Gadgetory

this episode of TechnoBuffalo is brought to you by Citrix what's going on guys the markings hangar from TechnoBuffalo and I don't know about you guys but I do not like TouchWiz one bit I jump back and forth between the note 4 and the Nexus 5 often and every time I go back using TouchWiz I immediately remember why I prefer the stock Android experience that's a huge bummer too because the note 4 is such an awesome device with that being said we're going to try to replicate stock Android on the Galaxy Note 4 this will work with pretty much any Android device that comes with an OEM skin whether that's from LG Sony or HTC so first we're going to need to install a custom launcher now a custom launcher is basically your home screen it's where your icons and widgets live now you have two options for this launcher you have the Google now launcher which is Google's personal launcher but if you want a bit more customization then go ahead and use Nova Launcher you can find both of these launchers on the Google Play Store both launchers are free but with the nova launcher you can buy the prime version for $4 which includes unread counts ability to hide apps and more so taking a look at the Google now launcher first it's pretty plain it works just like any other ordinary launcher you'll be able to add widgets multiple pages add your icons etc you can also get the Google now page the most left of your home screen which is great if you use Google now on a daily basis you won't be able to change your icon packs which is kind of a bummer this is as close as you'll get to stock Android if you want to fine-tune your homescreen and tinker with your device for hours and don't really care about the Google now page check out Nova Launcher now this is my go-to launcher if I want to customize my homescreen and just like any launchers you'll be able to add widgets have multiple pages and you'll be able to use custom icon packs which is great now currently I'm using the moonshine icon pack alongside of stock Google's icons for my homescreen I've highlighted moonshine several times already in past videos it's great for replicating Android lollipop sigh cons and the best thing about it is it's free now I'm using Nova Launcher more than the Google now launcher for a couple of reasons number one I have the flexibility to customize my homescreen and use I compacts number two I can replicate the Google now launcher to a certain extent now even though I don't have the Google now page on the most left of my homescreen I still have access to Google now number three I can still activate Google Voice come in by just saying okay Google it works flawlessly number four I'm using Nova Launcher prime and since I'm using that I can hide unwanted apps and blow we're in the app drawer number five since I'm using the note 4 I can press and hold the home button for the Google now page so let's talk about how you can achieve this look first go to your nova launcher settings pane click desktop change the grade to 4x4 and uncheck sub grid positioning go back click position search bar and hit lollipop go to scroll effect and choose none and go back once more and go to the drawer change the color to background to white and transparency to zero check show pages as cards go to scroll effects and choose none transition animations to circle and go to tab style and choose small tabs go back once more when you go to look and feel for the icon theme I chose moonshine you could use another icon pack if you'd like but I chose to go with this one change the icon size to 115 percent change the icon font to normal and app animations to slide up last but not least there's ok Google just enable that and you should be all set moving forward to the lockscreen there weren't really a lot of options that could replicate lollypops lockscreen I actually ended up using a lockscreen that didn't have to do anything with the word lollipop and it's called high Locker now as silly as that sounds it works really well make sure to change the unlock style to lollipop before you start using it and also change the clock style to the third option so you can get the same look high Locker is free with a few premium options for the weather and clock though it's really not necessary to buy the premium version if you don't want to so what's cool about this lockscreen is you'll be able to change the dialer and camera shortcuts to whichever app you want now I have dollars set to a custom app called simpler dialer which sort of replicates the look of Android lollipops dialer and the other one I have set to the Google camera of course you can choose not to do this but since we're trying to get rid of most of Samson zone apps this is the best way to go in my opinion you'll be able to see notifications in Google now cards on the lockscreen although you won't get lollipop card style notifications you can swipe to dismiss or launch them which I found to be very useful you can also set a security pattern or a code to add a layer of security and there are a few lockscreen alternatives I've tried in the past that just fails its security this one works flawlessly however also you can add trusted Wi-Fi connection to unlock your device right away if you are connected at home or if work let me stop the video for just a quick second and thank our friends over at Citrix we go through a system of support you can provide live or unattended support to any computer or mobile device sign up today for a 30-day free trial no contract no credit card needed visit go to assist calming click to try it free button now and since everybody loves free stuff if you buy the annual plan before March 31st you'll get a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 as well so that's now in terms of app there's a few you can download from the Google Play Store that can essentially replace Samsung's own apps the Google camera app for example is a really good alternative to Samsung's own camera app the calendar from Google which looks amazing and it has that material design look you can also download Google's Messenger app which is a great alternative to hangouts giving you the same material design elements as the calendar app I also downloaded some third-party apps like simpler dial and contacts the dialer which you saw earlier sort of looks like Android lollypops dialer and if you want to view your contacts you'd have to download the simpler contacts though everything works flawlessly after downloading both I also downloaded material calculator and clock ljus to give the calculator and clock app that same material design look and that's pretty much it unfortunately you won't be able to change the status bar or the Settings app but this is as close as you'll get to stock Android look on TouchWiz without really rooting your device or switching roms some of lollypops functionality is in here like the lockscreen notifications but it still looks way better than Samsung's own skin now the great thing about this is you'll still be able to use all of Samsung's features like the s-pen multi window mode ultra power saving mode and other samsung features as well everything is still snappy maybe even snappier than before and once we get Android lollipop on the note 4 it should look even better anyways that's it for this video guys if you guys have any questions or suggestions for which apps we should check out for the note 4 to make it even better let us know in the comments down below and if you liked this video give it a thumbs up hit the subscribe button right here and I'll see you guys in the next one