Mobile Phone Customizations with MIUI 14
I purchased my current mobile phone on July 2021. Since then, I have barely played around with its native customization options. Instead, I chose to delve into app launchers, starting from proprietary and move into open-source.
[lost data]
When I checked this app, I found that I had played around with it for a bit before. I just had one theme I was apparently using. I tried a bunch more and found that themes have four sections, lock screen, homepage, icons, and status bar. Each can be configured with a different theme.
However, aside from native themes, I had grown used to third part app launchers. The one I'm currently using is Fokus, a minimalist launcher I found on F-Droid.
I have grown fond of the minimalist style for my phone because it helps me finds apps faster and the text-based displays is easier for my eyes. Hooray for accessibility! So while at first I tried switching themes, I couldn't notice what they had to offer unless I went back to the default set-up. Then, I grew curious about this set up and played around with the available features. This exploration had a definitely conclusion, I do not like default smart phone set-ups. Too much visual clutter, I despite horizontal scrollbars for navigation. I just want a text-based, vertical app drawer. I just wanted the app launcher I was just using...
For themes, I tried a bunch. I really liked the "Retro mobile phone" theme with the early 2000s style, "Penguin desire" with the simple penguin backgrounds line app icons, and "Space widget" with it's blue space theme and stylized app icons.
I ended up choosing "Space desire" for now and moved onto reactivating Fokus as my default launcher.
Then I found that the theme's homepage and icons style didn't matter much because Fokus overrides the homepage layout and I can only use Articons, an extensive open-source icon pack, which I just activated and ended up liking.
So the theme ended up applying to my lock screen and status bar. Ah, but the background image on the homepage does that.
I really like this theme because the contrast between the navy blue background makes the icons pop. And with the white font color of Fokus, it pops even more!
This is my current homepage. It uses "Space desire"'s background image with an overlay of Fokus. From top to bottom, there's the time, date, and battery life. Then on the lower half, there's the list of easy-access apps. I haven't tested the limit although I think it would be six. There's also another easy-access feature for the buttons at the bottom left.
I set up Fokus so that when swiping right, there's a widget section. From top to bottom, there's Stay Free's total daily usage metric, current entry tracking from TogglTrack, SuperProductivity daily task list, and Clue's period widget (which shows an inaccurate data as I haven't been using it consistently).
From my phone's settings, I'm using the App Drawer feature. It's the way my brain makes sense of it right now. I don't like having a cluttered home screen. I would rather have a list of key apps for fast access and the rest on the drawer.
I do use this drawer quite often and swiping up is more comfortable for me than swiping sideways several times and use icons to identify the app I'm using. Fortunately, Fokus allows for sorting apps on categories and designate and icon for each.