Make Your Clock Widget… the name says it all! Essential app for personalizing your Android
by Paul Wilks
Jun 15, 2012 9:22 AM –
Install
Make Your Clock Widget is a powerfully customisable home screen widget editor. Beginning either with a blank canvas or any of a large number of templates, intricately edit and fashion your very own clock/weather/battery widget for your home screen. If you’re into customizing your Android experience, this is the ultimate app to try.
Price: Free, ~$1.99
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Low Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Lots of widget sizes!
- Detailed editing tools!
- Huge web gallery of downloadable skins!
Cons
- Requires some patience and practice to get the very best out of it.
Features:
Among the growing tool box of essential apps for customising your Android device is Make Your Clock Widget. Rather unsurprisingly, it allows you to create you own home screen clock rather than relying on the various creations available through the Google Play Store. Here’s a typical overview of how you design your very own widget:
- First things first, find a spot on your home screen and decide on a widget size. The app is packed with options and you can select: 1×1, 1×2, 2×1, 2×2, 3×1, 3×2, 4×1 and 4×2.
- You now get a small menu with a preview pane at the top, typically with a basic template. Tapping the clock brings up a menu which includes a ‘More designs…’ tab, so tap this to see what they’ve got. Alternatively, you can either start to build your clock from the ground up, using the tools provided in the menu. Check out the video below for instructions.
- I’m unsure exactly how many templates are contained in the web gallery, but it must be hundreds- split on the screen into Trending, Top Designs, Just In and Editors Pick. It’s worth while having a look around and seeing which designs you prefer. When you find one, touch the disc icon to save it to your device. You now have a template to play with.
- Next, click the pencil icon for customisation, this is where the magic happens. You can alter pretty much any part of the widget; font, positioning, thickness, colour and size. Depending on your template, you can tap areas of the widget directly and customise it further. You can change the background and transparency, the units used by weather features, 12/24h clock, etc. Here’s the area where you really have to practice and play with the app, finding just the right look you want.
- Lastly, you can choose the click action for the widget; this might mean opening a weather app, or the alarm, or something completely different- it’s up to you really. Then just save and close!
It’s quite simple to find and download a nice clock, but tweaking is quite detailed and might take a little getting used to. However, the app is hugely popular and has been downloaded thousands of times, making it one of the go-to apps for homescreen modding. The app comes as a free version which contains a few less features, plus a HD version for tablets. If you value customisation, these are truly superb apps to get stuck into.
Watch on Mobile
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Make Your Clock Widget – Basic flip clock template
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Make Your Clock Widget – Editor
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Make Your Clock Widget – Options
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Make Your Clock Widget – Preview pane
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Make Your Clock Widget – Add extra global settings here, and click actions
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Make Your Clock Widget – Web gallery headings
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Make Your Clock Widget – Colour choice
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Make Your Clock Widget – Add feature in main editing
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Make Your Clock Widget – Choose widget size
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Make Your Clock Widget – 4 different widget sizes and templates
Usefulness:
For pure customisation control, Make Your Own Clock Widget is pretty unsurpassed in the level of options it gives you. If you genuinely want your widgets to be your own, instead of mere templates copied by hundreds of other users, this is the app for you.
Ease of Use:
Firing up a template and installing it is pretty straight forward, although the full editing experience can be a little daunting at first. With practice however (or if you’re already experienced with these kind of apps) it becomes more intuitive.
Frequently Used:
This will depend on how often you tweak your homescreen experience.
Interface:
The interface is quite slick and polished. Even though it’s an editing suite (which, while powerful, often suck in terms of UI) Make Your Own Clock Widget is surprisingly neat.