Ask HN: How do you organize your phone’s home screen?
Do you group into folders? How do you classify and name the folders? Or do you use multiple pages with a purpose per page? Maybe you even use the perplexing color-based organization. I’m looking for some ideas setting up a new phone.
I use Android with the Lawnchair launcher. I only have 4 visible apps on my homescreen, one page, no dock, swipe up to get to app drawer. Lawnchair has "Cover Mode" folders which only show the first app in the folder on the homescreen but will show the whole folder when you swipe the icon up. Swiping up on my phone app shows icons to immediately call contacts I call frequently and also Jitsi's app. Swiping up on Signal (I uses it for SMS as well as encrypted messages) again shows some contacts I text frequently, my mail app (K9), and a shortcut to Signal's Note To Self. Camera isn't a folder, swiping up just opens Gallery. Swiping up on my browser (Bromite, a more private Chromium fork) shows a shortcut to open a new incognito tab, a few shortcuts to sites I use frequently, and a shortcut to launch the J2ME version of Opera Mini 8 in J2ME Loader. (I don't like the android version of Opera Mini.)
It looks like this: https://owo.whats-th.is/95SaivC.png
iPhone XR iOS 13.5
One blank screen which I always try too scroll to before I put my phone in to suspend. So when I wake the phone up it's a empty canvas with no distractions.
The background is warm abstract dark purple blue swirl, calm on the eyes and peaceful to look at on the blank screen.
The lock screen is a picture of cartoon clouds.
The dock bar: Phone, Safari, Messages.
The second screen, four main applications. Calendar, Contacts, Clock and Camera and the rest of the apps are split in to groups.
Internet, Banks, Entertainment, Finance, Stuff and Utilities.
All notifications are turned off including on the lock screen. Only thing that does are text messages. I don't use Twitter nor Facebook so never had to worry about them.
No pin code or faceID. If you stole my phone you could unlock it just by swiping up. I don't really care if my phone was stolen as that would be stupid of me for allowing that to happen and I am insured. If I loose my contacts I'll just wait until they text/ring me again. If they never do then no point in having them as contact. See it as a form of culling.
iPhone XS Max, iOS 15b2. I've grown to prefer App Library [1] over multiple pages of apps and this setup reflects that:
* Single screen with plain black background.
* Stack in top-left with small Weather and Calendar widgets.
* Stack in bottom-right with small Sleep and Fitness widgets.
* App icons for NetNewsWire, Kindle, Twitter, Financial Times, HN, and stock apps (Health, Maps, Notes, etc).
* Dock: Phone, Messages, Mail, Safari.
