Customizing the home screen and lock screen of the OnePlus 6T is fun. That's probably one of the key benefits of the Android ecosystem. Whether it's playing with the built-in settings or exploring some third-party option, you can add your personal touch to the home or lock screen without sacrificing much.
While many just change the wallpaper in the name of personalizing, there's a lot more to it. In this article, we will talk about six such tips that will enhance OnePlus 6T's home screen and lock screen.
How to Find a Misplaced Android Phone Even It’s in Silent Mode
1. GET A SET OF UNIQUE ICON PACKS
The built-in icons of the Oxygen OS seem just fine until you stumble up different icon packs on the Play Store. From quirky neon icons to classy white icons, you can try your hands on a variety of them. And the best thing about the OnePlus 6T is that you don't need a third-party launcher to try the icons packs. Just go to the Home Settings option by pinching the screen, and select from the available ones.
You don't need a third-party launcher to try the icon packs
Whicons is one of my favorite packs. The white tone bearing icons look interesting especially if you have an AMOLED wallpaper or if your wallpaper is in a single color. Whicons is free to download.
Another free icon pack featuring similar designs is Compacticons HD. It has over 2000+ dynamic icons. Compacticons HD has been designed by tatosXL and is available on Deviant Art.
Left: Compacticons HD | Right: WhiconsYou have to change the icons (long-tap > edit) for some lesser known apps. Similar to Whicons, this too can be applied directly from Home Settings.Download Whicons
Download Compacticons HD
If you are someone who loves colored icon packs with a solid background, you can give H2O Free Icon Pack a shot. It bundles plenty of personalized icons housed inside a squircle. Another excellent app is Linebit.
H2O Free Icon PackThis one carries neon colors. So, if you fancy bright icons, you may want to give it a try. Linebit is a paid app and is available for $1.40 from the Play Store.Download H2O Free Icon Pack
Download Linebit
2. GET AN ATTRACTIVE WIDGET APP
When it comes to widgets on Android devices, KWGT and Zooper are some of the key players in the market. Though the built-in widgets are pretty good in their terms, it helps if you can get your hands on a few widget packs like Foxie for KWGT (paid), Odisea KWGT, and Ocea for KWGT. These have a plethora of widgets for features like music, calendar, weather, etc.
10 Best Backup Apps for Android to Prevent Data Loss
First off, you'll have to download KWGT Kustom Widget Maker, and then install the widget packs. Add a widget from the home screen and then customize it the way you want. Or, if you are feeling a tad lazy, you can leave them as they are. Trust me, your phone's home screen will still look a lot different then it usually does.
Download Odisea KWGT
Download Ocea for KWGT
Download Foxie for KWGT
But building and configuring widgets can be a painstaking task. So, if you're looking for readymade widgets, try the Overdrop app. It has a mix of both free and paid widgets.
Most of them are mainly set in white, so if you opt for a white icon pack, this will complement it well.
Download Overdrop
3. TWEAK THE DRAWER
Did you know that you can search for an app directly when entering the app drawer? It seems now you can. What you'll love about this approach is that the focus immediately shifts to the search bar, while the frequently accessed apps are listed below along with the app tags.
This is a great productivity hack, especially if you have tons of apps. To enable it, head over to Home Settings > Drawer and enable Quick search.
PRO TIP: Another wonderful trick is to lock your phone by double tapping on any empty space on your home screen. Neat, I'd say? This option is available under the Home Settings.
Lost or deleted some important data from OnePlus 6T? Here’s a powerful Android data recovery software can help you get them back
4. MODIFY THE AMBIENT DISPLAY TO SHOW TEMPERATURE
In spite of running Android 9.0 Pie, the OnePlus 6T doesn't display the temperature on the Ambient display, unlike the Google Pixel 2 or Pixel 3. Thanks to a couple of third-party apps, that's possible. All you need is a capable weather app like Weather Bug which lets you have a sticky notification on the status bar.
That makes the Ambient Display to show the temperature as an icon. The downside of this workaround is that if you receive too many notifications, the icon gets hidden.
Download Weather Bug
Weather Bug is pretty accurate in alerting you of the current weather conditions. However, the grey icon in the ambient display looks a bit off. The Today Weather app bridges this gap.
Voted one of the Best Apps in 2017 by Google, this app is quite interactive and has hundreds of beautiful wallpapers to depict the current weather conditions.
Download Today Weather
To enable the temperature on the ambient display, you'd need to change the status bar settings from inside the app.
COOL FACT: Today Weather also has some cool widgets.
5. TAME THE LOCK SCREEN
The built-in lock screen settings of the OnePlus 6T doesn't offer much. And honestly, I am not a big fan of lock screen apps since they can mess up face unlock. These apps are best suited for phones still running Android Jelly Bean or KitKat. More importantly, the ambient display gets most of the work done seamlessly. Plus, we barely get a chance to see the lock screen, thanks to face unlock.
Lock screen apps are best suited for phones still running Android Jelly Bean or KitKat.
But if you still want to tweak it, you can start with notifications. To ban all notifications from displaying on the lock screen, navigate to Security & lock screen > Lock screen preferences > On lock screen and select Don't show notifications at all.
You can also modify the fingerprint animation icon from within the Fingerprint settings.
Apart from the above, the basic options like setting a separate lock screen wallpapers and adding lock screen text also work. Don't waste your time on a lock screen app.
6. UNLOCK BUT NOT DIRECTLY
Err, what's that? You may have noticed that the OnePlus 6T's Face Unlock is blazing fast. Sometimes it unlocks the phone when you just wanted to glance at the notifications. If such situations are too frequent for you, it's best to switch off the Auto unlock option.
This feature will unlock your phone, but instead of landing you on the home screen, it will take you the lock screen. So, if you need to go to the home screen, swipe right on the screen.
Go to Face Unlock and toggle the button for 'Auto unlock once the screen is on' option. You can thank me later!
How to Disable the Annoying Peel Remote App from Your Phone
7. REPLICATE THE MCLAREN HOME SCREEN
Like any special edition OnePlus device, the makers have bundled the phone with a few extra features on the OnePlus 6T McLaren edition. Among other things, it includes a new ringtone, a bunch of new wallpapers and new boot animation and fingerprint animations.
Though the latter two requires root access, you can get the wallpapers and ringtone without any hassle. Just visit the link below to download.
Download McLaren Wallpapers
PRO TIP: Modify your existing wallpapers using at tool like Prisma and Portra to give them unique looks.
TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR PHONE
The home screen is one of the most visited screens, and you'd actually be surprised at the number of time we unlock our phones. Apart from the above, you can also install a capable third-party launcher. Though I used to be a die-hard fan of Nova launcher, this time I gave the stock launcher a shot and was pleasantly surprised with the features.
