NOVA or Apex Laucher vs TouchWiz - Please Help

[eddieras]

good stuff! i've used golauncher since nexus s - just got G3 last week and now trying Apex. is there a way to save a screen set up - try another set up and then go back to the original? i guess via back up, correct? would that restore all screen settings, icon wallpaper etc? is there a way to save multiple homescreen settings? perhaps a separate app? would love to experiment with different looks but would not want to have to recreate all the time. thanks!

 

[tsells]

good stuff! i've used golauncher since nexus s - just got G3 last week and now trying Apex. is there a way to save a screen set up - try another set up and then go back to the original? i guess via back up, correct? would that restore all screen settings, icon wallpaper etc? is there a way to save multiple homescreen settings? perhaps a separate app? would love to experiment with different looks but would not want to have to recreate all the time. thanks!

Once you set up Apex Launcher the way you want to you can switch to another launcher. You can then set up that launcher any way you want. Your setup should be as you left it, when you switch back to Apex. This will work as long as you keep both launchers installed.

FYI, I've used Apex and then switched to Nova Prime. They are almost identical except you can get global notifications on Nova and you can also set scrolling wallpaper much easier on Nova.

 

[eddieras]

thanks - to clarify- i was talking about screen setup within the same launcher. i know i can back up but does restore take care of icons, widgets wallpaper, etc-- basically if i change my apex homescreen to another apex setup will backup restore everything as above? thanks!

 

[tsells]

thanks - to clarify- i was talking about screen setup within the same launcher. i know i can back up but does restore take care of icons, widgets wallpaper, etc-- basically if i change my apex homescreen to another apex setup will backup restore everything as above? thanks!

Not sure about that one.

 

[Something Creative]

I'm fairly new to android and have tried nova, apex, and go launcher. I didn't find a big benefit over touchwiz. The only thing i really liked was being able to re-size and get more app's on one page, but other than that i wasn't impressed. As far as speed goes, you can change window and transition animation settings in touchwiz to make it just as fast. What am i missing?

 

[Tkbredx]

I'm fairly new to android and have tried nova, apex, and go launcher. I didn't find a big benefit over touchwiz. The only thing i really liked was being able to re-size and get more app's on one page, but other than that i wasn't impressed. As far as speed goes, you can change window and transition animation settings in touchwiz to make it just as fast. What am i missing?

On touch wiz you can't have more than 4 apps in the one dock. On the other launchers you can have multiple docks and have multiple apps in the dock and even one by one widgets in the dock. There are also gestures for the apps in the dock.

Home screen you can have available wall paper, change icons for apps and add effects for when you go through different screens. Add double tap and gestures for one and two fingers that you can assign to shortcuts, apps, and I think widgets and things like recent apps or Google search.

You can also change the way you scroll in the app drawer, change the transparency, And change groups like widgets, apps, and whatever.

Probably a few more features I didn't mention. Although some of these are . Only in the paid version. I hope j cleared some stuff up for you

 

[534n]

Personally I like ADW over the other launchers the best. I have only had a little experience with NOVA and Apex but I have tried them. It is streamlined pretty well but can also be fancy if you desire.

If your phone is rooted you can actually shut down Touch Wiz and free the memory/cpu time in favor of your own launcher.

 

[Tkbredx]

Personally I like ADW over the other launchers the best. I have only had a little experience with NOVA and Apex but I have tried them. It is streamlined pretty well but can also be fancy if you desire.

If your phone is rooted you can actually shut down Touch Wiz and free the memory/cpu time in favor of your own launcher.

I'm rooted. How do I do that? And what happens when apex force closes and won't open? Will I be stuck with no launcher?

 

[534n]

I'm rooted. How do I do that? And what happens when apex force closes and won't open? Will I be stuck with no launcher?

You can freeze TouchWiz home <version> with Titanium Backup or another root tool that allows that kind of thing. Before you do it though, just make a CWM backup in case something happens, but it should never be that bad because good launchers have FC protection and will restart after they close, and worst case is just that a reboot is required, but if things totally go to hell you can use the CWM recovery to get your other launcher back.

 

[Tkbredx]

You can freeze TouchWiz home <version> with Titanium Backup or another root tool that allows that kind of thing. Before you do it though, just make a CWM backup in case something happens, but it should never be that bad because good launchers have FC protection and will restart after they close, and worst case is just that a reboot is required, but if things totally go to hell you can use the CWM recovery to get your other launcher back.

Okay thanks. I never really knew what freezing did. And yes I've had apex just keep closing repeatedly before lol. Not fun. I was able to pull down notification and click songs though to force stop and open touch wiz. Lol. And I'm using twrp but I'll be sure to back it up

 

[534n]

Okay thanks. I never really knew what freezing did. And yes I've had apex just keep closing repeatedly before lol. Not fun. I was able to pull down notification and click songs though to force stop and open touch wiz. Lol. And I'm using twrp but I'll be sure to back it up

You should try out ADW Launcher. Freezing basically just disables the execution of a given app or service, without uninstalling it. Freezing is not "permanent" on some phones esp with Verizon, where certain frozen apps will come unfrozen with each reboot. Freezing is great because sometimes if you uninstall a core app, you cannot put it back and have to rollback or do a clean firmware upgrade.

 

[dfb8085]

the latest nova prime update slowed my galaxy s3 down so much it made it unusable. had to uninstall. too bad

 

[funkylogik]

nova prime is fine for me.... zero lag, nice n snappy

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess