, choose “Pin to home screen”. Some apps can go farther than just placing an app shortcut on the home screen; such as Contacts, Calendar, Gmail or Phone. With these apps, you’ll want ‘live tile’ information, for example, the People tile in Windows Phone 7 does an animation of fading your contacts photos at random within that tile… Launcher 7 can achieve this too! When you add the Contacts app, be sure to hit the “Tile options” setting and choose “Contacts tile” and the rest will be taken care of.
How to Add Android Widgets to Laucnher 7?
From the home screen, press the Menu button then “Add widget”, choose your widget, if the widget has specific settings this will appear, else you would choose your size of tile, background color, and whether it scales the whole tile. This is something you will have to tweak as some widgets look better in a 2×1 tile, without background color, and set to full tile… at least those are my favorite settings. 
How to Edit Tiles on Launcher 7?
You can edit tiles in the same fashion by simply longpressing on those editable tiles, a pencil icon to the top left appears, tap it and you are presented with the edit options for that tile.
How to Move Tiles on Launcher 7?
To move tiles, you longpress and drag it wherever you want, tap outside the moved tile to accept the move changes.
How to Delete Tiles on Launcher 7?
To delete a tile, you would longress and tap the crossed pin icon to the top right.
My Features Wish List for Launcher 7:
- Once installed, automatically setup the full WP7 experience for users and provide a first-time launch tutorial of how to disable settings with explanation why certain options perform certain actions.
- Lock Screen behaves just like Windows Phone 7, in which you simply slide a background image with date/time atop of it to unlock.
- When using the WP7 status bar setting, it should behave in the same way, meaning it occasionally hides some information and you have to tap the status bar to bring it back. Note: this may require a behavior adjustment for the user as it removes the notifications on top we get accustomed to in the Android experience.
Watch on Mobile
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Launcher 7
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Launcher 7 with Default Android Green
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Launcher 7 with White Background
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Launcher 7 App Drawer
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Launcher 7 Main Settings
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Launcher 7 Change Background Settings
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Launcher 7 Change Background Color Settings
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Launcher 7 Animation Settings
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Launcher 7 Status Bar Settings
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Launcher 7 Application Drawer Settings
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Launcher 7 Backup and Restore Settings
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Launcher 7 Add Android Widgets
Usefulness:
Launcher 7 is more about style, freedom and customization than its useful values. However, if you setup your home screen in a utilitarian way that makes accessing apps or information from widgets faster for you with less cluster, it can be very useful indeed.
Ease of Use:
When first downloaded the app it does present the refreshing WP7 interface, however, a frustration point is by default all settings are not setup for the user. If they are not keen to that mobile platform, they would miss out on all the nuances unless they experimented. Aside from that, the app it simple to customize to your personal tastes.
Frequently Used:
If you set this up as your default launcher, it would be used every time you press the Home button!
Interface:
This app is all about interface, while allowing you the freedom to personalize the metro UI of Windows Phone 7 to your liking.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Custom Android Home Screen,
Customize Home Screen,
Home Screen Replacement App,
Launcher 7,
Windows Phone 7,
WP7
Categorised in: Personalization, Tools, Utilities
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