Apps and widgets now live together in one centralized customization tool you can drag and drop any item from that tool directly onto any home screen panel. Speaking of widgets, the way in which you customize your home screens is all new in Ice Cream Sandwich. All of the included system widgets are completely redesigned to reflect those changes and the new graphical look. Widgets in Ice Cream Sandwich are also resizable, so you can make them as large or as small as you want. Ice Cream Sandwich introduces support for scrollable, interactive widgets, like we saw with Honeycomb - meaning you can scroll through your inbox right from your home screen or flip through the latest news stories without having to ever open an app. Second, widgets are now a whole new game. You can change the four icons to point to any apps or shortcuts you want. There are, however, a few noteworthy changes:įirst, for phones, the dock at the bottom of the screen - called the 'favorites tray' - now features four icons in addition to a link to your app drawer. It still provides an open, customizable space that you can fill with any number and any combination of apps, shortcuts, and widgets. So what's the home screen like in Ice Cream Sandwich? Can I still set it up the way I want?Ībsolutely - the ICS home screen is really just an improved version of the home screen you have on your phone now. The menu key will load any contextual on-screen menus, and long-pressing the home key will load the multitasking tool, just like it has in past Android releases. Yep - only instead of getting the on-screen navigation buttons, you'll use your phone's physical buttons in the same way you do now. What'll happen on phones that do have physical buttons, then? Will Ice Cream Sandwich work on those types of devices? That's why the new Galaxy Nexus flagship phone has no physical buttons presumably, most future ICS phones will follow that trend. The need for physical buttons like the home, back, and menu keys is completely eliminated, as a matter of fact Ice Cream Sandwich, like Honeycomb, places these functions on-screen, rotating them to fit any way you hold your device and displaying them only when they're needed. Gone are the hidden and layered menus of commands instead, an on-screen 'action bar' presents you with contextual options relevant to the specific process you're performing. With ICS, Google is trying to give Android users a more intuitive and consistent experience.

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