I am hooked on customizing my dwelling display with KWGT

One of many long-standing causes that followers stick to Android over iOS is due to the customization the platform permits. Particularly with Google actually leaning into this idea with its Materials You design effort, Android can look, really feel, and function in just about any approach a person desires. Though Apple has lastly began to offer iOS customers a semblance of management with the power to maneuver round icons and alter their colours (such braveness), there’s merely no denying that Android is the much more versatile working system.

Ever since I purchased my very first Android telephone — a Samsung Galaxy S2, as a result of I’m a Very Previous Man™ — I’ve toyed round with customization. It’s straightforward sufficient to put in icon packs, change system colours, and set up dwell wallpapers, and I had enjoyable with that for a very long time. Nonetheless, it wasn’t till I found KWGT that issues acquired actually intricate.

The truth is, I’ve develop into so obsessive about KWGT that I continually change the look of my dwelling display. When you get the gist of KWGT down, there are limitless prospects for what you are able to do. A lot in order that by the point I’ve lastly settled in on anyone design, I say to myself, “However what if I did this as a substitute…” after which I alter it another time.

KWGT has a big neighborhood of established designers, and lots of nice troubleshooting sources exist for budding tinkerers. Nonetheless, I discover that almost all of Android customers — even actually “techie” ones — don’t know what KWGT is. Even when they do, most have by no means bothered making an attempt it out. So, let me clarify what KWGT is and what sorts of issues I’ve executed with it. With vacation downtime arising, perhaps you’ll take a deep dive into it and develop into as obsessed as I’m.

KWGT is an abbreviation of Kustom Widget Creator. Kustom is an organization that makes numerous customization apps, together with KLWP (Kustom Reside Wallpaper Creator), KWCH (Kustom Watch Face Creator), and KLCK (Kustom Lock Display Creator). Though all of them do various things, they function equally, permitting you to create custom-made components for the Android working system.

You can begin with a clean slate in KWGT and use preset code snippets to construct a widget from scratch. Nonetheless, designers all over the world additionally create widget packs for KWGT that they promote (or typically give away) on the Google Play Retailer. These packs include any variety of pre-made widgets that you should utilize as you would like. Moreover, with a little bit trial and error, you possibly can take one thing somebody has created and tweak it to make it higher suit your aesthetic or perform in a barely completely different approach.

While you mix one thing like KWGT with different Android customization apps and use them on high of a third-party launcher like Nova, you are able to do just about something along with your telephone’s format.

My colleague Andy Walker (who can be actually into KWGT) has a submit explaining how he made his dream Google widget utilizing KWGT. If you wish to know extra in regards to the steps of ranging from nothing and constructing a customized widget, I extremely counsel studying his article on the hyperlink.

Though I’ve constructed widgets from the bottom up in KWGT, I’m often not notably desperate to go that route. As a substitute, I search by way of widget packs made by others and use their creations as a place to begin. There have been some layouts I’ve put along with this methodology that concerned no tweaking in any respect — I simply put the widgets the place I wished them and known as it a day.

More often than not, although, I pull widgets from numerous locations and alter them to make them extra uniform. instance of that is beneath. The town and climate widget (which adjustments relying on the telephone’s location) is from one pack, however the battery and music participant widgets are from one other. The music widget was additionally way more colourful, however I modified it so it might match the minimalistic crimson/white theme:

Lately, I attempted so as to add a splash extra colourful to my look. The format I made beneath concerned just a few widgets from just a few “neon” packs and an icon pack known as Define. What’s cool about this one is that each widget pulls its colour scheme from the music participant’s album paintings. So, as I transfer from observe to trace on my playlist, my dwelling display design strikes with it:

As you’d anticipate, the varied widget tiles all hyperlink to apps linked to the data displayed there (the situation one opens Maps, the date one opens Calendar, the climate one opens Pixel Climate, and so forth.). The exception right here is the one with the cruise ship emoji: that’s a countdown timer till my cruise trip in March. 82 days, child!

The squiggly line beneath the music widget is an lively progress bar, so you possibly can see how a lot time is left on the observe. The icons are the usual Pixel variations, though I do use Nova to drive all of them to be circles for a pleasant, uniform look. Additionally, though I wished the colours to all match the Hazel theme, all of the widgets do use Materials You, so I could make them look completely different simply by altering the wallpaper:

If you wish to recreate this for your self, I used Nova Launcher for the final format and icon placement, the Hazel wallpaper from this Reddit submit, and the widgets discovered within the Pixdots pack (you’ll have to tweak them fairly a bit to get them to look as I did right here). If you happen to’re simply getting began with KWGT, try the subsequent part for tips about the place to start.

I absolutely perceive that KWGT will appear formidable to anybody who’s by no means used it earlier than. It’s not a straightforward factor to determine. Fortunately, there are a ton of useful sources on-line that can provide help to dive in.

First, I as soon as once more advocate you give Andy Walker’s article a learn, as he covers plenty of floor. I additionally advocate that you simply obtain KWGT and simply begin taking part in round with the pre-installed widgets. They’re fairly easy and haven’t modified in years, so that they’re a great way to see how the code and layouts work.

When you begin eager to go deeper, the very best place for assistance is the Kustom subreddit. Hundreds of passionate designers there are glad to supply newcomers with ideas and tips on easy methods to make the house display of their desires.

If you happen to observe quite a bit and perceive how every thing works however lack inspiration on what to do, head to r/AndroidThemes. Though not everybody there makes use of KWGT for his or her creations, the overwhelming majority do, and most will inform you all of the packs they used to make the format. Even in case you don’t replicate a design you discover there, I typically get impressed by what different individuals are doing, and that will get me began down the trail of redoing my dwelling display… once more.

If you happen to’re a seasoned professional within the Kustom world, head to the feedback and submit another ideas or useful sources you’ve present in your journey!