Simple launcher modeBeta
A quiet home page with a dock of your favourite apps, the clock, the weather and a wallpaper, instead of Spotlight and rows.
Beta
This feature is in beta and may change.
Launcher mode replaces the full Home screen with a simple page. It is for people who want a clean launcher: a dock with a few apps, the time and the weather, and a picture behind them. The menu, the tabs, Spotlight and the rows of Home are not shown.
Turn it on in Settings → App Settings → Appearance, with the Launcher mode switch at the top. Hegemon leaves Settings and shows the new page. Turn the switch off to get the full Home back. The first-run setup can also choose this mode.
The page#
- Top: the clock, the date and the weather, and the gear that opens Settings. The weather chip opens the weather panel.
- Bottom: the dock with your apps. Select one to start it.
- Behind them: the wallpaper, if you chose one.
- All apps: press Down on the dock to slide up a drawer with every app. Up from its first row, or Back, closes it.
Hegemon must be your home screen
Like the full Home, this page appears when you press the Home button only if Hegemon is your default launcher. See Make Hegemon your home screen.
Choose the dock apps#
- If the dock has no apps, or the + button is visible, select +. A window titled Choose dock apps opens.
- Press OK on an app to select or unselect it. The order you pick is the order in the dock. Back closes the window.
You can also open the all-apps drawer, press and hold OK on an app and choose Add to dock or Remove from dock. With an empty dock and no + button the page says Hold OK on an app in the apps tray to add it here.
Settings under the switch#
When the switch is on, four more rows appear under it.
Wallpaper#
The Wallpaper row opens a full-screen picker. The change applies at once; there is no save button. Back goes up one screen, then closes.
| Source | What it gives |
|---|---|
| Off | No picture |
| Mix of all themes | Pictures from all the themes below, a new one every 10 minutes |
| Aerial views, Nature and landscapes, Architecture and cities, Art, Space | Photos of one theme, the same ones the screensaver uses. Hegemon downloads them on first use |
| DeviantArt | Choose Wallpapers (a list of categories such as Sci-Fi, Abstract, 3D Art, Digital Art, Forests, Fantasy, Space, Nature, or All categories) or Live wallpapers. A grid of thumbnails opens with the title and the artist. Only free artwork is shown. Load more shows more |
| Pixabay | Live wallpapers: short silent video loops. The credit says Videos provided by Pixabay and their authors |
Press OK on a picture to download and set it (Wallpaper set). For still pictures a Rotate automatically choice goes back to changing pictures. A live wallpaper is a looping video without sound. It is downloaded once, when you choose it. If a source cannot be reached the picker says so; try again later.
Note
The DeviantArt and Pixabay entries appear only in builds that include their access keys.
Dock#
The Dock row opens an editor with a live preview. OK on an option opens a list under it; choose a value and the list closes. Switches change straight away. Back closes the list, then the editor.
| Option | Values |
|---|---|
| Background | Off, Solid, Translucent, Glass (blurred), Automatic (glass with the glass skin, none otherwise) |
| Background color, Border color | A set of colors |
| Border | Off, 2 dp, 4 dp |
| Corners | Square, as the skin, round |
| Size | XS, S, M, L |
| Height | Auto, or a fixed height. For icons it makes the bar taller; for banners it changes the height of each tile |
| Position | Bottom, top, left or right |
| Add button | Shows or hides the + button |
| Focus as pulsing backlight (whole page) | The selected item glows softly from behind instead of getting a border |
| Reset | Back to the defaults |
The background, border and corners draw the bar behind the apps. Whether the dock shows banners or icons follows Show apps as in Appearance.
Time and weather#
The Time and weather row opens an editor with a preview.
| Option | Values |
|---|---|
| Show time, Show date, Show weather | Switches |
| Together with settings icon | Puts the weather, time, date and gear in one panel |
| Position | Left, middle or right of the top row |
| Size | S, M, L |
| Background, Background color, Border, Border color, Corners | As for the dock |
| Reset | Back to the defaults |
The 12 or 24 hour format is the one in Weather and time.
Fade when idle#
A switch and three options. After a time without any key press the page becomes almost transparent, then it disappears and only the wallpaper remains.
| Option | Values |
|---|---|
| Fade when idle | Switch |
| Dim after | 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 min |
| Then hide after | 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 min more |
| Dimmed opacity | 5, 10, 15, 25 or 40 percent |
While the page is dimmed or hidden, the first key press only wakes it up. It is not passed on, so you cannot start an app you cannot see by accident. The screensaver has its own timer; if it starts first, it covers the page.