A home screen, homescreen, or start screen, is the main screen on a device or computer program. Home screens are not identical because users rearrange icons as they please, and home screens often differ across mobile operating systems. Almost every smartphone has some form of home screen, which typically displays links to applications, settings, and notifications.
Home screens usually consist of a grid of application links or shortcuts that can often be arranged over multiple pages, and serve as the user's main method of accessing phone functions. Home screens also tend to include a dock along an edge of the screen, where application links can be stored and accessed from any page on the home screen. [1] [2] Most operating systems allow users to add folders to the home screen in order to further organize application links. Some home screens may also include a panel where push notifications are displayed or select system settings can be accessed. [1] [2]
In addition to applications links, many home screens are also capable of displaying ambient information, such as live tiles on Windows Phone or widgets on Android. [3] [4] Such tiles or widgets may link to applications, however they differ from traditional links in that they show current, dynamic information instead of a static icon. However, the increased relevance of the information can come at the cost of device battery life, bandwidth, and the ease of recognition afforded by static application icons. [5]
Although most home screens have a similar structure, not all are designed in common. Two notable examples of less-common home screens paradigms include Siri and WebOS. The former is Apple's natural language user interface, which performs functions similar to more traditional home screens such as opening applications, displaying relevant data, and managing phone settings. [5] The latter is notable for its use of entirely dynamic application icons that mimic the current state of the application, similar to task managers on other mobile operating systems. [5]
Although most mobile operating systems include a default home screen, some devices also allow the user to replace the native home screen with a different application or third-party home screen, allowing for additional home screen paradigms. [6]
One of the first examples of a home screen can be found on the PalmPilot, which debuted in 1997. [5] Early home screens were often less customizable than current iterations. For example, early versions of iOS did not allow users to rearrange applications on the home screen or change the background image. [1]
Because home screens often serve as the main method for interacting with mobile operating systems, they tend to change slowly, if at all, across updates to the operating system. [5]
A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and visual indicators such as secondary notation. In many applications, GUIs are used instead of text-based UIs, which are based on typed command labels or text navigation. GUIs were introduced in reaction to the perceived steep learning curve of command-line interfaces (CLIs), which require commands to be typed on a computer keyboard.
A smartphone is a mobile device that combines the functionality of a traditional mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, social media, and multimedia playback. Smartphones also have built-in cameras, GPS navigation, and support for various communication methods, including voice calls, text messaging, and internet-based messaging apps.
The Start menu is a graphical user interface element that has been part of Microsoft Windows since Windows 95, providing a means of opening programs and performing other functions in the Windows shell. The Start menu, and the Taskbar on which it appears, were created and named in 1993 by Daniel Oran, a program manager at Microsoft who had previously collaborated on Great ape language research with the behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner at Harvard.
Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance, though its most widely used version is primarily developed by Google. It was unveiled in November 2007, with the first commercial Android device, the HTC Dream, being launched in September 2008.
A mobile operating system is an operating system for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical/mobile laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on them are generally not considered mobile ones, as they were originally designed for desktop computers that historically did not have or need specific mobile features. This line distinguishing mobile and other forms has become blurred in recent years, due to the fact that newer devices have become smaller and more mobile unlike hardware of the past. Key notabilities blurring this line are the introduction of tablet computers and light-weight laptops and the hybridization of the two in 2-in-1 PCs.
iOS is a mobile operating system based on macOS and on components of the Mach microkernel and FreeBSD, a Unix-like operating system, developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its smartphones. It was unveiled in January 2007 for the first-generation iPhone, launched in June 2007.
SpringBoard is the standard application that manages the iPhone's home screen. Other tasks include starting WindowServer, launching and bootstrapping applications and setting some of the device's settings on startup.
Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design language. Unlike Windows Mobile, it was primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market.
A software widget is a relatively simple and easy-to-use software application or component made for one or more different software platforms.
The HTC Evo 4G is a smartphone developed by HTC Corporation and marketed as Sprint's flagship Android smartphone, running on its WiMAX network. The smartphone was launched on June 4, 2010. It was the first 4G enabled smartphone released in the United States.
The HTC Evo Shift 4G is a smartphone developed by HTC Corporation and marketed as the concurrent/sequel to Sprint's flagship Android smartphone, running on its 4G WiMAX network. The smartphone launched on January 9, 2011.
BlackBerry 10 (BB10) is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited. Released in January 2013, BlackBerry 10 is a complete rework from the company's previous BlackBerry OS software.
Android Ice Cream Sandwich is the fourth major version of the Android mobile operating system developed by Google. Unveiled on October 19, 2011, Android 4.0 builds upon the significant changes made by the tablet-only release Android Honeycomb, in an effort to create a unified platform for both smartphones and tablets. The first phone with Android Ice Cream Sandwich was Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
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Windows Phone 7 is the first release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010. It runs on the Windows CE 6.0 kernel.
A lock screen is a computer user interface element used by various operating systems. They regulate immediate access to a device by requiring the user to perform a certain action in order to receive access, such as entering a password, using a certain button combination, or performing a certain gesture using a device's touchscreen. There are various authentication methods to get past the lock screen, with the most popular and common ones being personal identification numbers (PINs), the Android pattern lock, and biometrics.
The pop-up notification is a graphical control element that communicates certain events to the user without forcing them to react to this notification immediately, unlike conventional pop-up windows. Desktop notifications usually disappear automatically after a short amount of time. Often their content is then stored in some widget that allows the users to access past notifications at a more convenient time.
The Droid Maxx is a smartphone developed by Motorola Mobility. It is the first Droid to be a high end smartphone exclusively developed by Motorola for Verizon Wireless. It is part of the Verizon Droid line, and was announced on 23 July 2013 along with the Droid Ultra and Droid Mini at a joint Motorola and Verizon Wireless press conference.
Windows 10 Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft. First released in 2015, it is a successor to Windows Phone 8.1, but was marketed by Microsoft as being an edition of its PC operating system Windows 10.
The version history of the HarmonyOS distributed operating system began with the public release of the HarmonyOS 1.0 for Honor Vision smart TVs on August 9, 2019. The first commercial version of the IoT based operating system, HarmonyOS 2.0, was released on June 2, 2021 for phones, tablets, smartwatches, smart speakers, routers, and internet of things. Beforehand, DevEco Studio, the HarmonyOS app development IDE, hat been released in September 2020 together with the HarmonyOS 2.0 Beta. HarmonyOS is developed by Huawei. New major releases are announced at the Huawei Developers Conference (HDC) in the fourth quarter of each year together with the first public beta version of the operating system's next major version. The next major stable version is then released in the third quarter of the following year.