I am hooked on customizing my residence display screen with KWGT


KWGT Customization on Pixel 9 Pro (1 of 1)

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

One of many long-standing causes that followers persist with 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 method a person needs. Though Apple has lastly began to offer iOS customers a semblance of management with the flexibility to maneuver round icons and alter their colours (such braveness), there’s merely no denying that Android is the way more versatile working system.

Ever since I purchased my very first Android cellphone — 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 reside wallpapers, and I had enjoyable with that for a very long time. Nevertheless, it wasn’t till I found KWGT that issues obtained actually intricate.

Actually, I’ve develop into so obsessive about KWGT that I consistently change the look of my residence display screen. When you get the gist of KWGT down, there are limitless potentialities 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 modify it over again.

KWGT has a big group of established designers, and lots of nice troubleshooting assets 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 completed with it. With vacation downtime developing, perhaps you’ll take a deep dive into it and develop into as obsessed as I’m.

Do you utilize KWGT to construct widgets in your cellphone?

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What’s KWGT?

kwgt google widget feat 1

Andy Walker / Android Authority

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

KWGT is an abbreviation for Kustom Widget Creator. It is an app that lets you design residence display screen widgets from scratch.

You can begin with a clean slate in KWGT and use preset code snippets to construct a widget from scratch. Nevertheless, designers around the globe 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 use as you would like. Moreover, with somewhat trial and error, you’ll be able to take one thing somebody has created and tweak it to make it higher suit your aesthetic or operate in a barely completely different method.

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

My colleague Andy Walker (who can also be actually into KWGT) has a put up 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.

What I’ve completed with KWGT

KWGT Home Screen Design (1 of 2)

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

Though I’ve constructed widgets from the bottom up in KWGT, I’m normally not significantly desirous to go that route. As an alternative, I search via 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 needed them and referred to as it a day.

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

Just lately, I attempted so as to add a splash extra colourful to my look. The format I made under concerned a couple of widgets from a couple of “neon” packs and an icon pack referred to as Define. What’s cool about this one is that each widget pulls its shade scheme from the music participant’s album art work. So, as I transfer from observe to trace on my playlist, my residence display screen design strikes with it:

Custom home screen layout made using KWGT

As you’d anticipate, the varied widget tiles all hyperlink to apps related to the knowledge displayed there (the situation one opens Maps, the date one opens Calendar, the climate one opens Pixel Climate, and many others.). 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 under the music widget is an energetic progress bar, so you’ll be able to see how a lot time is left on the observe. The icons are the usual Pixel variations, though I do use Nova to pressure all of them to be circles for a pleasant, uniform look. Additionally, though I needed 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 put up, and the widgets discovered within the Pixdots pack (you’ll must tweak them fairly a bit to get them to look as I did right here). For those who’re simply getting began with KWGT, try the subsequent part for recommendations on the place to start.

Newbie’s ideas for getting began with KWGT

KWGT Home Screen Design (2 of 2)

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

I totally perceive that KWGT will appear formidable to anybody who’s by no means used it earlier than. It’s not a simple factor to determine. Fortunately, there are a ton of useful assets on-line that may aid you dive in.

First, I as soon as once more advocate you give Andy Walker’s article a learn, as he covers a whole lot of floor. I additionally advocate that you just obtain KWGT and simply begin enjoying 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.

A number of nice assets exist for the budding KWGT designer. I extremely advocate beginning with the Kustom subreddit!

When you begin eager to go deeper, the very best place for assistance is the Kustom subreddit. 1000’s of passionate designers there are glad to offer newcomers with ideas and methods on the right way to make the house display screen of their goals.

For those who observe so much and perceive how every part 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 when you don’t replicate a design you discover there, I typically get impressed by what different persons are doing, and that will get me began down the trail of redoing my residence display screen… once more.

For those who’re a seasoned professional within the Kustom world, head to the feedback and put up every other ideas or useful assets you’ve present in your journey!

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